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Santa Cruz Nomad Review
By 
partickbateman | February 14, 2008
Of all the bikes I was testing, I thought this would be the one I’d most likely end up buying. Having read great reviews and been impressed with a Heckler, I was pretty keen to try it out. So off I set on the demo trail with high expectations. Unfortunately these were dampened fairly quickly when I was faced with a boring but fairly steep fireroad climb. Not to worry though, the propedal and clever VPP linkage will get me up here in but two shakes of a lamb’s tail.
Unfortunately not. Far from it in fact. My regular ride’s a 2006 Kona Coiler, so I’m using to having extra weight to shift up hills, and this felt no different. It wasn’t bad, but then for £3k it wasn’t great either. Hardly the nimble creature I’d read about in the reviews.
Pointing it downhill I had higher expectations, and to it’s credit it swallowed everything with ease.But worst of all, it just felt quite boring. It didn’t encourage the use of any skill to thread lines due to all the travel, but nor did it encourage a balls out, hell for leather approach either. Capable, but somehow sanitised. It took everything in it’s stride with no problems at all, and I never felt out of control, or out of travel - just fun.
Then the down turned back to up, and once again I huffed my way up the hill. Getting to the essentials trail it proved capable once more, clearing the tabletops with ease and holding any crappy line I chose. But then again, it didn’t have that great chuckable feeling either.
So overall: Meh. Commendably capable, but exciting? Nope. The mountain bike equivalent of a David Grey album.
Topics: glentress demo day, mountain biking |
April 5th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Totally agree re: Nomad. We’ve a demo bike in our shop, and it’s one of the most uninspiring bikes I’ve ridden. Appeals to those whose asses are are fat as their wallets.
April 11th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Cheers Craig. Yep, dull and sluggish. One of the guys at work just got a LaPierre Zesty 914 (another bike I tested there) which is supposedly a little less heavy duty, but rides at least 10x better. If you don’t already have them, get some in your shop.