Dream Build: Santa Cruz Nomad C 650b

BloggingFit

Collected a new toy this morning...





Looking forward to testing this out later.

BloggingFit

Fitted and a quick spin this evening on some local trails. Initials thoughts are that it's one awesome piece of kit and well suited to the bike.

BloggingFit

Got a couple of rides in with the shock now so sharing some initial thoughts.

First off this shock is a great piece of kit and really compliments the Nomad. Yes, it is a big initial investment but then so is the amount of money you dropped for a Nomad too so if you take the comparison of the cost of people happily putting a CCDB air on an average cost frame vs Eleven.Six on a Nomad there is little in it. Get your around that and you'll have little regret in your purchase as it changes the dynamic of the Nomad to what it should be out of the box.

Performance wise it's almost shocking how well it climbs as well as descends to the point where it's difficult to decide which aspect is more impressive. There is so much more traction when climbing that the weight penalty is negated with the gain in efficiency. If you ride lots of steep, technical, loose climbs then this shock will impress. Going downhill it's almost a case of point and forget at times. I have a run which starts off steep and loose baby heads leading into dirt and rooting single track with whoops and sweeps and can carry so much more speed in from the loose that you start skipping and clearing roots with ease.

I also noticed the bike pick up speed more easily and the front end wants to turn in tighter than before as the bike feels more planted and stable.

Dick Scruttock

Told you it was a amazing piece of kit!

buddy_club

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/131684218836
You seen this? Looks a bit dodgy for the price and I'm pretty sure it's your photo someone's using... Merry Christmas lol

kickaxe

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19767544#p19767544]buddy_club[/url] wrote:

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/131684218836
You seen this? Looks a bit dodgy for the price and I'm pretty sure it's your photo someone's using... Merry Christmas lol

That is the fakest eBay offer I have seen in a while

BloggingFit

I had a few messages on Pinkbike as well about this. Thought it was a good deal! Will be reporting it to ebay. Any idea when it was posted as already been removed or ended?

Thanks for the heads up.

buddy_club

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19767626#p19767626]BloggingFit[/url] wrote:

I had a few messages on Pinkbike as well about this. Thought it was a good deal! Will be reporting it to ebay. Any idea when it was posted as already been removed or ended?

Thanks for the heads up.

It was listed on christmas eve. No worries, i actually saw it on facebook and recognised the bike so thought it was worth mentioning.

benpinnick

Ha yeah, I thought to myself 'I recognise that bike' When I saw it. Lets be honest those wheels are 1 of a kind

Was going to text you about it tomorrow to check it was defo yours!

Clockworkmark31

She is a rider for sure.

Love the attention to detail.

Does the MoD have a good following of riders?

BloggingFit

Thanks.

Bit of a vanity build, well looked after but doesn't stop me riding hard and abusing it at times. The wheels are really showing signs of use now with scratches and chips out of the paint but parts can always be replaced, experiences not so much. At the moment it's tucked up over the winter months as I see little value in riding such a bike in the slop so I always tend to favour a Hardtail.

The MoD don't actively advertise a club so I'm unaware if they have a following as such but I get frequently asked for keys by troops trying to climb over locked gates where they are trying to get back into barracks early from being out on training so I assume some must us MTBs in the area. Tunnel Hill Trolls are the most active club in the area and run organised rides 2 - 3 times a week. I've finally made a point of signing up to do some night rides with them rather than go out on my own.

Clockworkmark31

It's ok,

Why not I am wanting to do a vanity build too on a Stumpjumper FSR 08-09 just waiting for the right frame to come along so I can get the ball rolling. Think it will end up being a show pony and getting used in the dry. And hardtail for everything else as that is what I am used to.

How did you get the wheels painted if you don't mind me asking? As my future dream build I am wanting to do is going to be in stealth/matte black and gold, so will involve some parts being anodized etc.

Thought that they would have had a club, hoping the RN have a MTB club.

BloggingFit

The small details were relatively low cost but just finish things off.

