Santa Cruz Tallboy 6 2026 – Santa Cruz makes a Bird
This week sees the release of the Santa Cruz Tallboy 6 and it brings big changes.
I am joking about them making a Bird by the way, although considering my Bird Aether 9 uses a four bar suspension system and features the same 130mm of rear travel with a 140mm fork I can’t help making the comparison.
But why’s he banging on about four bar stuff? I hear you ask.
Well for 20 years, Santa Cruz bikes have been largely equipped with Virtual Pivot Point (VPP) suspension. Yes, I know recent e-bikes and some few models have used four bar set ups but its a rare thing for Santa Cruz. The company is basically synonymous with VPP suspension.
In many ways, Santa Cruz are also synonymous with us, or at least Lloyd.
Quite apart from the brand being jokingly referred to as the Mondeo of the bike world in the Surrey Hills, Lloyd has for many years operated the Lloyd Laundromat for Santa Cruz bikes. Many riders in the Moles diaspora sport his old cast offs.
One bike he has not cast off is his Santa Cruz Tallboy 3 and it’s not hard to see why. Its one of the best bikes I’ve ridden that’s for sure, helped in no small part by a decent shock and the VPP suspension. So when Santa Cruz decide to step away from VPP, you’d hope the result will be good.
So is using a four bar system good enough? The proof will be in the pudding but the reasons Santa Cruz give are intriguing. Two of the main reasons include lighter weight (I read: cheaper to make) and a longer dropper post (I read: ticking a spec box). Given parent company QBP have had troubles over recent years, I wonder if cost cutting is the primary driver.
Personally, I’ve run a four bar set up on the Bird for nearly five years.
The Bird Aether has proved to be a good bike held back only from me speccing the cheapest shock possible. With 130mm rear travel and 140mm front, it is also the same concept as the new Tallboy 6. The key geometry figures are not miles apart either but with slightly shorter numbers where it matters – reach, chainstay and wheelbase – I’d expect the Tallboy would be a little more direct.
Those numbers aside, the Tallboy differs much in the details. A carbon only frame, a trunnion mounted shock that’s positioned low in the frame, a lifetime bearing warranty are all different to my Bird.
Overall, it is quite a big change for the Tallboy – longer travel and a different suspension system. Lloyd’s Tallboy 3 is ‘only’ 110mm of travel and is impressively capable. Given the retail price of the new model (a frame only is £3299 and complete builds range from £5299 to £8299) the Tallboy 6 needs to be incredibly good in order to suceed in a market increasingly dominated by e-bikes.
I can see Lloyd sticking with his Tallboy 3 for a while yet.
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☕Buy Matt a coffeeThere are 6 replies to Matt so far
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May 21, 2026 at 1:02 pm
Lloyd says:
I may well take it out for a demo day just to do a comparison. But with the LT Hightower it would be too close so it would have to replace both tall boy and Hightower – so would need to be exceptional
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May 21, 2026 at 1:12 pm
Elliot says:
Without VPP I don’t really see any reason to buy a Santa Cruz. Plenty of brands with good warranty policies now. Specialized, Whyte and others give out free pivot bearings. That’s always been a strange one, because bearings are cheap compared to the tools or labour, which isn’t covered. Probably a nice bike, but without actually riding one there’s nothing to make the Tallboy stand out from a sea of similar bikes. Even their brand cache has evaporated since Santa Cruz were bought by the same Dutch conglomerate as GT (RIP), Cannondale and Focus.
Moving away from VPP just exchanges one set of compromises for another. My Hightower and Primer were the best pedalling bikes I’ve had. As trail bikes they actually pedalled better than any of the XC bikes I’ve owned. The new Tallboy will be different, but not better. Sure it might pedal more smoothly over rocks and roots, but will have also lost its ‘get up and go’ and started bobbing around. The new Intense Spider is much more appealing. Just a shame it’s not sold in europe.
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May 21, 2026 at 7:51 pm
Matt says:
I completely agree. It’s not that four bar is bad, just that VPP was a real differentiator. I feel its cost driven, not technically driven (I assume cost to build, cost to license if not their own design).
And 130/140mm travel is getting quite a distance from its original intentions
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May 21, 2026 at 11:05 pm
Elliot says:
I think the patent expired quite a while ago, so no licensing costs now. Probably about the time Intense started calling it JS Tuned rather than VPP.
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May 24, 2026 at 12:56 pm
Tony says:
4 bar has become an industry standard. Always seemed like a good system to me. Will Matt be telling everyone he has Santa Cruz Bird?
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May 26, 2026 at 1:33 pm
Matt says:
Santa Cruz Bird – haha!
Yes, I think I will use that 🙂 4 Bar is definitely very common but I’ve always felt SC are leaders not followers.
Weird that last year the Tallboy 5 was a great bike and now, according to SC, its not! Although Lloyd had already pointed out it was ‘too much’ when he tried it back to back with his Tallboy 3…
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