A Large Tall Tale Steel Trail Bike for Chris

The Tall Tale is our trail bike. A bike designed for singletrack exploration or wherever your adventures might take you when you need a bike designed around a 140mm travel suspension fork. For me, the design of the Tall Tale came to be exploring backcountry singletracks in Montana where I lived for many years. Those long rides involved a lot of slogging up doubletrack for hours and hours, perhaps some tight and climby singletrack in between, until we reached the top where you blast down fun, steep, and loose stuff.

While I would ride full suspension bikes often, I found the hardtail really fun for its simplicity, ease of maintenance, and direct connection to the trail. There is something so fun about having to pick the right line — or even better, bunny hop right over it — that a hardtail encourages. The Tall Tale's thoughtful blend of flexy yet really strong tubing makes it soak up just enough chatter to take the edge off. Paired with clearance for a big ol' 2.8" tire, you can have such a capable bike that is just plain fun and simple.

This Tall Tale is for Chris and it is sticking around the Bay, where it should feel right at home on the super fun trails around here.

Chris went with the Eagle 90 groupset, our mechanical shifting offering. It uses the SRAM "Full Mount" which bolts directly to the Tall Tale frame thanks to the cast 4130 UDH Dropout. A cast dropout is the strongest and conveniently also the most economical option which is why we use cast parts and never 3D printed. The chainstay yoke is also cast and heat treated meaning we can make it lighter while maintaining plenty of strength and flex. The Eagle 90 drivetrain shifts nice and crisp and you never even have to plug it in to charge it — how about that?

The sage color is one that felt risky, but I love how it turned out. Hope Chris has a lot of fun on this thing!

Click here to learn more about the Tall Tale Steel Hardtail MTB

Frame size: Large Rider Height: 5'10" Saddle Height: 780mm