Santa Cruz’s 2023 Tallboy gets integrated down tube sandwich storage and updated geometry 

An evolutionary rather than revolutionary update for the short-travel 29er

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By Oscar Huckle

Published: September 20, 2022 at 8:01 am

Santa Cruz has updated its Tallboy trail mountain bike with revised geometry and suspension kinematics, as well as inheriting the brand's Glovebox down tube storage system.

Suspension travel remains the same, with a 130mm fork up front and 120mm of travel out back.

Unlike its predecessor launched in 2020, there will be no aluminium options and the Tallboy will only be available in Santa Cruz's C and CC carbon.

Santa Cruz has confirmed there will also be a simultaneous update to the Joplin – the women's-specific version of the Tallboy from sister brand, Juliana.

Santa Cruz is offering six builds for the Tallboy. The range starts at £5,299 for the C R model, rising to £9,599 for the CC XO1 AXS RSV. Availability and international pricing are to be confirmed.

The bikes will be available in two colourways – ‘Gloss Ultra Blue’ or ‘Matte Taupe’.

Santa Cruz says the Tallboy is for "riders who like to squeeze the life out of every ride" and for "long days in the saddle harvesting the trails".

Compared to the recently updated 5010, which sees a mixed-wheel setup, and 140mm of travel up-front and 130mm at the back, Santa Cruz says the Tallboy is "a bit more efficient, a bit more energetic, with a bigger bias towards speed".

Compared to the 29er longer-travel Hightower, the brand notes "it's again more efficient but less forgiving".

Like its predecessor, the Tallboy uses Santa Cruz's low-slung virtual pivot point (VPP) suspension design. This sees the lower of two counter-rotating links driving the shock, with a mudguard to help keep debris away from the shock.

Although the Tallboy comes stock with 130mm suspension up-front, the brand says it can accept a 140mm fork.

The Tallboy has less peak anti-squat than the previous generation, with the brand saying this is "to improve small-bump sensitivity and square-edge compliance".

As anti-squat values trend with anti-rise, the Tallboy's anti-rise has also been reduced "to improve braking sensitivity", according to the brand.

Santa Cruz adds it wanted to give the Tallboy a more progressive and straight leverage curve and the result "improve[s] sensitivity further in the travel and help[s] the bike ride higher in its stroke, producing a more responsive, snappy feel".

Unlike the new 5010, there isn't a cut-out in the carbon of the non-driveside face of the seat tube, which Santa Cruz dubs the ‘sag set-up window’ to ease suspension setup.

The Tallboy is available in the brand's C and CC carbon. No alloy build will be offered for the new Tallboy. Both carbon layups are said to offer identical riding characteristics and stiffness properties, only the more expensive CC layup drops weight.

It inherits Santa Cruz's Glovebox storage system, located in the down tube. Santa Cruz says the Tallboy comes with a Tool Wallet and Tube Purse to keep spares organised.

The maximum mountain bike tyre clearance is rated to 29×2.5in.

The frame features ISCG05 chain guide mounts and Santa Cruz's universal derailleur hanger, which is functionally the same as SRAM's UDH.

The Tallboy continues Santa Cruz's tradition of speccing a threaded bottom bracket.

Like its predecessor, the Tallboy is available in sizes XS to XXL.

The geometry sees evolutionary rather than revolutionary updates, with the Tallboy a little longer in reach and with varying rear centre lengths.

Santa Cruz acknowledges the Tallboy 4 was already "well-loved" and didn't want to change the geometry too drastically.

The flip chip on the rear-most shock mount is retained, which adjusts the geometry slightly.

The head tube angles remain 65.5 degrees in the low setting and 65.7 in the high setting. Seat tube angles vary across different sizes.

Reach measurements have increased generally by 5mm on every size, though, varying from 403mm to 520mm across the range.

Like its other models, the Tallboy also moves to size-specific chainstays. The outgoing model used a 436mm rear centre length across every size.

In the high setting, the chainstays are between 430 and 443mm and in the low, they are 431mm to 444mm.

Juliana, Santa Cruz's sister brand, has also announced an update to the Joplin. This is the women's-specific equivalent of the Tallboy.

The Joplin inherits all of the Tallboy's updates and shares the same revised geometry, although finishing kit widths differ to better fit women riders.

It will be available in sizes XS to Medium across five models in a single ‘Gloss Bluebird’ colourway.

Technical writer

Oscar Huckle is a technical writer at BikeRadar. He has been an avid cyclist since his teenage years, initially catching the road cycling bug and riding for a local club. He's since been indoctrinated into gravel riding and more recently has taken to the dark art of mountain biking. His favourite rides are epic road or gravel routes, and he has also caught the bikepacking bug hard after completing the King Alfred's Way and West Kernow Way. Oscar has a BA degree in English Literature and Film Studies and has close to a decade of cycling industry experience, initially working in a variety of roles at Evans Cycles before joining Carbon Bike Repair. He is particularly fond of workshop tool exotica and is a proponent of Campagnolo groupsets. Oscar prefers lightweight road and gravel frames with simple tube shapes, rather than the latest trend for aerodynamics and full integration. He is obsessed with keeping up to date with all the latest tech, is fixated with the smallest details and is known for his unique opinions.

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