finally i got the bike i always wanted. or so i thought.
it turned out the frame was ‘small’ and while i am no giant i am not really small either; on top of that santa cruz frames are typically a bit on the smaller side anyway. as a result i was stuck with a number of ingredients i was really happy with, but the whole thing felt like an 8 size foot in a 7 size shoe – works for 5 minutes but you end up hurting.
rather than sit around & fret i decided to take the opportunity to build the ultimate bike, the bike to end all bikes so to speak. and there is only one solution of course.
the santa cruz nomad carbon – medium size. what else.
i spent a day transferring all the components from the small nomad frame to my shiny new carbon frame – after some cleaning and adjusting of course. later i replaced the wheels with a set build around ztr flows and converted to tubeless and i also got a set of kashima coated fox 36 with 180mm travel instead of the 160; it made the bike slacker without upsetting the balance.
i still think this is a fantastic bike, even compared to the newer nomad cc. ok, the newer one is longer, slack and maybe a little lighter but the old one is not far behind.
today it’s kris’ bike and if i ever have to i am sure she’ll allow me to use it as a spare.