Santa Cruz Bicycles

Tallboy Carbon R Complete Mountain Bike - 2016

For the 2016 iteration of the Tallboy Carbon R Complete Mountain Bike, Santa Cruz is playing it relatively safe. No radical redesign, no attempt to create any new suspension or bottom bracket standards, no claim of a new genre of off-road bike — just the classic, soundly vetted Tallboy setup. Everything from the BSA threaded bottom bracket to the geometry and Virtual Pivot Point (VPP) suspension are the classic, proven design that — with the exception of a few occasional tweaks between model years — have remained the same since 2009, when the Tallboy first rolled onto the scene and forever deflated the myth of the clunky 29er.

The few alterations we allude to above are welcome ones, made with an eye toward saving weight, improving stiffness, and producing a more linear feel to the VPP travel. Suspension aside for now, the gains in weight and stiffness are owed to Santa Cruz's ever-evolving Carbon C frame construction. Carbon C features a lower modulus of carbon than the more expensive Carbon CC build, so it requires more material to hit the same stiffness that Santa Cruz requires from all of its bikes. More material means more weight, to the tune of a claimed 280g. Still, that's a small sacrifice to make when pennies are counted against grams, and the overall efficiency of the frame remains the same as the (much) more expensive Carbon CC model.

The frame's two carbon triangles are built as whole pieces rather than glued together from disparate bits. This saves weight and increases structural integrity by allowing Santa Cruz to wrap carbon continuously through and around key junctures, eliminating the artificial stress points that result from bonded construction methods while saving weight by requiring less material. Finally, the carbon is also compacted from the inside and the outside for a more even finish that avoids any structural defects, excess material build-up, and resin pooling for — you guessed it — even more weight savings.

Over the years, the Tallboy's four-inches of VPP suspension have been continually tweaked. From 2015 to 2016, no changes were made, so it's as surprisingly forgiving as its predecessor. VPP's two counter-rotating links yield a vertical wheel path in initial travel to maintain a firm platform over small bumps and climbs, but as the bike compresses deeper into the suspension, the axle moves rearward to accommodate bigger hits without sacrificing pedal input. The mid-stroke support and small bump compliance translate to snappy pedaling across trail furniture that keeps you glued on climbs and encourages aggression when you drop in, taking advantage of the efficient 17.5in chainstays and stiff, lightweight chassis for speed that doesn’t let up when the trail points down.

The Tallboy R is finished with a blended Shimano drivetrain and WTB rims laced to SRAM hubs. The build kit is ready to race but also equal to the daily abuse of training or recreation — after all, the Tallboy's meant to be ridden hard as often as possible, not kept on a pedestal until you're ready to pin on a number. This limitless use potential is also realized in the double crankset, which effectively expands the cassette's 11-36t range to save your knees and cover terrain that a one-by drivetrain would struggle with. Santa Cruz finishes the R build with a RockShox Recon Gold fork and a FOX Racing Shox shock, a suspension combination that helps the Tallboy's versatile geometry lean on the barrier between XC and trail bikes.