Santa Cruz Nomad

This test is a slightly non-standard one for Mountain Biking Australia. I have been riding the Santa Cruz Nomad on and off for about a year, rather than an intensive period of testing over a few weeks.

The difference is due to the source of the bike. I have been coaching Brent Miller, professional mountain bike racer, for several seasons now and the bike was provided to him by former team WTB - Fox Shox - Santa Cruz (which explains the parts selection on it). Brent lent the bike to me to play with, and John (the editor) thought it was the perfect opportunity to turn my recreation activities into a bike review.

The Nomad by most accounts is a pretty hardcore design. With nearly seven inches of travel (165 mm), it exceeds the travel of downhill bikes from only a few years ago. Yet with the virtual pivot linkage in the rear end (the Outland developed ‘VPP’ design which is now used by Intense and Santa Cruz ), it pedals very well. Within the context of the Santa Cruz range, it is indeed a trail bike.

As far as we are concerned, the all-mountain or trail bike category falls between the freeride and cross country styles. By definition a trail bike is neither adverse to riding up a long switchback-laden ascent nor to having a decent crack at the club downhill track.

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I think that full day epic journeys are also part of the trail bike ethos, ones that begin in one valley and end several hours later three valleys away. While bike designs continue to get more specific to a single purpose, the trail bike retains the full utility of the first mountain bikes where one bike did it all.

Normally this bike is sold as a bare frame, and the customer puts the full specification of parts on it to suit their taste and budget. So I will not comment too much on the parts, but it is worth mentioning what was on board in case it affected my experiences. The test bike had a SRAM X-9 drivetrain, Hayes El Camino discs, WTB bar, stem, post, seat, wheels and tyres and a Fox 36 TALAS RLC fork.

The Nomad frame comes standard with the 5th Element shock. Upgrade options include the Fox DHX coil sprung and the DHX air sprung rear shocks, the test bike was equipped with the latter.

Fudge Factor

For me, a guy who enjoys riding a mountain bike whenever possible but is not the most skilled technical rider, the Nomad has proven to compensate for a multitude of sins in my riding. On my old 110mm travel dually, I cannot keep up with ‘real’ mountain bikers on singletrack. On the Nomad, much of the time I can. Even though it weighs about 14kg I would consider using it for cross-country racing if I decided to return to competition again, because I feel so capable riding it.

It climbs, it corners and it descends—I found the handling very interesting and rewarding. With slack downhill oriented frame angles, I expected it to be difficult to negotiate technical terrain. To some extent this was the case. With the fork in the 160mm travel position, the bike was hard work ascending the climbs on Mt Stromlo singletrack.

Once I dropped the travel down to the 100mm position, climbing was no problem at all. Coming back down, the long wheel travel and frame geometry worked together to make the rider the limiting factor in the equation.

It is worth noting that the first time I rode the bike it had a 2006 Fox fork on it. The travel adjuster required multiple clicks to go from full travel to minimum travel with each click providing a couple of millimetres less travel. The bike now has a 2007 model Fox fork on it, which is virtually identical to ride but there are only two clicks and a quater of a turn between full and minimum travel.

This made a huge difference in being able to adjust the travel while riding. A quick flick of the adjuster cap through 90 degrees and the fork swapped between the two extremes, which meant I could use it all the time and benefit from the resulting handling changes.

I found it difficult to balance the fork/shock settings. I blame this partly on the multitude of adjustments possible (rebound, low and high speed compression and air pressure on the forks while the rear shock has rebound, pro-pedal, bottom-out, boost valve and main air pressure), and the fact that all of my experience in setting up suspension is for other people.

I really have to work on setting up my own properly. I found the 2007 fork was very sensitive to air pressure and I never seemed to get it spot on, it was always too firm or too soft compared to the rear (which I mostly left alone).

This is a good place to evangelise about a shock pump. If you own a bike like this Santa Cruz , you must have a good shock pump. I do not. Half my problems are probably due to minor differences in the gauge on the different pumps that I borrowed. That is, 80psi on one pump probably registers as 70psi with the next.

When I first saw photos of the Nomad from Interbike 2005, I fell in love with the look of the frame. To me, it just looks ‘right’. I particularly like the top tube which is not a tube at all, but a pair of formed pieces welded together down the midline. That first Nomad was a polished example, a look I really liked.

My test frame is anodised in dark grey. Not quite as desirable visually, but much more practical and durable. Over the months I have had the bike in my garage, I have grown to appreciate the easy cleaning and scratch-resistance while the dull sheen of the anodising has grown on me too (the example pictured has a powder coated ‘slate’ finish).

Big Dollar Commitment

The ultimate test of the Nomad ‘lust-factor’ came late last year, when Brent offered to obtain one for me directly from Santa Cruz at a significantly reduced retail price. I knew I loved this bike, and that I would never get another chance to purchase one so cheaply.

Still I passed on the opportunity because this is a seriously expensive bicycle—even with a big discount I would have been facing a very large price tag. Even in the most basic format you are looking at $3,390 for the frame and the complete bike as tested is upwards of $8,000.

If I were the sort of person who spent every day on the dirt, it could have been a worthwhile expense. I spend too much time on the road bike to justify having this bike in my quiver. There are diminishing returns on bike purchases and this one simply exceeded my cost to benefit ratio—it was literally too much bike for me.

I wanted to get in several extra rides before I wrote this article so the bike would be fresh in my mind. By the end I was sorry that I did not own one. It really is a superlative piece of equipment. If the opportunity to purchase one still stood, I would probably find it much more difficult to say ‘no’.

The Nomad, as a high-end jack of all trades type bike, suits a few different types of people. First is someone who wants the best trail bike money can buy; they would have to look hard to find one better than the Santa Cruz. It is brilliant.

Second is someone who sees themselves looking for the ‘extreme’ way off the hill, but still has to ride up to the top first. They should love the Nomad for its high speed abilities. Finally, a ‘gear-head’ who wants the latest and greatest and can see the benefit in a fully-adjustable, moderate weight, long travel trail bike for adventurous riding. If one of these fits your description, you would certainly appreciate a Nomad in your life.

Thumbs Up
Suspension behaviour
Great look
Well made

Thumbs Down
Big price
Engineer required to set-up the suspension properly

Specifications
Frame Hydroformed Aluminium/VPP linkage
Shock Fox DHX Air
Fork Fox 36 TALAS RC2
Head Set Cane Creek
Stem WTB
Handlebars WTB
Shifters SRAM X-9
F Derailleur SRAM X-9
R Derailleur SRAM X-9
Cassette SRAM
Chain SRAM
Crank Truvativ Stylo External Bearing
Bottom Bracket Truvativ GXP
Pedal N/A
Brakes Hayes El Camino
Wheelset WTB
Tyres WTB
Saddle WTB
Seat Post WTB
Weight 13.9kg (large size frame 3,286g)
Price $8,500 as tested (Anodised frame with DHX Air shock $3,900. Standard powder coated frame $3,390.)