santa cruz nomad carbon

santa cruz nomad carbon
first ride
Giant Talon 0
Battle
Cruzer
2011 special
santa cruz
nomad
carbon £2499
It’s an eyewatering price for
frame and shock only,
so does the carbon
Nomad justify the
money with its
performance?
scott scale
899 £7999
It’s the lightest
mountain bike you
can buy and is aimed
firmly at racers, but
can this carbon
thoroughbred cut it
on the trail in
terms of fun and
comfort too?
After a carbon conversion, can the slimmed
down Nomad still go it alone on the trail and
take the big hits like its predecessor?
Astronomic price
aside, this is the
best carbon fibre
hardtail you can
buy — bar none.”
Words: Guy Kesteven Photos: Russell Burton
lapierre
x-control
310L £1850
Does the shorter
travel cross-country
little sister of the
Zesty and Spicy trail
bikes live up to
Lapierre’s
excellent
reputation?
revolution
triad ds
£999
A no-nonsense own
brand offering from
a UK bike shop. Will
it prove to be
inspirational or
merely
dependable?
santa cruz nomad carbon
T
he Nomad was one of the
first true do-anything
all-rounders and it’s still
among the best around. Now
the continuing Santa Cruz
carbon fibre revolution has taken the
Nomad’s performance to a whole new
level for those who can afford it.
The facts
The carbonisation of the Nomad comes
after Santa Cruz’s work on the Blur XC,
Blur LT and Tallboy frames. As such, it
uses the same hand-formed single-piece
front end and two-piece seam-wrapped
rear swingarm construction. It’s
certainly not the cheapest way to make
14 September
bikes, but it does mean the builders can
get right inside the mould for maximum
carbon piece lay-up accuracy and
compaction. The latter is handy because
more pressure means less weak bonding
resin is used, and the overall result of
the process is a stronger, more
consistent build quality.
The deep flowing lines include a
massive 6.5in-deep front end section
behind the untapered, 180mm travel
fork-compatible 1.5in head tube, and a
top tube that’s 3in deep at the rockerlink pivot. Curved webs at the front of
the rear subframe and another web
ahead of the drop-outs reinforce
potential weak points. Meanwhile, the
top swing link is a deep full carbon
knuckle. The result is a frame that’s just
over a pound lighter than the alloy
version, weighing 6.1lb (2.8kg) for a
medium, but 15-30% stiffer, depending
how and where you measure it.
If you’re afraid of going hard on a
carbon bike, fear not here – the thicker
walled down tube face and chainstays
include aramid (Kevlar) fibres for
increased impact resistance. Not only
that, but the armoured sections on the
chainstay and down tube belly are
replaceable, while an alloy lower link
grants better rock resistance and
confined space strength as well.
As head designer Joe Graney says,
September 15
santa cruz nomad carbon
The Nomad Carbon
shares the same proven
geometry as its alloy ally
tester says...
I struggle to find the
sense in many carbon
versions of big trail bikes.
They aren’t much lighter
or stiffer and are vastly
more costly. Yet the Nomad
Carbon is not only light enough to
make the cost worthwhile but also
so stiff it puts already benchmark
performance into a new league
for riders who are good enough to
make the most of it. Guy
the designer says...
We quiz design chief Joe
Graney about the Nomad
Why buy the carbon Nomad
compared to the alloy one?
It’s a pound lighter and
there’s a noticeable stiffness
increase, which makes the bike track and handle
better. The material also dampens small
vibrations, which increases control and comfort.
Just what can I expect the frame to survive? Is it
Whistler, Alps, or short course downhill-proof?
It’s actually more capable of full-blown DH now,
while losing weight makes it easier to climb. Using
angle-adjusting headsets and a big fork, you can
slack it out to handle major steepness. We have
the most painstaking manufacturing process and
unbelievable amounts of dedicated tooling
involved to make these frames.
Why didn’t you use a modular drop-out system
or a thru-axle on the rear?
Modular drop-outs can cause creaking and
alignment problems, add weight and cost and we
were unable to quantify any performance
advantage in our labs. We tested prototypes with
different thru-axle systems, and didn’t find a
stiffness increase that would justify having to buy
new wheels. The Nomad is the stiffest frame using
a quick release axle we’ve ever tested.
at a glance
Price £2499 (frame and
shock)
Top tube length 23.8in
Chainstays and down
tube are Kevlar
reinforced for
impact resistance
Are alloy bikes now the second-rate option?
Aluminium Nomads offer the same suspension,
geometry and can be built with the same kit and
fork options, at a considerably lower price.
Big hills and big rocks
are where the new
Nomad really shines
Seat tube length
18.5in
Head angle 67°
“This frame is very, very strong. It was
the Nomad Carbon that convinced us we
can make a carbon V10 frame that
would laugh at the World Cup courses.”
For full versatility, the carbon frame
gets serviceable collet bearings, ultra
light titanium fixtures, big tyre
clearance, ISCG chainguide tabs and
slotted guides for a remote control
droppable seat post.
