For the 2016 iteration of the Tallboy Carbon R Complete Mountain Bike, Santa Cruz is playing it relatively safe. No radical redesign, no attempt to create any new suspension or bottom bracket standards, no claim of a new genre of off-road bike -- just the classic, soundly vetted Tallboy setup. Everything from the BSA threaded bottom bracket to the geometry and Virtual Pivot Point (VPP) suspension are the classic, proven design that -- with the exception of a few occasional tweaks between model years -- have remained the same since 2009, when the Tallboy first rolled onto the scene and forever deflated the myth of the clunky 29er. The few alterations we allude to above are welcome ones, made with an eye toward saving weight, improving stiffness, and producing a more linear feel to the VPP travel. Suspension aside for now, the gains in weight and stiffness are owed to Santa Cruz's ever-evolving Carbon C frame construction. Carbon C features a lower modulus of carbon than the more expensive Carbon CC build, so it requires more material to hit the same stiffness that Santa Cruz requires from all of its bikes. More material means more weight, to the tune of a claimed 280g. Still, that's a small sacrifice to make when pennies are counted against grams, and the overall efficiency of the frame remains the same as the (much) more expensive Carbon CC model. The frame's two carbon triangles are built as whole pieces rather than glued together from disparate bits. This saves weight and increases structural integrity by allowing Santa Cruz to wrap carbon continuously through and around key junctures, eliminating the artificial stress points that result from bonded construction methods while saving weight by requiring less material. Finally, the carbon is also compacted from the inside and the outside for a more even finish that avoids any structural defects, excess material build-up, and resin pooling for -- you guessed it -- even more weight savings. Over the years, the Tallbo.
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