2020 Santa Cruz Tallboy | Test Ride and Review | Better than the Ibis Ripley?

Oh my goodness welcome back to the channel guys today we are

test

ing the

2020

Santa Cruz tall boy. I'm on the s build C box which gives you some pretty good stuff. Fox performance, Fox 34 fork, DPS flow or a shame, guide our breaks. I don't know if they feel good, and it's a C frame that's about a half pound heavier than the CC frame, but just as stiff. We have a GX Eagle tram. This morning I have a medium and tall child size. medium feels pretty good 510 175 lbs I'm right on the border of medium/large. I can go either direction depending on what mood I'm in, but I have a medium

2020

Hightower and a large mega tax.

I want that big bike feel. Just so you know, I bring that thing to the park, the pace feels comfortable. 250k stem and it's just a nice comfortable position so I'll be riding the trails I wrote on my Hightower so I want to compare to see how much. More efficient, this bike really is rare in Pine Hills and Plymouth. I do all or most of my bike

review

s so I've been using this new table for a couple of days and can't really figure out the setup I normally use. Starting with Santa Cruz is the one who recommended shock pressures and anything that's pretty close to what I need it for, so for about my weight they recommend around 200 psi on the rear shock, but it felt super stiff.

You've been setting it up for a couple of days. my local Flying with the shock on an open fork and I see no reason to flip that switch is a pretty efficient peddler, definitely a little

better

than my high tower, but I dunno, I'm trying to figure out what the point of this bike is. meet the old

tallboy

, the

tallboy

s 20:19, all the generation with the old school VPP linkage, it was like an XC/trail bike, it was fun, had a pretty slack seat tube angle on a head tube angle pretty steep, so it turned really well, but you're really over that rear tire if the seatpost is extended, so they change it for 2020.

You know they went with the mega tower high tower geometry. It's got the new VPP bottom link linkage, which is really nice on those long travel bikes that are longer, but this. 29er or this link and trip. I'm having a hard time making sense of it, it just doesn't work well at least on my trails wake up, but with this bottom link design, the Santa Cruz carbon layup is so beefy that we weighed this bike in a bike barn, which you could do with the same bike if you ask Kevin or John and tell them I sent you JC trails and hooks. you get up with a mega tower tall tower it's all Boyer some stump jumpers whatever you want it weighs a little less or a little more than 30 pounds that's a lot even for this GX I feel like this bike should weigh around 27 pounds this model to be competitive with your like the Ibis Ripley or even the jersey from the Stumpjumper store, some jersey, a short trip, I mean the pedaling, it feels light, but it's not the same weight as my tall tower, you know, the bikes have a long trip 140 miles, but we'll see almost up, let's go down, okay I Section eight, the rail a little flatter, tighter, this is where the tall boy feels a little slower, that kind of clumsy, almost you know , sometimes I just want to turn to turn without having to go over the rail, I just want to turn the handlebars and turn this thing, you really have to lean the bike.

I feel like, um, what you should do, um, for mountain biking, you really lean in, maximize your side walls like it's taller, aha, we have pedal axles, that crazy thing behind Rack is. super low, don't take this Oh God, oh yes, oh yes, she goes up well, this is what she is comfortable with when you have a little bit of speed and a little bit of technology. I feel like once you get over ten miles an hour that's how it wakes up yeah I don't know the exact speed I just guess it plays anything pointing down very easy to the point this point shoots almost like a big trip and that's just down to the geometry like this bike, it's geared towards a Pacific Hunter Rider, a Pacific region, it doesn't do everything right, but it goes downhill really well once you get a little bit of speed, sir, cut, there come on.

Oh, God, look, right there. I feel like I'm not moving the front down enough to wash it. The thing is you know, it's really nice down here though, sexy bike, sandy, my racing bike, really cool pedal platform, I pushed, that feels a lot

better

going downhill. I will tell you that you lean on the front a lot, come on, go well, turn there. we're going to turn around you really have to lean the bike and weight the front end down to get it to engage here we go, I'm getting used to it all, I bet it's okay, but it doesn't respond as well as the old tall one in the corners. when I was riding my local trails or to you. knowing six five and a half or whatever for a 120 bike is that it really makes sense as you pick up speed here it corners a little better and the slow turns make you feel a little lazy and that's one of the good things .

For the old tall one, you know, the head tube angle is pretty steep. They turned into really nice new trails like these, you go faster, it definitely feels a little better. Nice fall day, yes, there you go. It's okay, she feeds him some more. The speed is definitely felt a bit. a little better okay hey guys this is definitely a downhill it's an As far as you know, it's pretty difficult and it's nice to have a longer bike on this trail makes it a lot easier, you just

ride

it on a very technical trail but at a very high speed, so I got back in the car and changed the chainstay, you know, It has an adjustable sheath like the mega tower. so it went from a four thirty millimeter chain state to yeah, 432 to 440 and I'm curious to see how this feels obviously, I wrote Ripley on this local trail for my local trail ring, Stumpjumper short trip agent He booked it here. for one of my fas

test

times on this program reversed on the mega tower, he still kind of has the pedal pressed, just keep a really nice speed, let's see, get down the branches.

I feel a lot better when you go faster, so if you move really fast. oh the hairpin is bottoming out, oh my gosh, oh she likes to go fast, chat, oh my gosh, lots of pine needles, the weather's a little slippery, oh yeah, so in this short little section it's feels really stable for a short travel bike. That chainstay adjustment from way back helped here with some grit and slowing down, but yeah, it definitely hits the fork with the performance of the Fox 34 and gently delivers some meat here because it was fun, actually. On this bike you feel the road a lot, you know it. that same hill descent there on the mega tar and it basically feels like a couch that you can hold on to, literally, you close your eyes and it will just go right through those things.

This is a little more sporty. It felt good. In fact, feel the path beneath you, but feel. stable at the same time, well guys, you just finished the

ride

on the 2020

santa

cruz

tall boy and it's a hard bike to describe. I guess Santa Cruz did it when they called the drop. It's an XE bike, not the best bike for my local. trails where you know more XE type oriented trails and a lot of tight turns, it doesn't turn as low. I don't know. I expect a different feel from a short travel 29er, maybe if it was around 66 66 and a half degrees. head to mangle I think it would be the perfect bike for this, that being said although once the chills subsided and you picked up some speed the bike felt fantastic, it's super capable for a 120 millimeter travel bike, the frame that You know it's the typical Santa Cruz carbon frame, nice and burly, feels very stiff, very well put together, basically has like a mega tower frame with less travel, as I wrote about it more throughout the day, although you definitely set up The way it lowers the front once you get used to it, it's a little better in tighter areas, but it's not as intuitive and easy to operate as the Ibis Ripley.

That bike climbs better, feels lighter, definitely faster and feels like a short ride. 29 You know my Stumpjumper short trip. Well it feels better for my local trails, this tall boy definitely climbs better than the Stumpjumper, but not as good as the Ripley, but I know I'll get this question guys, if you can only have one bike, what would it be? whether it's this Santa Cruz tall boy or the tall tower personally, I want a little more squish with this geometry. I wanted to be a little more squish here because I'm going to make the bike like a bike part or make it a little more technical. terrain on Burke Mountain or something, this tall guy could definitely handle it, but you know he hit the rocks a little harder, it'll be a little harder, but that being said, he's definitely a better peddler. than my Hightower so there you have it guys I hope you enjoyed this

review

thanks for watching thumbs up if you enjoy the video please subscribe for more bike reviews and I hope to see you next time in the next video so Yeah, oh my gosh, that was great.