The potential of this frame does place
a massive amount of pressure on the
componentry, though. For a start, we’d
bin the thin-walled Kenda tyres,
because they’re likely to pop before
you’ve even pushed the suspension
through to full travel. Accurate
suspension tuning is vital too – unless
you really know your onions, get
someone who does to sort out the
various adjustments of the DHX shock.
The Nomad certainly wants a wider set
of bars than the cross-country (XC)
width Easton bars too, which normally
feel fine but seem seriously weedy here.
The feel
That last detail alone is a big clue as to
how the Nomad Carbon feels. It’s stiff.
Immediately, obviously, dramatically,
‘noticeable as soon as you put your
hands on the bar’ stiff. That last
16 September
Seat angle 71.5°
The 1.5in head tube
will take up to
180mm travel forks
Chainstay length
17.4in
Wheelbase 45in
Bottom bracket
height 14in
Sizes S, M, L (tested), XL
Weight 13.2kg/29.1lb
A carbon fibre
top linkage
saves weight
comment sounds dumb, but it’s not as
daft as it seems. Ride enough bikes and
you can often pick up the inherent
resonance and rigidity of a frame just by
the way it feels with one hand on the
bar. And with the Nomad Carbon, it
feels like you’ve just shaken hands with
a block of granite.
All that compressed carbon and frame
depth creates a chassis that’s so stiff we
had to spend a lot more time than usual
tuning the shocks to feel smooth, rather
than relying on frame flex. While it feels
almost intimidating when you’re just
cruising along flowing trails, that rigidity
comes into its own when you kick in the
power or hit a gradient and raise your
game. Steering accuracy is outstanding
to the point where you have to
Frame Monocoque
carbon, 160mm travel
Summary
Fork RockShox Lyrik
2-Step Air 160mm travel
Shock Fox DHX 5.0 air
160mm travel
Wheels DT EX500
Tyres Kenda Nevegal
DTC 2.35in
Cranks Truvativ Noir
carbon triple chainset
42/32/22
Gears SRAM X0 shifters,
XT/X0 front/rear mech
Brakes Avid Elixir CR
with 185/160mm front/
rear rotors
Other stuff Easton
MonkeyLite XC 685mm low
riser bar, Thomson 70mm
stem, KS900 dropper seat
post, WTB saddle
Contact www.
santacruzbikes.co.uk
It’s still a big hunk of a bike once it’s
fully built, but there’s no sense the extra
suspension is losing you accuracy or
ground speed. In short, you can rip the
Nomad Carbon across country like a
much lighter bike. Attacking climbs and
contesting summit sprints are its default
setting, unlike the attitude of some
bigger bikes.
deliberately steer slightly wide of apexes
and start corners fractionally late until
your reactions recalibrate.
Counter-intuitively, the sharpness
and trail vibration also decrease the
faster and harder you go, because the
carbon lay-up sucks out the sting that
alloy bikes tend to amplify. The harder
you push the bike, the more it justifies
its increased cost too.
Thanks to the stiffness, the big Lyrik
fork is also totally integrated into the
ride, feeling more like RockShox’
Revelation than the proper big forks that
normally dominate heavy-set trail bikes.
There’s no sense that the tail, or rather
nose, is wagging the dog either and the
carbon hindquarters are equally rigid
and responsive. Carved lines are
clinically sharp and the power snaps
down dramatically as the Virtual Pivot
Point (VPP) linkages dig in under torque.
The VPP action is accentuated too,
which is either a good or bad thing,
depending on taste. It’s great if you like
suspension that sucks up square edges
spectacularly, stiffens when you stamp
on the pedals and don’t mind some
kickback if you keep the power on across
rocky or rutted sections. It’s not so hot if
you want a more neutral ride that rolls
along passively whatever you’re doing.
Either way, there’s no arguing that
the increased rear end stiffness and the
pound less of frame weight make a
significant difference to acceleration,
ease of altitude gain and overall agility.
We spent nearly all our time on the
Nomad Carbon mashing the pedals and
muscling the bars as hard as possible
through the singletrack. Not only did
bracing ourselves against the stiffness
feel great, but we found that keeping
pole position was vital. Otherwise, you’ll
be on the brakes trying to avoid riders
ricocheting around on lesser bikes,
rather than having the space to rip
through turns in a roar of scrabbling
rubber and blast through boulder fields
like they’re a gravel drive.
★★★★★
“An outstandingly stiff and capable
big-hit, all-day bike worth the price
for riders good enough to exploit it.”
the contenders
Trek Remedy 9.9
£5000
It looks similar in travel and
purpose on paper, but the
lighter, shorter forked and
steeper angled carbon
Remedy is much more a
cross-country bike in terms
of character and capability.
Contact www.trekbikes.com/
uk/en
Specialized Enduro
S Works £5000
The lightest 160mm travel
bike you can buy, with
superbly sorted geometry
and impressive frame
stiffness. The spiky,
uncontrolled Specialized
Future Shock fork is a real
letdown though.
Contact www.specialized.com
Scott Ransom 10
£4600
The original big travel carbon
bike, the Scott Ransom is just
about to be replaced by the
new Genius LT, but it set the
standard for all-day rideable
yet Alp-proof bikes and it’s
still impressive today.
Contact www.scott-sports.
com
September 17