The sixth-generation Santa Cruz Tallboy has officially arrived. The short-travel bike sees its biggest changes in its history with the move from Virtual Pivot Point (VPP) to a four-bar suspension design, the addition of 10mm of suspension travel front and rear, and a premium carbon layup for all frames. Prices and weights are a little lower, too. Just about the only thing that hasn’t changed much is the Tallboy’s geometry.
The Tallboy gets four-bar suspension like the brand’s eMTBs, the Vala and Bullit
Earlier this month, a spy shot suggested the new Tallboy would ditch VPP for a four-bar layout, and today’s official release confirms it.
“We used a four-bar layout on our e-bikes initially, to make the bikes ride the way we wanted while fitting a full-power drive unit,” Josh Kissner, Director of Product for Santa Cruz, said in a release. “For the Tallboy, we were really looking for a very different feel than the previous versions, and we were able to fine-tune the kinematics to get what we wanted: a moderately progressive suspension that eats bumps while being spritely and sporty.”
The patent for the VPP suspension design expired in 2015.
Judging by the provided kinematic graphs above, the sixth-generation Tallboy will have a very different ride feel indeed. For starters, Santa Cruz has reduced anti-squat in order to prioritize traction on technical climbs. Anti-squat reduces pedal bob, so lower anti-squat generally means more bobbing while pedaling. This tradeoff isn’t a big deal for eMTBs like the Vala, where riders are less concerned about pedal efficiency. However, for a short-travel trail bike like a Tallboy, it’s sure to be a controversial move. As a counterbalance, Santa Cruz notes progression is decreased “to keep it supportive in initial travel.”
The new Tallboy design sees lower anti-rise as well. This promises to improve braking traction on steep, rough terrain, particularly toward the end of the bike’s travel.
More travel for riding more trails
When the Tallboy was originally released, the bike had 100mm of suspension travel front and rear. Now, the latest-gen Tallboy features 140/130mm of front/rear travel, respectively. That’s up 10mm on both ends of the bike compared to the fifth-generation Tallboy, which Santa Cruz described as a downhiller’s XC bike. A downcountry bike, if you like.
At 140/130mm, today’s Tallboy is considered a short-travel trail bike. Marketing materials suggest the bike is meant for everyday trail rides, as well as for racing non-traditional events like the BC Bike Race and for FKT attempts.
Santa Cruz Tallboy geometry tweaks
The Tallboy geometry sees minor changes, and a two-position flip chip gives riders a choice between hi and lo settings, just like with the previous version. The head tube angle sees the most dramatic change, slackening by about half a degree to 64.8° in the lo position. Depending on the size, chainstay lengths are either a little longer or the same. Bottom bracket heights crept higher by a millimeter or two, which, like the slacker head tube angle, is to be expected given the additional travel.
This time around, the Tallboy sees the same seat tube angle — 76.5° — across all sizes. Previously, the angle varied by frame size. Santa Cruz says the Tallboy 6 has a steeper seat tube angle than the Tallboy 5, though a quick check shows this is only true for size extra small, small, and medium frames. For the larger sizes, the seat tube angle on the Tallboy 6 is actually slacker, not steeper, by a fraction of a degree.
Reach measurements for sizes medium and up remain the same for the new Tallboy, with a size large offering a 475mm reach. Extra small frames see the reach increase by 5mm, while the reach on the size small frames is shorter by 5mm.
The Tallboy is offered in six sizes from extra small to XXL. Thanks to shorter seat tubes and fewer interruptions, XXL Tallboys ship with 240mm-long dropper posts. Even the size large frames are set up with 210mm posts, and the mediums have 180s.
Lighter weight, and everyone gets the “premium” carbon treatment
Santa Cruz has long offered riders two different grades of carbon-fiber mountain bike frames. Frames marked CC used the brand’s more premium carbon construction, while the C frames were less expensive and a little heavier. For the latest Tallboy, Santa Cruz is using their highest-grade CC carbon on all frames. (And no, there’s still not an aluminum option.)
As a result, Santa Cruz says three of the Tallboy 6 builds weigh 29lb and change. (The less expensive Eagle 90 build is a bit over 30lb, and no weight was provided for the top-level XX build or the entry-level Deore build.) Changes to the suspension design, along with shortened seat tubes, dropped 300g off frame weights, which now start at 5.73lb. “The Tallboy has always been fun and capable, but we felt it was time ‘light’ rejoined the mix,” the brand wrote in press materials provided ahead of the lauch.
Santa Cruz could have shaved even more weight by dropping support for mechanical drivetrains, but stopped short of that. Mechanical Shimano Deore and SRAM Eagle 90 Transmission builds are available.
The Tallboy still offers clearance for 29″ tires up to 2.5in wide, and the post mounts fit 180mm rotors. The sixth-generation Tallboy gets improved Glovebox in-frame storage and adds an accessory mount to the underside of the top tube.
Tallboy prices are… down?
Given the changes to the Tallboy frame and build specs, it’s impossible to make direct pricing comparisons. Still, it appears pricing for the Tallboy 6 is generally a little lower than the fifth-gen bike.
Tallboy 6 frames are priced at $3,899, down from $3,949 for the gen-five bike with a CC carbon frame. The least expensive Tallboy 6 build, with a Shimano Deore mechanical drivetrain, costs $4,999. That’s less than the 2022 base build, which was priced at $5,299 at launch and had a lower-level fork and the less expensive C carbon frame. (Santa Cruz later introduced a lower, $4,799 MSRP for their base build.)
Pricing for the X0 AXS RSV build is up $50 to $9,299. At the time of publication, pricing for the top-of-the-line XX AXS RSV build was unavailable.
Santa Cruz sister brand Juliana offers a similar bike to the Tallboy known as the Joplin, and it’s unknown if the Juliana Jopin will see similar updates. The women’s-specific brand has been quiet over the past several months with no new posts on the their Instagram page since December 5, 2025 and unanswered questions about the brand’s future on Reddit.
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