Santa Cruz Bicycles

Tallboy Carbon CC 27.5+ X01 Eagle ENVE Mountain Bike - 2017

The Santa Cruz Tallboy CC 27.5+ X01 Eagle ENVE complete mountain bike effortlessly pairs instinctive handling with more traction than you've ever experienced. For big rides in technical terrain, or just experiencing a more surefooted feel on your local trails, this machine is ready, willing, and able.

Many of you will remember the commotion that the original Tallboy caused, what with its lively handling that immediately dispelled a mountain of preconceived notions about how 29in wheels were supposed to handle. The latest iteration of the Tallboy retains its praiseworthy handling with an added dash of versatility and a pinch of aggressive intent that takes the Tallboy into uncharted territory.

Part of the Tallboy’s success is due to its ability to blur the lines between cross-country rocket and surefooted trail bike. To that end, the Tallboy was built to accommodate 27.5+ wheels as well as 29in wheels, as it's presented here. This split personality is enabled by the reversible “flip chip” at the upper link. Setting the flip chip to the “low” mode relaxes the head angle by roughly half a degree and lowers the bottom bracket, which makes for an ideal setup when paired with the slightly larger diameter of 29-inch wheels. The slightly smaller 27.5+ wheels pair with the “high” setting, allowing for similar clearance between the bottom bracket and the ground. The upshot is headache-free swaps between wheel sizes, which gives you more options than ever when you hit the trail.

The Tallboy generates 110mm of travel through the latest version of Santa Cruz’s VPP technology. As with all VPP bikes, the Tallboy’s counter-rotating links are carefully arranged to resist activation by pedaling forces, all but eliminating unwanted bobbing under power. This being the latest iteration of VPP, it’s tuned to provide more midstroke support than previous generations of the VPP platform, giving the rider a better feel for the terrain, and a livelier ride feel.

While the excellent suspension plays a large role, a key part of the Tallboy’s secret sauce is its carefully tuned geometry. At 68 degrees, the head angle is sufficiently nimble for whipping through tight chicanes, while remaining relaxed enough to stay composed at high speed. The 17in chainstays enhance the ability to change directions quickly, while retaining enough length to provide ample traction when the trail points skyward. And the way the moderately roomy cockpit positions the rider between the wheels makes for reflexive handling with a minimum of effort.

The Tallboy is built using Santa Cruz’s top tier CC carbon fiber construction. By using some of the finest, and strongest, raw materials available, Santa Cruz is able to make its CC level frames extremely lightweight, while maintaining outstanding impact resistance, exceptional stiffness, and just the right amount of finely tuned flex to cancel out trail chatter. Of course, balancing these factors requires true mastery of carbon fiber, and the design team at Santa Cruz has proven time and time again that their command of carbon fiber construction is unsurpassed in the bike industry. The result is a frame that will hold up to years of hard riding, will provide a comfortable ride, and will do so at a very competitive weight.

This build of the Tallboy includes some of the finest components available, beginning with a worthy suspension package from Fox: a 34 Float Performance Elite fork paired with a Float Performance Elite air shock. This setup offers a supple stroke, on-the-fly adjustments at the flip of a lever, and easy tuning. SRAM’s phenomenal X01 Eagle groupset provides the gear range necessary to venture into uncharted territory, while the Level brakes keep things under control as speeds increase. The Rockshox Reverb dropper post enables the necessary on-the-fly saddle height adjustment, while the Santa Cruz carbon fiber handlebar offers a perfectly tuned balance of stiffness and flex that simply surpasses many of the best aftermarket carbon fiber handlebars available. This build is rounded off with ENVE's class-leading M60 Forty Plus rims, which are in turn laced to DT Swiss 350 hubs and shod in Maxxis Rekon Plus tires for otherworldly grip in unpredictable terrain.