The Santa Cruz Nomad leaves little to be desired. The Nomad's six inches of travel, tight cockpit, and stable geometry are a dream on descents. When climbing, you feel direct driving contact with the tires. The VPP suspension design of the Santa Cruz Nomad is quite efficient and has a bottomless feel.
- Excellent geometry and handling
- Plush, active suspension
- Great pedaling efficiency
- Plenty of chain slap without guards
- Slight suspension sinking when climbing over ledges
- 6.5" (165mm) rear VPP Travel
- 7.15 lb. frame weight
- Plenty of custom build options as well as some less expensive stock build kits
- Practically unlimited color options
We took the Santa Cruz Nomad along on a couple trips down to Moab, UT. Our Nomad ran the Porcupine Rim no less than three times as well as several other time tested Moab staples. We also took the Santa Cruz Nomad on some big mountain climbs, local DH trails, and the usual cross country cruisers.
Our Santa Cruz Nomad was built up pretty light with a mostly XC/trailbike setup. The bike felt light and nimble, but could still handle the roughest sections with ease. The Santa Cruz Nomad never held us back in the climbs, and it's an inspiring descender.
Although we could see that we regularly bottomed it, the VPP rear suspension of the Santa Cruz Nomad felt bottomless. Big drops were no problem, it had a great plush feel and was always comfortable. Setup wasn't difficult and the pivots held up flawlessly.
Despite a normal bottom bracket height, we hit our pedal and/or spun a little more than we expected on technical climbs with lots of ledges. Not really a big issue but may be related to this particular VPP design.
The Nomad has a nice tight cockpit. This makes for a great technical riding bike and is perfect for jumping as well. The bike feels natural and loves to corner. Riders with long torsos will want to make sure they get a frame that gives them enough room.