Santa Cruz Tallboy

I am also looking at the Tallboy. Read on the internet that you can also get it with 120mm front suspension - any views on whether that, or the 100mm, would be a better option for Hong Kong?

MKS (made in Japan) quick-release pedals get good comment from local riders.

Dont have a clue about Santa Cruz Tallboy and 29er...all of the MTB I've met on the trail are regular 26" wheeler.

An interesting review here, there is a "cheap" version of the tallboy that comes at about 2,300 USD in aluminium, so I think that would be about 2,800 USD in carbon. Opinion?

www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/bikes/mo...minum-spxxc-11-44647

you can find the occasional bike on sale on ebay, but 1) warranty from santa cruz is only to the original buyer, 2) you don't know what you're getting until you receive it!

Any retailers of this bike in HK ?

Examples: (these links will go dead soon)
cgi.ebay.com/Santa-Cruz-Tallboy-Medium-R...&hash=item2566622c77

cgi.ebay.com/Santa-Cruz-Tallboy-Black-Me...&hash=item27bd33c4dd

Well I understand that removable pedals are not really recommended for off the road biking, but my situation is: I must remove the pedals for storage, and I can't be bothered to use tools for that every time, even if I need to replace the pedals once a year that would be fine with me...

I was thinking of getting the MKS Esprit EZY [Superior] pedals, they get good reviews, apparently okay for non-competitve mountain biking ... any comments?

www.calhouncycle.com/productcart/pc/view...ry=22&idproduct=2076

Tallboy is a new model so I doubt there is any 2nd hand right now.

Quick-release pedals are not recommend for offroad.

to clarify,

1. my budget is about 30,000 HKD because that's what my brothers spent on their bikes and as the eldest I couldn't possibly allow them to overspend me, but my previous bike was "only" 10,000HKD, and I'm reading the Santa Cruz Tallboy sells in the 35,000-50,000 range or something! so second-hand is probably my only hope. A couple of Santa Cruz Tallboys are on sale on ebay right now, from the U.S., their owners claim they don't have time to ride and have only used the bike like once... dodgy?

2. any foldable or detachable pedals you'd recommend for off-road riding? I can't seem to find a consensus on those in the forum discussions I've read.

ang wrote:

If you have a limited budget, check out used bikes. The 2nd hand market is quite active in HK. By the way, are you going to get a hardtail or a full sus?

I'm tempted by a FS 29er like the Santa Cruz Tallboy (not sure if medium or large though, my height is 1m79, average leg proportions), at this time, based on some discussions I've read at forums.mtbr.com/ and elsewhere, the only problem would be the price, esp. if my wife finds out... Can you find a bike like that second hand in HK? alibaba points to some resellers based in HK, but is that the way to go? thanks!

You can consider those quick-release pedals if and only if you're a light-weight. Otherwise, stick to regular platform pedal with Cr-Mo spindle.

definitely overweight unfortunately, but what are the Cr-Mo spindles? you don't mean Chronic Recurrent Multifocal Osteomyelitis do you

Edit. Okay, I get it: Cr-Mo is short for Chrome Moly, which is short for an alloy of steel, chromium and molybdenum. Wow.
my source:
answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080725121850AAqnMBj

annoporci wrote:

@ ang, yes I'm very reluctant about the foldable bikes, esp. given my weight and aggressivity off the road (and lack of skill makes it worse), must definitely take the wheel and saddle off, but here's a related question:

how about mounting some easily-removed pedals? so as to take up even less space in storage, any suggestions about that? ( I'm looking at platform pedals because I like to dump the bike in bushes and run up to the top of the mountain once in a while. )

If you have a limited budget, check out used bikes. The 2nd hand market is quite active in HK. By the way, are you going to get a hardtail or a full sus?

You can consider those quick-release pedals if and only if you're a light-weight.

Otherwise, stick to regular platform pedal with Cr-Mo spindle.

@ chirubike, YW-Slayer, thanks for these tips, will follow up in the fall (can't test any bikes right now unfortunately)

@ ang, yes I'm very reluctant about the foldable bikes, esp. given my weight and aggressivity off the road (and lack of skill makes it worse), must definitely take the wheel and saddle off, but here's a related question:

[it's a little off topic, should I start a new thread?]

how about mounting some easily-removed pedals? so as to take up even less space in storage, any suggestions about that? ( I'm looking at platform pedals because I like to dump the bike in bushes and run up to the top of the mountain once in a while. )