Santa Cruz Nomad Announced

The Nomad's reputation is built on consistently pushing the envelope of how DH a bike can get while still remaining usable on most trails. With each iteration we nudge the travel and geometry further towards the outer limits, and each time we surprise ourselves at just how completely rideable the end result remains.

The fourth generation design sees a dramatic shift to the lower-link mounted shock configuration. This is the first time that learnings from years of V10 development have translated across to one of our trail bikes.

Nomad Build Kits

The shock rate is now almost completely linear—which means feather-light small bump sensitivity right off the bat, a supportive midstroke and overall progression that you'd normally only experience on a DH bike. To keep the gravity vibe going we've ensured the Nomad can run both standard metric coil shocks and lighter air units to suit any preference.

Full shock compatibility creates challenges when trying to cram everything into the precious bottom bracket area. But the continued evolution of our carbon tech means we're able to create a svelt, strong, swingarm/front triangle combo that's as much art as it is engineering.

We even managed to squeeze in a flip-chip feature on the lower link too. Think of the high setting as "regular", the way the bike's mostly meant to be ridden, and the low setting as being closer to full on DH status.

To handle all this new-found capability the geometry has adapted too. It's longer and lower-slung than ever to ensure maximum stability and confidence on absolutely everything.

The whole package is crowned with a raft of subtle yet essential details. Bolt-on downtube protectors and shuttle guards act as a helmet for your frame—a replaceable front line against abuse. An integrated shock fender has also been added to keep crud out of the suspension.

The crowning glory of the Nomad, however, has been in the making longer than the frame itself: the all new Santa Cruz Reserve carbon wheels.  Spec'd exclusively on the Nomad for now, you can read more about how these wheels came into being right here.

Santa Cruz Nomad Features

• 148mm Rear Axle Spacing
• 170mm VPP™ suspension
• 27.5" wheels
• Angular contact bearings maximize stiffness
• Bolt-on shuttle guard and downtube protector
• Collet axle pivots lock in place without pinch bolts
• Double sealed pivots for long bearing life
• Forged upper and lower links
• Full carbon frame and swingarm
• Internal carbon tubes ensure precise and hassle-free routing of derailleur and seat post cables
• ISCG-05 tabs for chainguide compatibility
• Molded rubber swingarm and downtube protection
• Recessed lower link protected from rock strikes
• Single grease port on lower link for swift and easy maintenance
• Threaded Bottom Bracket

Santa Cruz Nomad Features

Santa Cruz Nomad geometry

Santa Cruz Nomad V4

Santa Cruz Is Making A 29" V-10

It's true. There's a 29er V10, and the Syndicate will be racing it this weekend at Lourdes. Although the move to 29-inch wheels has been riling comments sections and forums for months (#26isdefinitelydeadnow), the writing's on the wall. Tracks are faster, times are tighter, and eking another second out of a 4-minute track can be the difference between a World Cup win and missing the podium entirely. Keeping the Syndicate in the hunt every season takes a ton of time and energy, but downhill racing is not only the most exciting racing going, it's also where new products and technology are tested to their limit.

It comes as no surprise that Greg Minnaar was the driving force behind this project. "I raced the Hightower at the Enduro World Series in Finale Ligure, Italy, last October, and it just held so much speed," explains Greg. "That's when I knew we had to come back to the 29er V10 idea."

"I raced the Hightower at the Enduro World Series in Finale... I knew we had to come back to the 29er V10 idea."

Greg Minnaar

Jason Marsh, Greg's mechanic, points out that, "We'd looked at doing a 29er V10 a few years ago, but the fork options available at the time wouldn't stand up to World Cup racing. Greg's experience in Finale got the project off the shelf and back into development. FOX gave us a critical piece of the puzzle when they delivered a prototype 40 for us to test on a modified Hightower. Our first test session aboard that Hightower showed consistently faster times on the bigger wheels, we all decided we had to go for it. Then the real work began. We machined a few different sets of links, welded up three aluminum swingarms, and did more testing. As the riders got on terms with the new bikes, they got even faster. We played with linkages and shocks to achieve different angles, travel, and leverage ratios until Greg felt happy with setting everything in stone."

But ideas don't get set in stone around here. They get set in carbon. And in order to race a carbon bike at Lourdes, we needed to start manufacturing by mid-January. Nick Anderson, our head engineer, finished the design in early January and sent it to our carbon factory to get the tooling machined. "We're fortunate enough to co-own our own carbon manufacturing facility, which gives us bandwidth to indulge in this kind of project," Nick says, "I don't think it would have been possible without this kind of partnership."

"While the manufacturing was spinning up, we sat down with the Syndicate partners to make sure we could get the bits we needed by late March or early April." says Nick. "Fox had race-ready forks in the pipeline, and ENVE was on board to build some 29-inch M90s. Maxxis delivered bigger versions of the Syndicate's preferred tires, and Chris King's Buzzworks group whipped up some custom headsets to bring the geometry in line. It sounds simple enough, but the reality was anything but. The upshot is that, thanks to everyone's ability to move quickly on product development, we were able to go from frame concept to race-ready bike over just a couple months, with a few weeks left over for final testing." In one particular case, a technological leap by one manufacturer forced a quick counter by another. Fox altered the brake mount location on the 40's lowers to accommodate ‘Boost' flange spacing, which meant a standard 20x110mm DH hub wouldn't work—Chris King machined a one-off design they call ISO-AB (Asymmetric Boost) to get everything in sync.

"We were able to go from frame concept to full-carbon race-ready bike over just a couple months"

Nick Anderson

Although it seems like the new race bike is a radical departure, the intent is the same as it ever was. Every iteration of the V10 was built to be faster than the one that came before, and the results began to speak for themselves during testing, to the disbelief of one of the new recruits.

