par redplanet » Lun Avr 07, 2014 8:21 am
Rumors of a redesigned Santa Cruz carbon Nomad have been circulating since late last summer. In keeping with tradition the company chose April 1 to unveil its latest model. The new Nomad features 650B (27.5in) wheels, more suspension travel and slacker geometry than its predecessors.
Santa Cruz appears to have gone back to the drawing board to develop a purebred enduro race machine. This is the third iteration of the carbon Nomad and the first Santa Cruz frame to feature (at least partial) internal cable routing through ports on either side of the head tube. The cables are run through carbon tubes molded into the interior frame, so cable changes should be painless. This is a welcome addition, as one of our few gripes with the was the poor cable outing around the bike’s head tube.
In keeping with the enduro-focused design, the Nomad is only compatible with . Designing the Nomad without regard to front derailleur placement allowed the lower link to be much shorter and tucked neatly behind the bottom bracket shell. The new lower link now has a single recessed grease port that services all four bearings. Up top, Nomad uses a shock linkage similar to the one used on the downhill racer.
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Santa Cruz has also increased the frame’s seat tube diameter from 30.9 to 31.6mm to allow the use of the 150mm travel RockShox Reverb dropper seatpost.
In addition to the increase in wheel diameter and aforementioned changes, the new Nomad gets a geometry refresh intended to make it better suited to the rigors of enduro racing.
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Rear suspension travel increases 5mm to 165mm. The 1x-specific frame design allows the chainstay length shrink by 9mm to 433mm. The head angle slackens from 67 degrees to a very gravity-oriented 65 degrees, while the seat tube angle steepens from 71.5 to 74.3 degrees to provide a better stance when climbing. The bottom bracket drops from 14in/356mm to a very carvy 13.4in/340mm. Last but not least, reach increases by an inch across all four frame sizes to provide more high-speed stability.
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Claimed weight for a medium frame with shock is 6.2lb/12.3kg
The Nomad Carbon is available now.
The frame with Monarch Plus shock retails for US$2,999 / £2,799. The Nomad Carbon will also be available as a complete bike with X01 drivetrain and RockShox Pike fork for US$6,599/£5,699, or with a SRAM XX1 drivetrain and Pike fork for US$7,999/£6,199. For US$1,745, customers can upgrade from the stock WTB Frequency wheelset to ENVE’s yet to be released M70 wheelset.
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No word from Santa Cruz on the existence of an aluminum version, or the development of a single-pivot doppelganger with similar geometry and a lower price tag — the has the , and the has the , so there’s certainly precedence for a budged-minded model in the future. (Return of the Bullit, perhaps?)
For more information visit .
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