Tallboy 3 – Boosted Versatility

It’s not that long since Santa Cruz Bicycles launched the Hightower; a 135mm travel trail bike that effectively replaced their longstanding Tallboy LT. Now the regular Tallboy has undergone a similar treatment, although unlike the longer travel version, it retains the Tallboy name.

While it retains the VPP suspension, the rear wheel travel has increased from 100mm up to 110mm. As with all the recently released Santa Cruz bikes, the lower VPP link has been tucked up behind the bottom bracket, making it both stiffer and less damage prone.

The biggest difference lies in the geometry and the capacity to accept wider ‘plus sized’ tyres. In its traditional form, the Tallboy has always been a 29 inch wheeled XC or marathon race bike. While that remains the case, the new version also has clearance for 27.5 tyres that are up to 3.0 inches wide. With a similar outer diameter to 29-inch wheels, the plus wheel size swap leaves the geometry relatively unchanged — an adjustable chip on the upper link also helps to compensate for this change. In 29er format the bike is designed to run a 120mm fork and 130mm of front travel is the stock setup with 27.5 plus wheels.

Geometry wise the new Tallboy is very much up with modern thinking. At 432mm long, the chainstays are extremely short for a VPP equipped 29er — they’re comparable in length with most 27.5 wheeled bikes. While the back end is short, the front is quite long and slack. The 430mm reach figure on a medium frame is 15mm longer than the large size in a Tallboy 2 — that’s a massive difference! The head angle has also gone from 70.2 degrees to 68 degrees. Again this is a pretty substantial change.

Roll it all together and the longer front end of the Tallboy 3 should be far more capable when descending. A still steep 73 degree seat angle will still put you in an efficient climbing position and its rangy length will offer plenty of cockpit room, even when fitted with a new-school short stem.

With the geometry updates and ability to accept big wheels, the new bike is clearly more versatile. While it can still serve as an XC racer, it would work even better as a multi-use trail bike or a fast rig for smoother gravity enduro events. From an XC race perspective, the only obvious compromise comes with the weight which has risen from 2.3kg for the Tallboy 2 frame to a little over 2.5kg for the Tallboy 3.

So what can the new Tallboy handle? Quite a bit if this video is anything to go by!

As in the past, sister company Juliana Bicycles will offer the same frame with a parts spec that’s tailored for the female MTB market. The new Joplin shares the Tallboy frame but different graphics and where the Tallboy comes in small through to XXL, the Joplin is only offered in small, medium and large.