Hot News: Santa Cruz releases 27.5-inch Nomad Carbon
Third-generation long-travel bike gets slacker geo and bigger wheels
Photo © Santa Cruz Bicycles
It may be April 1, but this is no fool’s joke—Santa Cruz has released a 27.5-inch wheel version of their vaunted Nomad Carbon all-mountain sled today. The new bike not only sports bigger wheels, but more rear travel—165mm—up 5mm from the 26-inch model it replaces. The bike also gets slacked-out with a 65-degree head tube angle that pushes it into mini-DH territory, or as Santa Cruz puts it, “delivers V10 handling at Syndicate speeds.”
Photo © Gary Perkin/Santa Cruz Bicycles
Available in a stunning aqua/magenta or a muted gloss-on-matte all-black finish, the third-generation Nomad features a reconfigured the lower Virtual Pivot Point (VPP) suspension linkage, a V10-style upper link and is 1x-exclusive—a combination of factors designed to keep the chain stays as short as possible, in this case 17.1-inches.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Video: Worth a million words: Santa Cruz brought the Nomad to life with this video shot in Chile.The frame is designed for 160-180mm travel forks and is available frame-only with RockShox’s new Monarch Plus Debonair shock for $2,999, or with a Vivid Air RC2 shock for $3,250. Complete bikes start at $6,599 with a SRAM X01 build and go to $7,999 for SRAM XX1. ENVE’s new M70 carbon all mountain rims are available as an option and make their debut on the pimped-out version of the Nomad.
This comparison of the new 27.5 Nomad (black) with its second-generation 26-inch predecessor shows the new bike to have a much slacker head tube angle and an improved placement of it’s lower VPP linkage.
Other details include semi-internal cable routing via molded carbon tube, molded rubber swingarm and downtube protectors, water bottle mounts, a threaded bottom bracket, 142mm rear thru-axle spacing, and ISCG-05 guide tabs.
The new ‘Mad is the latest in the company’s sweeping move to the mid-wheel size that saw the release of the Bronson, 5010 and Heckler as well as models under the company’s sister brand Juliana over the last year.
Photo © Santa Cruz Bicycles
Continue to Page 2 for more on the Santa Cruz Nomad Carbon 27.5 and full photo gallery »
The post Hot News: Santa Cruz releases 27.5-inch Nomad Carbon appeared first on Mountain Bike Review.