First Rides: The Santa Cruz Nomad 7 is Here!

One of the truly iconic bikes of Santa Cruz range, the Nomad was first born way back in 2005. While every aspect of the bike may have been overhauled since, the versions which have followed have all held onto its core identity as one of the most tough and capable bikes out there that’s still as happy to pedal up a hill as blast back down it. Needless to say, the new Nomad 7, while more refined than ever, keeps that philosophy very much alive.

The current Nomad is already a very, very impressive long travel bike. A 170mm travel MX wheel platform with sorted geometry and an exceptional reputation for durability, it has been the benchmark bike in its category for many. That would seem to leave minimal room for improvement at first glance, but Santa Cruz is not a company to just sit back and relax. With the Nomad 6 now four years old, it was time to try and squeeze just a little more performance out of this already excellent bike. 

More a case of careful refinement than drastic overhaul, the new version sees a few key areas re-tuned with the best aspects of the current bike preserved. As with the updates to the Bronson last year, by far the biggest change for this new generation of Nomad is in the adjustments that have been made to the characteristics of the VPP suspension platform. 

The previous Nomad 6 was designed with a relatively high anti-squat ratio, at around 145% at sag. In plain english, that means the suspension design would give a very ‘locked out’ and efficient feel when pedalling up smooth roads at the expense of transmitting more feedback back to the rider over rough ground, and having traction compromised when pedalling over bumps with tension from the chain deliberately limiting the ability of the shock to move. 

The new design sees a very substantial drop in anti-rise to nearer 100% at sag, which should result in a more active and comfortable ride when pedalling or descending through rough ground. For a long travel bike like the Nomad, that seems like a completely justified design choice, where an active suspension design is going to be more important to most riders than a firmer pedalling platform. The reduced pedal kickback will keep riders more isolated from feedback from the rear wheel creating a calmer ride, and traction when pedalling should also improve. When we first rode the Bronson 5, that was exactly how it felt compared to the previous model, so if this new Nomad mirrors those same gains, then it really is going to improve the bike even further; we'll soon find out...

Two more suspension characteristics have also been adjusted, albeit by much smaller margins. Anti-rise, the measure of how much the rear brake compresses the shock, is slightly reduced, and the leverage curve has been made just slightly less progressive. Both those tweaks aim to create a slightly more consistent and active bike, with suspension that will be a touch less affected by braking forces and a suspension curve that’s potentially a little easier to tune shocks around. 

Away from the changes to VPP, much of the current Nomad has been preserved. The geometry was already near perfect and as such has seen only the most minor of changes with most measurements remaining the same between the two bikes. For those not already familiar with the numbers, that gives a Large Nomad 7 a 475mm reach, 77.4’ seat angle and 443mm chainstay. There’s slightly more stack height now, in line with current thinking on geometry, but overall the new bike is still going to feel very much like a Nomad to anyone familiar with the platform and fit.

Getting into the details of frame construction, perhaps the biggest change here is that all bikes will now come using the higher quality and lighter CC carbon layup. That means the new Nomads are both lighter and slightly more compliant than the previous bike, especially when compared to the C version where new frames are around 283 grams lighter. The Nomad 7 remains compatible with either wireless or cable drivetrains and still uses Santa Cruz’s benchmark tube in tube routing for truly painless cable changes. Their Glovebox storage lid has also seen a minor re-design with a beefed up latch and lever adding extra security for higher impact riding. 

There are three build kits to choose from on full bikes in the UK, but that covers both SRAM and Shimano options and both Air and Coil suspension, so no matter what kind of build you are into, there should be one for you. As always from Santa Cruz, there’s a choice of two colours, the understated Matte Metallic Earth, or the wilder retro scheme of Gloss Aqua Magenta, throwing things all the way back to 2014 and the Nomad 3.

Neil's First Ride Impressions

We’ve been incredibly fortunate to get a couple of big days riding in already on the new bike with Santa Cruz on the varied trails around Les Arcs and Bourg Saint Maurice. Two days would ordinarily not sound like much time to start to form a riding impression of a bike, but we’ve already racked up somewhere in the region of 8000 metres of descending on everything from exposed switchback peppered singletracks to full on high speed bikepark trails, so a very large amount of riding has been squeezed into a compressed period! We’re back out tomorrow and if anything in my opinion changes after that we’ll update things here, but I’m pretty confident that I have a decent handle on the bike at this point. 

The bike we have on loan for the trip is the CC XT Di2 build, so alongside the wireless Shimano drivetrain it’s equipped with a new Fox 38 Factory Fork and DHX2 Coil shock, the new Maven Silver B1 brakes, and a set of Reserve Alloy wheels (with the new DT Degrees of Freedom freehub). All solid kit, and a fork that’s very familiar which has made setup easy. It’s in my usual Medium size (Neil is 176cm) and at 73kg, I’ve got a 400lb spring on the rear shock. 

Where to start with the Nomad? The riding experience so far has been incredibly positive. It’s not often that I’ll feel fully comfortable on a bike on day one, but by only run number two on this new version, both myself and everyone else in the group was right at home and already concentrating on their riding and the trail rather than setup. It seems to be a very balanced and easy bike to ride. Whether that's the much reduced anti-squat, the ‘chainless’ freehub, the coil shock or a combination of all of those things, the performance of the bike over high speed roughness is exceptionally good.

There’s a ton of exposed rock on the trails we’ve been riding so far and an initially cautious attitude is gradually being replaced by the feeling that anything below a certain (large) size might as well not exist once you’re travelling at speed - you can hammer incredibly rough sections and nothing seems to throw the shape or balance of the bike off; it just skips through while maintaining traction leaving you ready for whatever comes next. Oddly, that ability to crush the bumps doesn’t seem to come at the expense of support. Surprisingly for a big 170mm travel bike with what feels like suspension designed for traction, the Nomad 7 is also proving to carry speed very well indeed through rolling and pumptrack style sections. The coil possibly helps here, but there’s a load of platform to push and pump from, which really encourages active riding. It’s very happy to unweight when needed and trail gaps and pops have very little sense of delay or lag to them, so it’s very much not restricted to just monster trucking through everything. 

Heavy compressions and harsher landings are very competently absorbed and under braking there’s a good balance between keeping suspension active and maintaining the geometry. The geometry is very close to the Bullit (my current main bike at home) and that’s a good thing in my book. A moderate reach helps the rider keep on top of the front wheel when the going gets steep and tight, while a (relatively) long wheelbase ensures stability at higher speeds or when it gets rough. 

At this point, for any and all gravity fed riding it’s currently sitting high on the ‘best bike ever’ list - there just doesn’t seem to be any kind of trail where it doesn’t perform. We’ve had super steep corners, slow speed tech, fast violent park sections full of braking bumps and even smooth hiking paths and in every situation the Nomad has felt right at home. The previous Nomads were already very good, but this platform does somehow seem to have improved them even further still. 

Climbing has been limited to a few ten minute efforts so far, but it has an efficient feel to it  The steeper seat angle creates a slightly shorter feeling bike when seated, but it’s a nice comfortable position to pedal from, especially on steeper grades. There’s no visible bob at the shock or feeling of wasted power and no one has been reaching for the lockout lever in our group. It’ll be good to ride some miles on home trails to get a proper benchmark, but as first impressions go, it's a very good start so far.

Our first delivery of bikes is due any week now, and we'll have a size curve of Medium, Large and XL all available for demo as soon as they land too. We're taking orders now, so give us a call or drop us an email if the new Nomad 7 is something you're interested in... 

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