A chap in the office, he’s six-foot-four so an easy one to spot, is in the process of building up a Santa Cruz Tallboy. It’s one of the few bikes big enough, an XXL in fact, that he’s come across, helped in no small part by the popularity of the larger wheels.

And we’re helping him build it up. First components for the new project to arrive are these parts from PRO, including the lovely looking new Tharsis carbon bars and seatpost and a chunky little Atherton signature stem.

The Tharsis stuff is pretty new to the PRO range, and we first got a look last year. The range has been designed for the trail rider is seeking light but burly components, and keep weight down with a carbon construction and titanium hardware.

The bars uses T800-1000 uni-directional carbon with the centre section, reassuringly, reinforced with titanium. Good for peace of mind when you’re blatting down the side of a mountain. Choice is limited to 31.8mm and 710mm of width, but that suits us, and the 20mm rise should be more than enough, considering it’s destined for a 29er. Weight, if you’re aksing, is 195g. Looks good too.

Made from T800 uni-directional carbon, the matching seatpost gets a reinforced 10mm offset head unit and keeping matters simple is a single-bolt clamp. Weight is an impressive 175g with a generous 375mm of length, and we’ve plumped for the 30.9mm size.

Finally, for the stem we opted for an Atherton signature item, well to just be a little different really. Plus we think it looks great. Does it go with the Tharsis stem? We’ll find out when we bolt the two together.

The stem is CNC-machined form a block of 7050 aluminium so it’ll provide plenty of confidence in the steering department, considering the 100kg of the rider who’ll be punishing these parts.

Pictured is a 65mm stem with 0 degree rise and 31.8mm clamp size. Weight is a quoted 201g for a 50mm stem, so add a few more grams for the extra 15mm of length.

More on all PRO kit at www.pro-bikegear.com and www.madison.co.uk