santa cruz tallboy

A.B.

New Member
howdy all, in the market for a new bike and I'm seriously considering the above mentioned bike , any opinions would be appreciated....
 

BShow

Member
You might consider the Pivot as a comparator. I have a three or four friends riding the 529 carbon and they really like them a lot. One of them was a die hard santa cruz guy and had several SC suspension bikes prior to buying a Pivot. The other two Pivot guys came from high end squishy bikes as well. I have yet another friend riding a newer Tallboy... he does like it and I think the bike looks great. I have no idea how it rides though.
 

Delish

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Scalpel is pretty much the perfect XC race rig IMHO but @Dominos has a plastic Tallboy (Juliana branded version) and I am super impressed. Suspension design seems way better...VPP with adjustable angular contact bearings. Lefty on a Tallboy would rock
 

rick81721

Lothar
Halters has a tallboy to demo. Also a 5010 carbon that I demoed last month. Awesome bike but think a 29er is better for me, I want to try the tallboy too
 

BShow

Member
Obviously some bikes are better than others for each individual, but for what it's worth, one of the guys I mentioned above is a roadie type XC racer and he is now trying to sell his 2014 Scalpel because he likes the Pivot 529C so much more.
 

pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I have not tried the pivot so I can't comment on it. What I can say is that I like the way the Tallboy handles the tech over the scalpel. The geo of the tallboy works for me, I found the scalpel to be more twitchy on the front end. Some like this very responsive steering however I found it to be somewhat unpredictable. If you are a very good bike handler this may not be an issue. The scalpel is built for speed, like a fine tuned sports car. However I prefer the solid handling of the Tallboy, my engine can provide the speed I need.
 

jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I have not tried the pivot so I can't comment on it. What I can say is that I like the way the Tallboy handles the tech over the scalpel. The geo of the tallboy works for me, I found the scalpel to be more twitchy on the front end. Some like this very responsive steering however I found it to be somewhat unpredictable. If you are a very good bike handler this may not be an issue. The scalpel is built for speed, like a fine tuned sports car. However I prefer the solid handling of the Tallboy, my engine can provide the speed I need.

The scalpel has a steeper head angle and a 100mm fork as opposed to the slacker and 120 on the tallboy. It's preference really.
 

gtluke

The Moped
The tallboy is the only FS 29er that I actually enjoyed riding.
@Delish Sleeveless Joe @VelocityBoy has a tallboy with a lefty IIRC.
The big bike companies are just too proud to licence a proper rear suspension design from weagle. Santa Cruz knows just to go with what works and to not reinvent the wheel to avoid a patent fee.
 

jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
The tallboy is the only FS 29er that I actually enjoyed riding.
@Delish Sleeveless Joe @VelocityBoy has a tallboy with a lefty IIRC.
The big bike companies are just too proud to licence a proper rear suspension design from weagle. Santa Cruz knows just to go with what works and to not reinvent the wheel to avoid a patent fee.


The DW links and other more sophisticated suspensions maybe more active and just plain old better than the Cannondale single pivot, but the single pivot is significantly lighter.


A lot of XC racers will take that trade off.

I dont think it has anything to do with being proud. It's about not paying weagle.
 

Po123

Active Member
I have about 6 rides on a 2016 trek top fuel and I like a lot, might be worth checking out
 

zip

Active Member
I like mine. I think it depends on where you ride. For lots of rocks, like Allamuchy the 29er gets over stuff. I like the high shock, stays clean. I also like the grease fittings on the lower pivots. I like the threaded bottom bracket and 142 thru axle. A friend recommended this a few years ago but it seems he lately rides a fat bike. I have meaty tires on the Tall Boy, it is good.
 

gtluke

The Moped
Oh yeah. Sc didn't buy into those new shitty bb standards to make cheaper frames. You get threaded bb on even the carbon bikes. Bonus. But it does weigh a few more grams.
 

mattybfat

The Opinion Police
Team MTBNJ Halter's
When Outland died it was SC who reaped, I remember that Outland VPP 5 being a boss in the downhill era of the 90's

In 1995, around the same time that FSR was cementing itself as the best suspension design of the era, Outland’s Virtual Pivot Point (VPP) arrived as a challenger. The idea was simple: since the best location for a suspension linkage’s main pivot can vary depending on conditions, that point should float (hence “virtual”), depending on the alignment of the secondary pivots in the linkage. (Or maybe the idea wasn’t so simple; the design, after all, was revolutionary.) The 1995 Outland VPP might have killed FSR had the Outland bike company not died instead. Santa Cruz revived the design for 2001’s Blur, making that bike the first full-suspension rig that performed as well as bikes with the Horst Link did. A galaxy of similarly inspired designs have since appeared, including Ibis’s DW-Link and Yeti’s Switch Infinity.
 
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