Available in Turbo Booost Plus2+?
Next generation Nomad?
- Thread starter Trekrules
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- next generation bs
Operation Desert Shitstorm.It's butterscotch puddin color.
If I think about that, I like it.
Or just call it sandworm
Fair point...seeing 170mm travel popping up on a number of new bikes (Pivot Firebird, etc.) just sounds like a big bike after seeing so much innovation in the shorter travel realm lately. Plus I just like talking shit about Santa Cruz sometimes.
Sure the rear travel increased only 5mm and the frame is only .9lbs heavier but it also no longer has a 160 fork option, 170 only. The previous Nomad climbed well enough to be a genuine trail bike and 1 bike quiver for many riders. I think these three changes move the new Nomad into a different catagory. The fact that the last gen was advertised as an enduro weapon and this one as a freeride bike is telling.
Maybe they'll update the Bronson as well?
I think what @jonKranked is trying to say is: people complaining that adding 5 mil to travel while shortening chainstays and retaining head tube angle and making a steeper seat tube angle, while still maintaining a sub-30# build with an improved progression curve dramatically change whether they could possibly ever manage to ride a bike = KILL LIST
I just noticed something
https://www.pinkbike.com/news/santa-cruz-nomad-4--first-ride.html
• Available: June 15
This was made public yesterday, June 1. Sooo......."two weeks"
At least they have a sense of humor.
https://www.pinkbike.com/news/santa-cruz-nomad-4--first-ride.html
• Available: June 15
This was made public yesterday, June 1. Sooo......."two weeks"
At least they have a sense of humor.
...And a lower link driven shock after RM giving Joe Grainey a giant raft of shit for his crayon drawn, upside down unrideabru backwards leverage thing, and now people continue to complain.
I, for one, really like it and can't wait to see the aluminium version. Return of the freeride bikes!!
I, for one, really like it and can't wait to see the aluminium version. Return of the freeride bikes!!
I can't keep up with these overly technical conversations. You got a layman's version?
A lot of the weight is in the shock, the metric shock with bearings in the eyelet weighs more, but feels good. the links got a little heavier too.
This bike climbs better than N3, I'd attribute a lot of it to the more support in mid-stroke so better pedaling position.
True that 170 fork is not a 160 fork, and you prob don't want to down from what its designed around. We stuck the headset in the tube so bar height wouldn't increase, but if you don't like more travel and same stack this might not be for you.
Last generation was released in 2014, and the spirit of #enduro was with bikes like this then, our racers chose it over Bronson to race on that year (except CG, who preferred Tallboy LT). Since then, all of our racers have all moved to 29 for pure speed. Doesn't mean we don't think this is a fun bike though, its fast as fuck - kind of ridiculous fun really. If your trails are smooth, it'll probably make them feel boring and this could be too much bike. If you have moar rox its amazing.
We don't imply its a freeride bike, but most of the media reports so far kind of lean that way because we brought them shuttling for 3 days in Provence area and in Molini, and didn't do a lot of pedaling, so thats the experience many journos got. There were no skinnies, hucks to flat, or train gaps tho.
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I am very excited about this bike! Superb job refining it to the team over at SC. It is a bit funny how similar it has become to the Capra - when compared to a Capra one size up (except the seat tube length), but then again that comparisment was only a lr correction away from being the other way around. I find that the bike looks great, has great geo and great kinematics. Good job indeed. Not to be too positive here or anything
I too was a little put off from all the reviews, they made the bike sound like it was no longer a viable trail bike and that it should relegated to shuttle runs and bike parks only. I'm definitely going to demo one before making up my mind, I love my N3 and it is my ONE bike to do it all. I'm glad Joe posted this really puts things into perspective. I'm not sure why all the reviewers are pigeon holing the bike, it's nice to hear that new Nomad is still a Nomad not the VP Free/Driver 8 replacement the media seems to think it is.
I think there are at least a few truths in MTB. A long travel bike is always going to be more of a chore to ride uphill and on the flats than a lesser one, weighing more, suspension absorbing more inputs and weight shifts (despite any marketing BS), and so on. My RFX pedals wonderful for a 160 AM machine, but anyone who thinks it pedals as well as my 100mm Mach 429SL is on crack, that bike just feels like a rocket comparatively. A lot of us convince ourselves we need a lot more bike than we do, and to a point I think over-biking is good when you want to retain that capability to hit the park a few days and make the most out of the fun downhills, but it's still a balance and going too far in one direction can push you over the top and leave you with something that is just a dog everywhere and all the time or doesn't have enough travel/strength for those park days.
In all fairness, I think the intentions of the Nomad have shifted over the years, in large part due to the success of the Bronson. When I had the original carbon Nomad, it was marketed as their all mountain bike, but was very trail bike-y in practice (didn't play well with coil shocks, LOTS of anti-squat with weird axle path, etc.). With the Nomad 3, SC pushed the envelope a bit and somewhat redefined what we are now calling the enduro bike. Now, they're introducing a version that plays nicely with coil shocks, has a bit more travel, is quite slack, and is by most accounts even burlier than any prior Nomad. All without moving the Bronson anywhere.
