Hello fellow vital nerds.
I am looking at buying a 2nd bike alongside my enduro bike (v1 dreadnought, built for smashy smashy winch and plummet riding).
I want something that's relatively light (around the 30 lbs mark) and climbs well enough, but equally is capable of rooty and rocky chattery stuff without being completely unsettled. I also want to be able to do long days on fire roads in the hills with the occasional descent, and I am happy to avoid more xc category bikes to sacrifice some light weighting and prioritise descending fun.
My local trails that I can ride to from my house are very varied but tend to be on the steeper/rooty-er/rockier and more intense end of the spectrum. But the catch is you have to ride a long way up to get to them, usually on a fire road, so the enduro bike can be a slog.
For various reasons, like local shop availability and some amazing sale prices etc, I've decided I want either a v5 tallboy or a 5010. The tallboy is the frontrunner as it apparently is the answer to what I've described above, and I'm able to demo one somewhat locally.
The 5010 however is a curve ball for the following reasons:
-it's got a slightly burlier build (I wonder if I got the tallboy if I'd start building it similarly, given the variety of local trails)
-it's mullet. I buzz my arse on 29er rear wheels and absolutely love my mullet dreadnought. I tried it with 29 and the mullet was a clear favourite for me and still makes me grin on right switchbacks.
-on paper it's really similar weight and geometry but seems to slightly favour steeper terrain with the slacker head angle. My local trails are very varied and some of them are pretty steep.
The catch is I can't demo the 5010 as none of my local dealers have stock, so my plan is to demo the tallboy and see if it's limitations bug me or not.
Has anyone ridden both and have a preference? If so, why? Do the kinematics of the tallboy make it climb disproportionately better than the 5010 despite only being a fraction lighter?
Thanks.
As a Tallboy and Nomad V6 owner, I feel the 5010 would be the ideal one-bike solution for me. Realistically, once racing stops being a priority, I could see myself replacing the Nomad with something in that category. The Tallboy excels on climbs and long rides, but on fast, moderately steep, rough trails (especially those packed with roots and rocks) I reach its limits fairly quickly. A lot of times the trail character and the bike’s geometry encourage me to ride at Nomad speeds, yet the 120/130 mm travel gets overwhelmed by sustained chatter and repeated hits (which doesn't mean it's not still very fun, just a different type of fun 😄)
To be clear, I’m running a stock Tallboy build and haven’t tried to make it burlier, mainly because I don’t want it to overlap too much with the Nomad. Still, from the very first ride on the Tallboy, my thought was that the 5010 would be the best bike in the world for me: mullet agility combined with playfulness and lightweight (compared to an enduro bike), but with enough capability to handle rougher terrain without feeling undergunned.
Thanks. Given I've also got a big bike which I'm keeping, as you've pointed out the concern with the 5010 is that there might be too much overlap with the longer travel bike.
Exactly. If I had a 5010 instead of the Tallboy right now, the Nomad would probably just collect dust for most of the time
If it's your only bike > 5010
If you have something burly next to it > Tallboy
Exactly the reason why I have the 5010, perfect do-it-all only bike.
Similar perspective to some of the others but coming at it from a different angle:
I live in a pretty flat area. I'm 5'7" and I have a mullet hardtail because I was concerned about tire-to-ass clearance. I come from bmx where my favorite thing was flowing around skateparks, doing gaps, and tweaking simple tricks. The mtb trails near me are mostly XC trails that I try like hell to turn into enduro trails with additional hits/jumps/gaps/sprinty laps but - at the end of the day - they're all flat-ish loops.
I thought the 5010 would be perfect for me. It probably is the perfect bike for the version of me living where there are different trails with more elevation drop and technical riding.
My trusted local shop, some online dealers I talked to when I was looking for a bike, and also a Santa Cruz rep all suggested - for the trails I'd be riding - that a Tallboy (or a different 29er short travel trail bike) would be the right choice for me. The 5010 was described to me is a short-travel enduro bike rather than a trail bike. It wants to shred and it wants to descend but it'll be more poppy and reactive to input/pumping than a typical enduro bike just on the basis of less travel and the kinematic tweak to accomodate that. 5010 will do pedal days and traverses and ups/downs but it would be a much better fit for someone with a lot more elevation drop than I have available to me. If the riding is going to be about the ups/downs and traverses, then a bike other than the 5010 was recommended to be the right choice.
After getting my 29er short travel trail bike, I'd agree. I didn't realize what I was giving away/compromising with the mullet on my hardtail. Plus, I adjusted to the 29er thing pretty well and I'm now riding "better" because I'm less over the back. I was a little more bmx-y and over the back when on the mullet hardtail and now I'm more central and mtb-ish with my body position. I'm telling you all this to tell you that a) 5010 is a ripper of a bike that people love for shredding and descending and b) 5010 is maybe not the bike for XC/downcountry riding where the ups and downs are equal.
I can't tell you what to do in your situation, but I can tell you that stuff and maybe that info will help guide you when combined with your intended riding.
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