This compelling 19-minute mountain bike film follows Santa Cruz athletes Ben Hildred and Ruth Holcomb as the pair tackle the Old Ghost Road on New Zealand’s South Island. Completed in 2015, the Old Ghost Road is an 85 km singletrack traversing the mountains between the towns of Lyell and Seddonville. Sit back and enjoy the trail’s story, scenery, and riding, and add this one to your bucket list.
Also, be sure to check out what appears to be the unreleased next generation of the Santa Cruz Tallboy.
A New Tallboy, Right?
Rumors of a new Tallboy have been circulating for a while.
Some spy shots of an unknown short-travel Santa Cruz bike were going around just a couple of weeks ago. Now, even Santa Cruz seems to be showing its cards with what is very obviously labeled as a Tallboy, but clearly is not the same as the version that’s been around since 2022. The biggest difference is that this new frame has a 4-bar, or Horst Link, suspension layout, which is a significant change from the previous version(s) lower-link VPP.
For a very quick refresher, the Tallboy has been a staple in the Santa Cruz lineup since 2009.
The first version came out when 29ers were just gaining traction, and brands were still trying to figure out how to design bikes around bigger wheels. It has undergone several major updates over the years, reaching its current, wildly popular form, known as the Tallboy 5, in 2022.
It hasn’t been updated in four years, so it’s obviously due for a refresh. And that looks like what we’ll be learning more about in the near future.
As mentioned above, Santa Cruz has hung its hat on its VPP suspension design for many years, and it was employed on the previous two generations of the Tallboy.
Now, perhaps building on the success (and praise) of the 4-bar suspension Vala and Bullit eMTBs, it appears the brand is moving to that layout on the Tallboy, too. Beyond that, it still appears to be a shorter travel bike, probably getting 120 or 130mm of rear wheel travel. The Pike fork travel options are 120, 130, or 140mm, so front travel must land somewhere in the range, probably 130 or 140mm.
Otherwise, we’re excited to learn more about what looks like an exciting new model from Santa Cruz.
We’ll fill you in when we know more…
