With Santa Cruz Bicycles recent love affair (rightly so) with carbon fiber frames comes their latest creation… The Santa Cruz Tallboy 29er. This new XC trailbike from Santa Cruz features 100mm travel and all the VPP goodness that makes Santa Cruz bikes ride so well. Looking at the most recent post from the Santa Cruz Blog, the bike can easily come in at 26 lbs. and under in a moderately-equipped package. I’ll let them fill you in on the remaining details below:
More Details on the Tallboy 29er from Santa Cruz:
“We’ve been hinting about a 29er bike on our blog for a while, and now that we’re getting the thing closer to finalized, we’re ready to show a little more skin. So to speak. We have photos that are absolutely how the bike will look in final trim, and we’ve got geometry charts, and we’ve got some final prototype mules that we’ve been kicking around. The basic nuts and bolts of the Tallboy have been getting massaged into place for over a year now, and the big wheel beast has taken shape into something we’re really happy with.”
Carbon fiber frame – This’ll be our third carbon fiber bike, and the more time we spend working with the material, the more we are able to push into new definitions of stiffness and strength. Following in line with what we were able to achieve with the carbon Blur XC and LT models, we’re kicking around Tallboy frames that weigh right about 5 pounds (with shock) and are so insanely flex-free and fun handling that they blow all our earlier assumptions about big wheels and chassis flex right out of the water. Tapered head tubes, massive but super light chainstays and rear triangles, absolutely rock solid frames, and they’re still around 2 pounds lighter than most of the similarly targeted competition. Super stiff, super strong, super snappy.
VPP suspension – The Tallboy will have 100mm of travel. The lower link features the same 15mm aluminum pivot axles, titanium hardware, angular contact bearings, grease ports, durability and ease of maintenance as found on our Blur LT. There’s also a carbon fiber upper link, with the same trick hardware and angular contact bearings on the big axle. Clean, neutral pedaling without bob or feedback, and plush bump eating suspension performance across the board.
Dialed geometry – Big wheels work well for a lot of people, but are a godsend for the big and tall set. As such, we’re sizing the Tallboy all the way up to XXL – which comes with an appropriately Andre the Giant approved 25.9? top tube and 45.6? wheelbase. All Tallboys otherwise feature the same short and stiff 17.5? chainstays and sweet handling characteristics. They’re designed to excel in the “fun to race, really fun to rip singletrack, go for a big huge ride and come home with a sore face from grinning all day long” spectrum of riding.
“We’re stoked with how they are progressing, but they aren’t going to be ready for prime time for a few months yet. Pricing is still being finalized, bikes will be showing up ready for delivery in October, and we’ll begin taking orders around the middle of August. Not quite there yet, but real close…bikes will be showing up ready for delivery sometime in November.”
More Info: Visit SantaCruzBicycles.com
Read My Review: Santa Cruz Tallboy Review from Interbike 2009
3 Comments
That bike looks fast! Kinda a big Nomad with less travel…
I had a Mojo and it wasn’t tough enough. I broke two frames. If you hit the frame with a rock it breaks easily. Not sure about the Santa Cruz.
What is the warranty?
I have a Ventana 29er and love it.
Hmmm… I’ve heard of issues with the Mojo, but they are still relatively uncommon all things considered. The Tallboy is new and like most carbon frames, the warranty is 2 years.
Ventana definitely makes killer frames… glad you love yours!