Ive always biased towards shorter travel bikes, and I was coming from a ripmo, looking for something a little more playful. I wanted to see how far modern geo would let me push a bike like this. (I actually just swapped frames and reduced fork travel to learn as much as I could from the comparison)
Bottom line... between the ripmo and my slightly modified tallboy, I still get bigger grins on the tallboy for most of my rides. I do a lot of technical climbing and traversing... I’m in NW Arkansas where we have big hills rather than proper mountains. If I was in BC, Colorado, Pisgah, Moab, etc I’d have stuck with the ripmo.
To cite an example- I took the TB to Moab this year. It was absolutely brilliant on Captain Ahab. On the whole enchilada, it got pretty tiresome on areas like the porcupine double track. Sustained high-speed descents with lots of square hits are where it falls short (but sill lets you stay in control)
I chose the bike that best fits my riding 90% of the time- and as the review states, the tallboy is a great ‘one’ bike option. Especially when you factor in the versatility of how well it rides in a 129/140 configuration.
Feb. 22, 2021, 10:11 a.m. - Vincent Edwards
Ive always biased towards shorter travel bikes, and I was coming from a ripmo, looking for something a little more playful. I wanted to see how far modern geo would let me push a bike like this. (I actually just swapped frames and reduced fork travel to learn as much as I could from the comparison) Bottom line... between the ripmo and my slightly modified tallboy, I still get bigger grins on the tallboy for most of my rides. I do a lot of technical climbing and traversing... I’m in NW Arkansas where we have big hills rather than proper mountains. If I was in BC, Colorado, Pisgah, Moab, etc I’d have stuck with the ripmo. To cite an example- I took the TB to Moab this year. It was absolutely brilliant on Captain Ahab. On the whole enchilada, it got pretty tiresome on areas like the porcupine double track. Sustained high-speed descents with lots of square hits are where it falls short (but sill lets you stay in control) I chose the bike that best fits my riding 90% of the time- and as the review states, the tallboy is a great ‘one’ bike option. Especially when you factor in the versatility of how well it rides in a 129/140 configuration.