Santa Cruz Nomad: One Bike to Rule Them All?

WHAT: Santa Cruz Nomad HOW MUCH: $1,799 (anodized, frame and shock only) WHERE: www.santacruzbicycles.com

Santa Cruz has managed to tweak its VPP suspension design into some diverse packages of late—from shaved-down cross-country race bikes to 10-inch-travel downhill rigs—so it’s not too much of a surprise to see more and more virtual pivot applications coming from the kids on the West Coast.

This latest offering, the Nomad, threatens to make redundant several other Santa Cruz models, in addition to challenging what our preconceived notions of “all-mountain” really means. It’s a 6.5-inch travel, 6069 aluminum-framed, medium-wheelbase (for lack of a more defining term–43.6 inches on our medium test bike), triple-chainring, do-it-all bike that can be built as either a full-on DH/freeride drop monster, or can be pared down to well under 30 pounds and still offer over 6-inches of bouncy fun at either wheel (frame and shock weigh in at 7.25 pounds).

The Nomad is the mad spawn of a Blur and a VP-Free, with a dose of Heckler handling thrown in. Being somewhat of a pussy who likes to keep my wheels closer to the ground than most, I built it up as pictured: Fox Vanilla 36RC2 fork, equally beefy WTB Dual Duty wheelset, and lightweight XC weenie parts for the rest. All done, even with the big fork and wheels, it weighed 32 pounds. Not too shabby for any 6-plus-inch-travel bike.

The ride is curious. The bike wheelies beautifully, is incredibly stable at speed, but still offers enough balance and is just steep and tight enough (68-degree head angle, 71-degree seat, 43.5-inch wheelbase) to feel agile carving through twisty singletrack and bending into switchbacks. The chassis is very stiff, and the wheels stay in line with each other admirably. Suspension performance is exceptional.

Take the time to set it up right, and the bike swallows everything from little pebbles and trail corduroy, through fist-sized rocks, on up to badly misjudged jump faces and straight drops onto flat ground without any complaints. Being a pansy, I never really managed to push it to the point where I felt any sort of behavioral shortcoming—it tracks straight, rails well and could make a good rider out of a tree sloth.

At 32 pounds, the Nomad wouldn’t be my first choice for XC racing. And while it’s wonderfully indifferent to ugly pedaling, the Nomad still has a lot of travel, and that can be felt when humping up the Million Switchbacks of Creeping Death. That said, it climbs far, far better than I ever would have expected from a bike with this much Barcalounger comfort, and it has become my new favorite for riding around all day in the high country. The leg-shavers on lighter, shorter bikes still slaughter me going uphill, but hearing my own maniacal laughter on the way down is worth it all.