Santa Cruz Bicycles

Nomad Carbon 27.5 GX Complete Mountain Bike - 2015

The Santa Cruz Nomad is among the most capable long-travel, all-mountain bikes available. Its six-and-a-half inches of rear travel, managed by a newly-redesigned VPP suspension system, make the Nomad comfortable in the steepest, roughest terrain on the planet — oh, and you can actually pedal it, too.

The 65-degree head angle, mated to oh-so-short, 17.1-inch chainstays, make the Nomad incredibly stable, yet more responsive to rider input than you’d expect with such a slack head angle. The new VPP design was borrowed from the downhill-focused V10 and adapted for trail use. The refreshed kinematics add up to better mid-stroke support for all-around trail riding, more small-bump compliance, and a more vertical wheel path to afford better pedaling.

The GX kit spec’d here features SRAM’s GX shifting and a Race Face Aeffect crankset. The result is a 32-tooth chainring, 10-42t cassette, and redesigned derailleur parallelogram that pair up to almost completely eliminate chain drop. The RockShox Monarch Plus Debonair (or RockShox Vivid Air R2C, if you'd prefer) is paired with a Pike RC Solo Air up front, and stopping is handled by Shimano’s eminently-capable SLX brakes.