The beloved mini-DH bike from Santa Cruz gets to keep its 170mm of balanced VPP trail-flattening travel, flip chip, and 27.5″ earth grippers for 2021. While it may appear as if the only updates to the Nomad came from the brand’s paint department, the bike does receive all of the expected longer, lower, and slacker adjustments to accompany a more progressive suspension platform. The new bike also has varied chain stay lengths across the size run to better balance each front triangle size with its smaller rear partner.
The new Nomad comes in four sizes, deleting the prior XXL offering. In the low position, this 2021 bike has a 0.9° slacker headtube, giving us the impression that the Santa Cruz engineers were fairly happy with the fork angle on the previous version. The seat tube angle moves forward considerably, leaning a full 3.6° farther toward the handlebar on a size medium to accommodate the 11mm longer reach and make this big bike more manageable on the climbs. Those seat tube degrees slacken slightly as the frames grow in size, and chain stays vary across the run by 5mm. Seat tube lengths continue to creep down, with a full 15mm reduction on the medium frame to allow for even more dropper travel.
Nomad frames are designed around a 37mm fork offset and what Santa Cruz says is an “improved leverage curve.” While we haven’t seen the kinematic charts for this new bike, it is coil shock approved, so we can wager a bet that “improved” means that the leverage ratio is more progressive.
Framesets are available with the brand’s CC carbon at $3,399, and the ten complete build options range from $4,499 to $8,699. That’s right, there’s no $10k+ wireless model for this one. All of the carbon frames come with a lifetime warranty and free pivot bearing replacement. Head to the Santa Cruz website for additional details.
