SANTA CRUZ NOMAD C GX AXS COIL RSV MX

With MX wheels and a new sense of purpose, the latest Nomad strikes out on a different path

£8,999 • 29/27.5in • santacruzbicycles.com

Work smarter not harder, so the saying goes. And while the midnight oil must have been well and truly blazing at Santa Cruz HQ this year, the brand has succeeded in redesigning five of its most popular models in just a few months by being shrewd as well as productive. Those new models are the Megatower, Hightower, 5010, Tallboy and the Nomad being tested here.

The clever use of templates helped to speed up development and achieve such a hugely ambitious task. For example, the frames have all received the same package of visual enhancements. From the slab-sided head tube to the kinked down tube and creased shock tunnel, there’s a formatted design language that ties all the models together.

Details like the frame protection, mudguard, flip-chip at the rear shock mount and the new Glovebox internal storage compartment are standardised to save time and money.

But the Nomad is craftier still, because it’s actually only half a new bike. The front triangle is transplanted from the Megatower, saving on engineering time and reducing costs. And the reason Santa Cruz has been able to share such a major component is because the Nomad now runs a 29in wheel up front, rather than 27.5in fore and aft.

Not before time either. When the previous-generation Nomad was released just over 18 months ago, I was surprised – shocked even – that it hadn’t been given an MX makeover. Leaving it as a pure 27.5in bike, when everything was moving towards 29in wheels and mullet bikes were starting to appear, seemed either brave or foolish. At the time I said “my biggest concern with the Nomad is that it has ended up lost in the wilderness”. With version 6, however, the Nomad feels like it’s found its way again.

Since the Nomad’s slate has been wiped clean, it’s probably more useful to compare the new version against the Megatower rather than its predecessor. Like the old Nomad, the new one boasts 170mm travel front and rear. That’s 5mm more at the back than the Megatower, achieved through a longerstroke shock (65mm Vs 62.5mm).

Both bikes get identical head angles (63.5° in the low setting), reach numbers are also the same at 430, 455, 475, 495 and 520mm across the five frame sizes, and the short seat tubes (again, shared between models) keep the standover super low and let you run a long dropper to get a decent pedalling position. However, running a tape measure and angle finder over my sample bike revealed it had a slacker head angle than claimed (63° in the low position), much lower BB (337mm against 343mm claimed) and shorter reach at 467mm for the size Large.