From that perspective, it seems like they are pushing the Nomad to take up some space from where the VP Free and Driver 8 left off. As enduro bikes become more common in bike parks, bikes are being asked to be compatible with that sort of abuse. It just so happens that the new Nomad reportedly pedals great, but adopting the same leverage curve as the V10 and pushing burly construction/handling as selling points certainly makes it sound like it moves into that VP Free/D8 realm. That's not to say it cannot be your "one bike", especially with how versatile suspension products are nowadays, but it's not intended to be the "one bike for all" like the Bronson.
I passed this on to the guys at the shop (Avalanche Sports) and they're happy to hear that it'll climb as well as the N3. Rich says when the demo bikes we ordered show up we'll have a "team building" day on them at Keystone. I think we should follow that with an up-and-down of Lenawee Trail to test the climbing abilities.
Up Lenawee? ... ugh. Ill meet you for half that ride.
I got to ride one of these at a local demo yesterday. Believe people when they say it climbs better than any previous nomad. It's plenty light and balanced enough to take the place of whatever you used the last nomad for in the trailbike sense. I think SC did themselves a bit of a disservice not making the presscamp guys climb anything. But it's obvious what they wanted to focus on.
Took it on a long drawn out fubared moto trail so lots of loose gravely climbing and foot out drifting coming down. The one I rode had the air shock deluxe so I was able to set it up pretty well. This is absolutely the trail bike a lot of us have been wishing SC made years ago. I hope the concept trickles down. Like the v10s it's still got a pretty loose feeling top end of the travel but actually has something there when you go to pump something. And it doesn't feel like a big wet marshmallow in turns. I had it at about 30% sag in the high setting, about 32ish in the low and I didn't get full travel. Don't know if some spacers were in there that could be removed. I'd want a coil on there probably if not. This wasn't rowdiest trail around but it was enough that I would have expected to use more into the end stroke.
Those sc wheels/rims are pretty good carbon iterations. Not as rattle trap as enve m70s but still more than a burly aluminum rim. But like everything carbon I've ridden.....awesome in stuffing turns, kinda crappy in a straight line on chop at speed.
Funny how much like my v10 it feels manualing through moto whoops. Me likey this bikey.
Took it on a long drawn out fubared moto trail so lots of loose gravely climbing and foot out drifting coming down. The one I rode had the air shock deluxe so I was able to set it up pretty well. This is absolutely the trail bike a lot of us have been wishing SC made years ago. I hope the concept trickles down. Like the v10s it's still got a pretty loose feeling top end of the travel but actually has something there when you go to pump something. And it doesn't feel like a big wet marshmallow in turns. I had it at about 30% sag in the high setting, about 32ish in the low and I didn't get full travel. Don't know if some spacers were in there that could be removed. I'd want a coil on there probably if not. This wasn't rowdiest trail around but it was enough that I would have expected to use more into the end stroke.
Those sc wheels/rims are pretty good carbon iterations. Not as rattle trap as enve m70s but still more than a burly aluminum rim. But like everything carbon I've ridden.....awesome in stuffing turns, kinda crappy in a straight line on chop at speed.
Funny how much like my v10 it feels manualing through moto whoops. Me likey this bikey.
You mean un-fucking the leverage curve made it better? Well you can bowl me over with a feather. 
In all seriousness, those things do seem like they're the bike that SC should have been making all along. Cool to hear that it's borne out in the real world.
In all seriousness, those things do seem like they're the bike that SC should have been making all along. Cool to hear that it's borne out in the real world.
I still would like to corner someone at sc and ask them why in the world they made/make their trail bikes like that. I know I'd never get a straight answer though.
For someone who's never thrown a leg over a Santa Cruz, how does it compare to your Patrol? More of a Reign type plow bike?
Dentist's tune? Something that probably works really well for someone who doesn't ride it very hard?
It's more similar to the patrol with the updated link than it is the previous nomad. The leverage ratio at the top of the travel of the new nomad keeps it kind of loose like I said. But it's where it should be, at the top and moving through sag, just not surrounding the sag point. And you don't get the wheel hanging up when it catches something on the ground as the travel extends like the old nomad.
You could vary air pressures all over the place on the old nomads and you'd still always feel like you were pretty much ending up in the same place at sag. That's the hammock everyone talks about. What it would mainly do is affect ramp up at the end and how much the wheel caught things at topout. It was really active around sag though. This new one maintains that last bit but without the hangup, and you have a lot more support in the second half of the travel instead of just the very end. It's just a lot more consistent though the travel. They really did make a small travel v-10ish feeling bike out of this thing.
As implemented on the new Nomad, nope.