Editor’s Note: Grannygear has a mid term report for us on the Tall Boy, one of 2010′s most talked about 29 inch wheeled bikes. From one of the few places in the U.S. that has primo riding conditions, here is his report:

Santa Cruz Tall Boy Ride Update by Grannygear..

I have around 10 hours of riding on the Tall Boy now over a pretty varied range of trails and roads and I have been left with some strong impressions. I ran the bike the way I received it as far as parts selection but I did swap the Small Block 8 tires for something better suited to the wet weather we have been having in So Cal. I mounted up a Continental 2.4 Mountain King on the front and a Maxxis Ignitor 2.1 on the rear with tubes in place.

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I played a bit with the rear shock pressures to see what I would get from it. VPP, as I understand it, likes to have you riding in a ‘sweet spot’ or ‘sag pocket’ so that there is negative and positive travel at the ready. I weigh around 190 dressed to ride so I ran between 170psi and 190psi to see how it felt. That put me at either end of the recommended sag settings. The lower pressure felt plusher…no surprise…but the higher setting was closer to what I would ride in my fairly smooth neck of the woods. In any case I had to run ProPedal on the number 2 setting or I was getting too much pedal induced movement in the suspension. However, it still was very comfy when seated pedaling over rough ground even with ProPedal on so I don’t think I was giving up very much. In fact, for most fireroad and moderate trails, I kept ProPedal on and the Fox fork closed up about 50% on the compression lever. That was a nice balance, but not really plush and that was what I wanted.

The bike came with very wide handlebars so there was a ton of leverage there for standing climbing. The first ride began with 8 miles of pavement riding, mostly uphill, to get to the dirt. The Tall Boy pedals pretty well and with the 100mm fork it had a nice and low feeling to the handlebars. With ProPedal on, on the paved climbs it felt like a pretty stout bottom bracket and the overall feeling was quite good. The first few miles of dirt are a series of steep climbs and short descents like a big interval session. The wide firewood corners are pretty tight and tend to be a bit rutted and rocky. Here the Tall Boy really began to reward with accurate and confident feelings in the turns. The steeper HT angle makes for a quick turn-in to corners and the bike tracks very, very well. Ferrari came to mind here as the moist soil and the aggressive front tire allowed the Tall Boy to bite in and hold any line I chose.

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The VPP rear suspension seems to follow trail surfaces with grace and balance and stays hooked up when out of the saddle on rough, loose climbs. All was good and neutral till I stood on one hill about halfway up when I was climbing in the small chainring. Standing and pedaling in the little ring was a very odd feeling as something was going on with the linkage and the shock…monkey motion comes to mind…I could not really see what it was doing and I never lost any feeling of forward progress or anything, but it felt comical. Do I stand a lot and climb in the small ring? Nah, but if I did, I would have to come to terms with that. Other than that, the bike accelerates like crazy and feels pretty snappy for a short link bike. I say that because many I have ridden (the Jet-9 was an exception) have felt like I was dragging something behind me when I pedaled out of the saddle. The Tall Boy feels fine in the bigger two chainrings at least.

The final section of the ride was a tight and rocky singletrack through a canyon, into a creek bed, and out again to the fireroad. I opened up the ProPedal and the Fox fork and dropped in. Wow. You can go really fast on this bike but with the 100mm fork, you need to pay attention. It is not scary or anything, but it will go where you look so look where you want to go! Stay on top of things and ride aggressively and it just flies. Curious, I switched ProPedal back on and closed up the fork a bit and I actually found I liked it better that way as it was a bit ‘tighter’ feeling overall. I have come to like a bit slacker head tube angle for where I ride and what I like the bike to be. Twice I ran completely off the trail on the Tall Boy. That never happens on any of the three other bikes I ride here and I was not pushing it that hard. Whatizzup wit dat? Well, I probably need to grow some skills…granted…so there is that, but the rest is a faster turning bike then I am used to.

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The second ride was a singletrack climb that is rough and bouldery and then a return down that same creek bed trail that I was missing my lines on. The Tall Boy really does a great job when sitting and pedaling over broken and bumpy trails. Very nice. Back down the trail, this time at night and with a buddy breathing down my neck, I was pushing it a bit and the Tall Boy was not even breathing hard. I was able to wait till the last minute and then just pitch the bike over and cut through the turn. That is not my typical style but it felt really good doing that. I bet the Tall Boy set up with the 100mm fork would be a smart choice for woodsy, tight, rooty riding. The rear tire clearance, the supple rear suspension and the stiff front chassis would be a good combo there.