The custom paint were done by the manufacturer when ordering up the rims and as they only charge an extra $10 per wheel for paint and decals it was a bit of a no brainer. I just specified the Pantone code for the colours I wanted. They made the process painless by giving me their own Pantone chart, emailing me a CAD of the rims with the base colour and decal design and colour to approve and finally emailing a photo of the finished rims before shipping to approve. To get this done over here on existing aluminium rims would cost a fair bit more I imagine as I would think the rim surface will need to be prepped to take a primer and paint.

Getting parts anodised is easy enough to get done. I know of a really good place to use if you're fairly local to me.

Clockworkmark31

Thanks BloggingFit,

Not too sure where local to you is but I am in West Yorks.

The plan in my head is a frame that is all matt/stealth balck with only minimum logos in a lighter shade, rims and fork legs in the same color (I imagine the fork legs hard to do). And then finishing kit like hubs, seat clamp, jockey wheels, nuts and bolts the rocker arms for the rear suspension and spoke nipples all in the same shade of gold. And use jagwire external cable housing.

Think my budget will run away with me but I can picture it all looking stealth with little glimpses of gold.

Antm81

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19770387#p19770387]Clockworkmark31[/url] wrote:

Thought that they would have had a club, hoping the RN have a MTB club.

The MoD don't have a cycling club, however, each individual service does, I expect the navy one is also affiliated to British cycling like the Army's.

There are also inter service events such as DH and XC. Bare in mind these are a high level with Army riders competing at pretty high level nationally (not sure about the navy riders).

Most riding tends to be organised at a lower level, so in the army's case at regimental level, although as its not a traditional sport a lot tends to be word of mouth, managing to bump in to somebody who organises something and in my experience the army a least has a lack of qualified trail leaders (needed for organised rides for insurance purposes etc).

There will be riding though and I'd recommend trying to do your trail leader qual and possibly more, which should all be available for free, just don't expect to get any courses or many rides n whilst in training as a minimum, then it's just really just a case of playing things by ear and finding people to ride with initially.

Clockworkmark31

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19771334#p19771334]Antm81[/url] wrote:

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19770387#p19770387]Clockworkmark31[/url] wrote:

Thought that they would have had a club, hoping the RN have a MTB club.

The MoD don't have a cycling club, however, each individual service does, I expect the navy one is also affiliated to British cycling like the Army's.

There are also inter service events such as DH and XC. Bare in mind these are a high level with Army riders competing at pretty high level nationally (not sure about the navy riders).

Most riding tends to be organised at a lower level, so in the army's case at regimental level, although as its not a traditional sport a lot tends to be word of mouth, managing to bump in to somebody who organises something and in my experience the army a least has a lack of qualified trail leaders (needed for organised rides for insurance purposes etc).

There will be riding though and I'd recommend trying to do your trail leader qual and possibly more, which should all be available for free, just don't expect to get any courses or many rides n whilst in training as a minimum, then it's just really just a case of playing things by ear and finding people to ride with initially.

Thanks Antm81,

Not wanting to hijack BlogginFits OP.

But it is encouraging to hear that it does exist within the forces and the inter services sounds even more fun. Not expecting any riding whilst in the Training Phase, I've already wrote that off.

I'm not there yet, but this year will be the proving ground. The idea of going to somewhere like Iceland for a week with min supplies and a map and a bike just seem so appealing.

BloggingFit

After some thought and toiling it's time to part ways with the Nomad and move on to a new project. Had some great times with this bike but I have less time to ride the trails it should be ridden on and would rather be using the time I have available to be on a more suitable frame. I'm spending more time down in Devon so I've decided to locate my Aeris down there rather than having to transport it back and forth so using the Nomad as a trail bike makes even less sense.

I'm half hoping that it doesn't sell but deep down I know it's the right thing to do. Frameset, Fork, Wheels and Cranks are going up for sale with the rest of the components to be used on its replacement. I have a breakdown for anyone interested.

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=40092&t=13062958

BloggingFit

Frame stripped down, shock, fork and cranks have sold with just the wheels and frame left to go. Thinks wheels may be hard to shift but worst case I can use them for a winter hardtail build or something.

Bit gutted but replacement on it's way and new parts have arrived already or on their way in addition to to part off the Nomad.