Hey everyone welcome to the channel!
It wasn't long ago when I introduced to you my Tallboy 4 as a frame
and ever since I've been struggling to find parts for it.
But I finally have it built as an actual bike so here is my 2021 LoveMTB custom Tallboy 4!
And I'm gonna start by saying that this turned out better than I thought.
And yes, if you're thinking that the colors are not quite the 2020 colors of this frame you were correct.
This is the Bronson green or olive I think that you are going to find at Slik Graphics
and thank you Slik for doing a great job with both my fork decals and frame decals.
No they're not my sponsors but just in case you were listening to this Slik...wink wink! :)
You can see that original neon yellow here behind my decals and I left them like that
because it gives them like a 3D appearance which I love so
Now that we we're done with the important part, the colors, what about the build?
Well first of all I decided to build this bike exactly the way Santa Cruz intended it.
That is 120 millimeter rear and I modified my fork which is a Pike Ultimate by the way,
and modified this to be a 130mm.
In this way I am having a 65.5 head tube angle and 76.2 seat tube angle.
And this is built around this CC frame which is the lighter frame that they offer today
and I have all the details in the video that I assume you guys have already seen
so I'm not going to bother you with frame details today.
But what I'm going to tell you is that I am using the short setting of the chainstay so that is set up on the 430mm setting
and I mentioned already the flip chip on my shock is set to the low position.
What about the fork? Well the fork I already mentioned, this is a Pike Ultimate 2020.
I modified it with a 2021 DebonAir so I had to open up the fork and change the air spring.
So right now it's using the latest and greatest from RockShox
and as you know this is giving you both high and low speed compression and obviously at the bottom here you're gonna have the rebound.
This is a premium fork and believe me it works like one, I love the new Pikes!
And to finish with the suspension this is a Factory FOX Float that I'm keeping it in the Open position
and if you use the Santa Cruz suggested configuration for your suspension you're going to have a very good starting baseline.
Santa Cruz usually specs these bikes with 2.3 tires, DHF and DHR2.
In my case I went for DHF but this is a 29x2.5
and it fits into the Pike no problem with plenty of room to spare.
As for the rear, instead of DHR 2.3 which is pretty draggy, I actually decided to go with the Dissector 29 x 2.4,
I should have a video about the Dissector on my channel rather soon.
The wheels that I built this with are the DT Swiss M1900
these are 30 millimeter internal and i actually have a video on my channel talking about them.
They are heavy-ish but otherwise quite good,
the only caveat being that they are not using the ratchet hubs but in my experience they're quite good as well.
And now that you know what's touching the ground why don't we take a look at the cockpit, the way I set it up.
And what you see here up front is Nukeproof Horizon, both the stem and the handlebar.
This is a 780mm carbon with 25 millimeter rise
and my seat is actually a Nukeproof of some sort that was rather cheap and I could find easily.
The stem that I chose is not standard for Tallboy 4, they usually come with a 50 millimeter
this is a 35mm STEM with 5 degrees rise.
The reason I picked them one is because this is a Large frame
and gives me a rather long top tube so in order for me to be comfortable pedaling this
I had to reduce that a little bit, 35mm is what they use on the small sizes of this bike.
I can tell you that the bike works very well with the 35mm stem so if you need to make that change don't be afraid to do so.
I use this with a Cane Creek 40 headset, this is usually what I use on all my bikes and they are a great quality for the price.
It is my first time using PNW grips and I can recommend them as being very comfortable and good
and what you're gonna see here is wireless,
both the drivetrain and believe it or not I went for the RS Reverb AXS as well .
And that is paired with Shimano XT 8100 brakes, that is the new version.
For this more aggressive bike I've chosen the 4-piston calipers so these would be the M8120s
and to go along with it that is the XT MT800 disc, 180 front and rear
that's only because that's how this bike is spec'd.
Otherwise remove that spacer and you can put a 160mm rotor in the back no problem.
Same story up front, 4-piston calipers, I have resin pads in here and the same 180 rotors
and I can tell you with this combination I have dynamite braking power,
I didn't run into any situation where I would need more than this.
The wireless controls actually simplify the cable routing on this bike quite a bit
you can see I have the plugs here for the tube-in-tube that will take the derailleur cable all the way back
the dropper cable is internal, obviously in this case I didn't need one
but what I installed here it's a 170 Reverb AXS and I should have a video on my channel soon about this.
All I could say is this is a an unexpectedly good dropper post
but you have to be mindful of the stack height here which is quite tall.
And that brings me to the drivetrain and yes this is the cheaper GX AXS that again you've seen a preview on my channel already
and I did build it as a mixed drivetrain, mixed between SRAM and Shimano
I should have a video soon talking about my experience with this.
This bike uses a threaded bottom bracket, the BB-MT800 so that's the XT level bottom bracket,
this is an SLX crankset, 170 millimeter cranks because the bottom bracket of this bike is rather low
the 32 tooth, this is an OVAL from absoluteBlack and that is paired with
yes, this is an XTR chain, you can see the holow pins over there.
I didn't pick this for the lighter weight but I picked it because it is the chain with the lowest friction in the Shimano lineup today
and is one of the best 12 speed chains in the marketplace.
I've chosen an XT cassette that gives you about Eagle GX weight and good performance
and yes this is the big GX AXS derailleur.
Obviously this is wireless, it has a battery and everything else that you've learned in my video .
I have the cheap M520 Shimano SPD pedals on the bike right now that outlasted all my bikes so far
and I did pick the SLX M7100 cranks because these are about the same weight as the XT M8100
and the Shimano Hollowtech II cranks as you know from my recent video
are about 15 grams heavier than the cheaper SRAM carbon.
So I prefer to have aluminum ,15 grams heavier than going for the more expensive carbon.
These cranks are the M7100 version for 52 millimeter chainline, this bike doesn't require anything else than that.
And if you're wondering about tire clearance, the 2.4 Dissector is all you can fit in here on this position of your flip chip,
so 430 millimeter chainstay, that's all you can hope to fit in the frame.
If you want the 29 x 2.6 that Santa Cruz is advertising, you're definitely gonna have to move this flip chip to the 440 millimeter setting.
By the way, I did replace the axle here, the DT Swiss with the lever that the bike comes with
this is a Burgtec rear axle for Santa Cruz that is a direct replacement for it.
In this configuration, with pedals and bottle cage,
the bike weights 14 kilograms which is about 31 pounds.
That is not light by any means but I don't think this bike was meant to be that light.
It is very stable and on the gnarlier terrain over here I've had PRs all over the place
probably because I can plow through obstacles no problem and because of the heavier bike you can keep your momentum better.
I don't know how summer's been in your neck of the woods but here in Toronto it's been raining quite a bit.
I've had a few opportunities to ride this bike and I will leave my detailed opinions for a separate video
but what I can tell you is - one, it's an okay pedaler two - downhill is a no-brainer
and three - cornering with that 65.5 head angle surprisingly good
So highly recommend trying one if you have the opportunity
or God forbid buy one if you can find it in 2021!
And that's the end of my video guys.
I hope you found this useful, if you have any questions let me know below.
As usual keep an eye on social and if you bump into me in a place like
this don't hesitate to stop, say hi, and we'll have a chat.
Cheers guys!