Santa Cruz Tallboy 5 C S

The Tallboy C S by the Californians from Santa Cruz meets all requirements for XC and trail – and that’s why the short-travel bike doesn’t fit into any ordinary bike categories. The aggressive and special geometry of the high-quality carbon frame can be adapted to your own preferences via flip chip. The outstanding FOX Float Performance suspension and the SRAM GX Eagle shifting system actively support you on all your adventures.

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The Santa Cruz Tallboy 5 C S in detail

The Tallboy has earned a loyal following amongst those who seek a go-to bike that will hold up to the relentless hammering of « power hour » hot laps or long days in the saddle harvesting the best trails. The highly-refined VPP™ suspension on the Tallboy combines pedaling efficiency and all-out bump-chomping prowess. If ever there was a gravity riders’ XC bike, the Tallboy is it. With kick-ass lower-link VPP suspension, a streamlined design, the typical Santa Cruz refinement, and rather radical geometry, the Tallboy is back to being a genre bending folk hero.

Chainstay length and seat angle are matched to the frame size (STA steepens and rear centre grows as frame size increases) so that every rider, no matter what height, gets the same balance of geometry and handling characteristics. Santa Cruz tailor stiffness for every size to make sure everyone gets the same ride quality. Bigger riders means greater stresses on larger frames, but that’s remedied with our size-specific frame stiffness tunes.

Some call 120mm « short travel », others call it all the travel you’ll need. The Tallboy is an efficient XC pedaler with a geo and shock tune that make it way more capable than the millimeters suggest. It’s the kind of bike that makes you sprint while going up, along, over, or down due to the maximum efficiency of the VPP design and responsive, lightweight chassis. But because it shares the same engineering principles as our longest travel bikes, the progressive lower link-mounted shock feels equally at home doing cross-country as it does in extreme-country. Paired with a 130mm fork the new Tallboy becomes ever more appealing to riders who like to open it up.

Significantly reducing peak anti-squat (over previous generations of Tallboy) has improved both small bump sensitivity and square-edge compliance. And because anti-squat values trend with anti-rise, we were also to reduce the anti-rise to improve braking sensitivity.

The Tallboy has a lower starting ratio and increased ending ratio of the leverage curve. This makes ist really sensitive further into the travel and helps the bike ride higher in its stroke, producing a more responsive, snappy feel.

And the geometry, that’s a big part of what’s going on… Established theory suggests shorter travel bikes get ridden slower, therefore require steeper and more conservative geometries. In reality though, when was the last time you ever throttled back on a fun trail because you weren’t on a bigger bike? Caution to the wind and all that. So we’ve done the same here and mimicked our longer travel geometry to create a bike with a 65.5-degree head-angle, generous front center, and short offset fork. Something rarely seen on a bike of this ilk.

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Technology

Flip-Chip
A flip chip is a simple mechanism that we use to adjust geometry and suspension feel on our bikes. The lower-link flip chip sits in the shock mount in lower-link. This one adjusts the BB height up and down and the Lo setting makes the suspension more progressive (more bottom out resistance). The axle flip chip changes the chainstay length by +/- 10mm. This provides a rider with choice about how the bike rides or fits. Shorter is more playful and lively, longer being more stable descending and more traction for climbing. It also means that taller riders can tailor the fit of the bike and create a balanced front-rear proportion. And one more thing, on the Tallboy, flip the axle chip to long if you want to fit your bike with 29×2.6 tires.

Santa Cruz carbon frame
We don’t just use carbon to build bikes because it looks cool and everyone is doing it. We pioneer advanced materials and production methods to build the most durable and high-performance bicycles because it’s the way to ensure that riders can just enjoy riding their bike. Our experience with carbon production allows us to build bikes that are extremely reliable.

We design, test and prototype our carbon technology in Santa Cruz, CA. Our carbon lab gives us the capacity to research carbon layup optimization that we can apply to our production frames, and research and test new manufacturing processes and techniques. Our production bikes are strong as hell, and we feel we have a good handle on our toolbox of materials, but having the carbon facility in the same building as the engineers allows us to push our understanding forward, and take advantage of emerging materials technology.

Our frames are manufactured in our exclusive factory (Skybox). We founded this manufacturing facility ourselves because we wanted to be able to control how our designs were produced, to ensure quality control, and to make sure the advancements we design remain proprietary to us (we’re not being selfish, it just sucks when someone peers over your shoulder to get the answer you’ve worked hard to figure out). What’s more, if something needs improving, we have the capacity and capability to change it, before it gets into your hands.

