Big wheels, light weight, and short travel conspire to create this universally acclaimed trail bike, and on this Santa Cruz Tallboy 29 Carbon S Reserve Complete Mountain Bike it makes some conscious concessions to add performance where it counts and save that hard earned cash elsewhere. Ultimately, it's a unicorn of a ride that can go toe-to-toe with a dye-in-the-wool XC race bike and hang with many full-fledged enduro rigs on those rugged descents deep in the backcountry. Part of it's due to the Tallboy's refined VPP suspension and equal parts dialed geometry allowing you to climb and motor along the flats and ridgelines while offering confidence descending chunky, steep terrain. We hope we never have to pare down our stable, but if we had to keep one bike around that could handle it all better than most, the Tallboy would make the cut for sure. Having ridden the local trail networks around Santa Cruz's HQ, were certain that the terrain helped inspired those travel and geo numbers but we're really amazed how well that translates to a do-it-all rig on almost any trail you'll subject it to. Kicking it all off, the 68-degree head tube angle hits a sweet spot on a 29er of being relaxed enough to inspire 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 lets you pedal along with efficiency while soaking up trail chatter so you can ride faster and for longer with more comfort. The big wheels simply roll over rocks, roots, and bumps better than smaller wheels letting you carry more speed and momentum by reducing the angle of attack the wheels face over trail furniture. Fork duties are handled by a FOX Float 34 Performance at 120mm which once again hits that sweet spot between smoothing out big hits and drops without being a bob-fest, pogo stick for the rest of the ride. New for the 2019 Tallboy, Santa Cruz isn't offering a plus build kit anymore and instead offers that a...