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Next on tap was a 3 hour ride in much more techy conditions. I had just done this ride on the Specialized Epic Marathon so I was very interested to compare. Very Moab-ish, the sandstone in the area tosses all kinds of trail obstacles in the way and this is the domain of all-mountain bikes. The approach to the trail was a steep (17 degrees in some places) grade up a couple of miles of rough fireroad. The 22/34 combo felt great and the bike exhibited no odd traits while grinding along in the saddle. Sitting at the summit and ready to dive into the trail, I was thinking about my plan as I dropped the seat height. This singletrack is best enjoyed on an all mountain type of bike so I was a bit nervous after the pin-ball trail experience back home, but I opened up the rear shock and the fork and dropped in. Huh. No worries. Over rock domes, around switchbacks with ledge drops…nothing but solid performance. Would I have liked a 120mm fork? Sure, but this was not bad at all in fact it was nearly easy. Sweet! One thing I felt was some flex in the back end somewhere, noticed when I would get the bike in two different parallel ruts or between two rocks. Not sure if it was the wheel or the frame or some combo of both.

NOTE: Later at home I performed the old ‘grab the rear wheel with one hand and the saddle with the other and pull them apart’ test to see where that rear wiggle was coming from. The rear wheel is not all that stiff actually, but I could see the rear triangle slightly twisting all the way to the seat tube/bb area near the links. Is this the price you pay for a light carbon frame? Perhaps. I did not feel this when pedaling or much at all when cornering, but I did notice it under the conditions I mentioned.

Back to our 3 hour loop, a lot of singletrack climbing brought us back to the top of the ridge where we hit 3 miles of very rough and fast downhill jeep road. The climbing part had some very tricky, perched on the nose of the saddle pedaling sections and the VPP was excellent in keeping me moving forward and up. The downhill was the end of the ride and here I was surprised that the Tall Boy felt like the suspension was not working for me. It seemed like it was having trouble responding to the rapid, continuous sharp ledges. In fact, even the fork felt taxed here. I had jumped up from 170 psi in the rear shock to 190 psi and I preferred that setting for all parts of the trail but here. Could it be that more tuning was required? Could be and that is the problem sometimes with a relatively short term test period: you don’t always get those things sorted out.

Back at the barn I sat back and looked at the Tall Boy for a while. Would I buy it? What would I change? Who would like this bike? Well, I liked it very much. It is not a budget frame, but the light weight and carbon build brings a lot to the table. Things like the forged bottom link with zerk fittings are very nice and the head tube junctions and bottom bracket area look stout and gorgeous all at the same time. I am still on the fence about carbon as an all around MTB material but I think that will change over time as it becomes more proven. I do wonder about the rear flex but that is as much a design issue or compromise as it is a materials thing.

I would run the bike with a 120mm fork for the looser and rougher areas that I ride. It would tip things toward stability VS. snappy steering and I could live with that. Also, the VPP rear end feels plenty capable of balancing out a 120mm fork. But, if I was looking to turn on a dime and get change back, the 100mm fork is it.

The Tall Boy is a significant bike in many ways, not just for what it represents for Santa Cruz as a first jump into big wheels, but for 29er buyers as well. It is a very versatile bike. While this parts build was not focused on weight savings, a racier build could make for a fast race/endurance bike. A 120mm fork and bigger tires/wide rims, gravity dropper post, etc, and it could be a pretty darn fine trail bike. I am not sure if the chassis is up to serious, repeated all mountain type of riding but I do not know that it is not either. If that was what I wanted to do, I would spend less money on a heavier aluminum frame since the weight savings of the carbon gets to be moot at some point there.

After all this, I wanted to talk with Mike Ferrentino about the Tall Boy, see what the thoughts were behind the bike, and get a feel for this groundbreaking bike from the Santa Cruz side of things.

Editor’s note: And that is exactly what we did. Look for a interview with Santa Cruz’s marketing wonk, Mike Ferrentino, in our next installment on the Santa Cruz Tall Boy. Then Grannygear will gather together some local riders to get their reactions to the ride of the Santa Cruz Tall Boy and a final few thoughts from Grannygear will round out this test/review. All of this coming your way soon!