Santa Cruz Virtual Pivot Point (VPP®) Suspension Design

We’ve been using VPP® suspension since 2001. Rather than contracting a series of kooky inventors to try to build ever more complex and wack-a-doo suspension designs or proprietary shocks so the Marketing department has something to talk about, we’ve stuck with what is an extremely versatile and high-performance mechanism. VPP® is designed to work with the best available technology from suspension manufacturers that will be supported long-term. It doesn’t require novelty shocks and hardware that offers dubious long-term support.

VPP® can be optimized to strike the right balance between pedaling efficiency and all-out bump chomping prowess. The suspension on our cross-country bikes is tuned so that every ounce of energy a rider can generate is transferred to the forward trajectory. And our bigger-hitting, longer travel bikes are exceptionally capable of isolating impacts from the rider so they can ride harder with more confidence in the very worst terrain. Short counter-rotating links connect the front and rear triangles to create an extremely robust chassis. Simple linkages contain the pivot points to prevent slop from developing over time; grease ports make it serviceable; pivots run on large diameter axles and bearings, which we offer free lifetime replacement for.

Eagle-eyed riders may have noticed that we have two styles of the VPP® design now. The lower-link mounted shock configuration gives a very progressive rate with excellent small bump, mid-stroke support and great bottom out resistance. Ideal for bikes that are designed for challenging terrain. The upper-link mounted shock style that we use on other trail bikes gives more pedal platform, ideal for bikes that require maximum support and good bottom-out resistance to make them snappy handling, pedal-efficient flyers. Having control over a versatile design like this allows us to tune the suspension to the characteristics we most want for each application.

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Recommended frame size

• XS: 142 – 155 cm
• S: 155 – 165 cm
• M: 165 – 175 cm
• L: 175 – 185 cm
• XL: 185 – 193 cm
• XXL: 193 – 201 cm

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Please note that pedals are not included!

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Tallboy | The Downhiller’s XC Bike

Factory Settings: Santa Cruz Tallboy – info on all the tech and features

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Lifetime Frame Warranty

Santa Cruz Bicycles will repair or replace at its option any frame made by Santa Cruz Bicycles it determines to be defective in materials or workmanship. The warranty will be in effect for the lifetime of the frame and is available only to the original owner. Notwithstanding the foregoing, frames purchased prior to May 1, 2015 are covered under the previously-existing warranty for five years from the original date of purchase. In the event of a non-warranty situation, Santa Cruz Bicycles will make replacement parts available to the original owner at a reduced charge for the applicable warranty period described above.*

*Warranty Limitations, Exclusions, and Disclaimers

The sole remedy available under the foregoing express warranty and all implied warranties is the repair or replacement of defective parts with those of equal or greater value, as determined by Santa Cruz Bicycles in its sole discretion. The warranty does not cover labor costs, custom finishes, normal wear and tear, or damage from commercial use. The warranty is void if the part is modified from its original condition in any manner or used outside normal intended use, as determined by Santa Cruz Bicycles in its sole discretion. The warranty for damage arising from accidents, crashes and other impacts is limited to offered replacement at a reduced charge as set forth above. Any implied warranties (including without limitation the warranties of merchantability and fitness for particular purpose) which may not be disclaimed under applicable law are limited in duration to the period set forth above or the applicable statute of limitations, whichever is shorter.

The foregoing warranty is the sole and exclusive warranty offered by Santa Cruz Bicycles. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, all other express and implied warranties (including without limitation the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose) are hereby disclaimed. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall Santa Cruz bicycles or any of its owners, officers, employees, representatives, agents, or affiliates (or any of their respective successors or assigns) be responsible or otherwise liable for any direct, incidental or consequential damages arising from the purchase, use, or ownership of its products, including without limitation damages for personal injury, property damage, or economic losses, whether based on contract, warranty, negligence, product liability, or any other theory.

Some states and countries do not allow some or all of the foregoing exclusions or limitations, so they may not apply to you. If any portion of the foregoing warranty (or the exclusions or limitations thereto) is deemed invalid or unenforceable pursuant to applicable law, it shall be deemed modified so as to be valid and enforceable to the maximum extent consistent with such law. This warranty gives you specific legal rights, and you may also have other rights which vary from state to state and country to country.