Always a perennial favorite for all-around trail domination, Santa Cruz's Tallboy Carbon 29 S Complete Mountain Bike can happily toe the start line at a mid-week cross country race with its sporty 110/120mm travel, and once the weekend comes around, it's happy to do some backwoods trail exploring over rugged terrain. Big wheels and short travel are certainly a recipe that's been popular on bikes lately, and when paired with the Tallboy's refined geometry, it really shines on the climbs, when pedaling along ridgelines and descending precipitous and aggressive terrain. What always continues to impress us is just how capable it is descending, given its responsive handling and ability to accelerate out of corners and make quick work of steep climbs and long fire roads where pedaling efficiency is prized. There's no doubt that the local trail networks around Santa Cruz's HQ inspired the travel and geo numbers and it's amazing how well that translates to ride feel on such a wide variety of trails around the globe. First off, the 68-degree head tube angle hits a pretty good sweet spot on a 29er and inspires confidence on the descents without being so slack that it feels lazy for a large portion of the rest of your riding. Out back, 4. 3in of VPP travel allows you to pedal along with efficiency while soaking up trail chatter letting you ride for faster and longer with more comfort. The big wheels simply roll over trail furniture better than smaller wheels allowing you to carry more speed and momentum by reducing the angle of attack through rock gardens, braking bumps, and root lattices. Up front, a FOX Float 34 Performance 120mm fork again hits that sweet spot between smoothing out big hits and drops without being a bob-fest, pogo stick for the majority of the ride. One thing worth mentioning about the 2019 Tallboy, is Santa Cruz isn't offering a plus build kit anymore and instead offering up that ability on the new Bronson and 5010. Not a huge deal since our favorite ...