"Greg practically forced me to try the bike" reveals Loris Vergier. "I tried it once in testing, but went straight back to my original 27.5 inch bike because that's what felt fastest across the length of the test track. But Greg insisted I give the 29er another shot. So I did, and I felt like it was still slower. The clocks don't lie though, and I was consistently posting quicker times on the new bike compared to the old—and this was on my local track! That's when I realized the new bike was deceptively quick."

"I was consistently posting quicker times on the new bike compared to the old—and this was on my local track!"

Loris Vergier

In contrast, Luca Shaw took straight to it. "Psychologically I think it really helped that the bike already looked refined, straight off the bat" says Luca. "The swingarm and links are custom, and they're mated to a production V10 front triangle. Loris and I are riding bikes with 190mm of travel, and Greg's got 210 because the XXL frame has more room."

While the guys were testing, Nick was working through the final pieces of the puzzle. "We needed to sit the bike into the travel to compensate for the BB height change created by the larger wheel diameter, and the guys at Chris King were able to make us a Buzzworks headset that then corrected the resulting change to the head angle" he says, "We also had to reduce the travel to maintain tire clearance at bottom out, which then meant we had to change the shock rate progression to maintain good suspension feel. The leverage curve is similar to the existing V10, but the leverage ratios have been modified slightly." Expect links and headsets to change over the course of the season as the riders keep working toward their ideal setups.

The V10 has racked up more World Cup wins than any downhill bike in history. It was the first full carbon fiber bike to win a World Cup, and ironically it was also the last 26-inch bike to win one, too. So where does that leave 27.5"?

It's still early days for 29-inch wheels in downhill and there will always be "horses for courses." At the end of the day, we want to win races. So if any of our riders feel more comfortable in particular conditions or on certain courses with 27.5" wheels that's what they'll ride. Greg, Luca, and Loris are riding the new bike in Lourdes on April 30th because that's what they feel most confident on. The V10 has always been about pushing technology in pursuit of speed, and we're simply continuing that tradition today. The new bike is another leap forward in the progression of carbon downhill bikes and we're excited to be leading the charge.

READ THE WHOLE STORY ON SANTA CRUZ'S WEBSITE

BRYCELAND SMASHES FIELD IN WINDHAM AND GRABS WORLD CUP LEAD WITH OVER 1000 POINTS!

Josh “Ratboy” Bryceland stormed to the top of the podium once again at UCI Downhill World Cup #6 in Windham (USA) on Saturday, August 9.
His winning margin of 1.581 seconds was a country mile on such a short course. The result marks his third podium and second win of the season, now placing him squarely in the lead overall with 1007 points. 

“I'm still in awe that I'm leading the World Cup,” said Bryceland. “I could hear the crowd from the bottom cheering for Gwinny in the finals, so I knew he had had a good run. I put that out of my head and took a few deep breaths, and then gave it everything I had.”

Teammate Greg Minnaar, the reigning World Champion who was recovering from knee surgery earlier in the year, finished in eleventh to consolidate his sixth place in the overall rankings. 

“I was refining my bike settings during the week and I felt like I had it dialed in for the qualifier, but I missed getting up to speed in practice.“ explained Greg. “Finishing 11th isn't acceptable to me” he added, suggesting the best is still to come from the South African this season.

Steve Peat was the first to congratulate Josh as he crossed the line, visibly ecstatic at the continued rise of his protégée.

“Ratboy rules!” exclaimed Peaty. “It was another great event at Windham, and my bike was rad. I'm just gutted to be leaving without a decent result, but this place has always had mixed emotions for me over the years!”

The Syndicate are now amped for the final round of the World Cup in Méribel (FRA) set for August 21-23.  Will Ratboy be able to retain his lead and take his first World Cup title?  The whole mountain biking World will be tuning in live to find out!!

Windham Results: 
1st  JOSH BRYCELAND (GBR)    2:24:332 
2nd  AARON GWIN (USA)             2:25:913  
3rd  TROY BROSNAN (AUS)         2:26:455 
11th  GREG MINNAAR (RSA)        2:28.540 
43rd STEVE PEAT (GBR)              2:33.488

Santa Cruz Syndicate Reveal New World Cup Race Bike For Mont Sainte Anne

Now the Rat's really out of the bag!

The Santa Cruz Syndicate are constantly testing new products as they maraude around the globe on their UCI World Cup campaign.  Sometimes these products have subtle adapations that demand a trained eye to pick up on.  Other times it's a little more obvious.

The rat was out of the bag when Josh Bryceland won the UK National Championships on an unmarked vehicle in Innerleithen on July 20th.

So, while we're unable to confirm ANY details about the bikes the guys are racing on in Mont Sainte Anne, we're not going to deny that what you see here isn't happening...

Looks like 650b will be coming to a future V-10 along with some angle changes and shock leverage changes.

Santa Cruz Syndicate Through 2015 And Beyond

Santa Cruz Bicycles keep the Syndicate family rolling together through 2015, and beyond...

Reigning DH World Champion, Greg Minnaar has signed with the Syndicate for a further 3 years, as has continually rising Rat Star, Josh Bryceland. Meanwhile, Steve Peat, the man for whom the media are running out of legend-themed superlatives, has now signed for a further 5 years.

"With the 2013 World Championships being held in my home town, this year will be the biggest of my life" declares Minnaar "we've spent years refining both the bike and the team dynamic, and I couldn't imagine going into this season with any better setup".

"This year's gonna be banging," said Bryceland, who is currently out training in California. He then added something about "loving it", "getting rad" and "being focused"... we think.

Bryceland's early mentor, Peaty, remains similarly enthusiastic, even after so many years.

"I love racing as much now as I did when I first started," says Steve. "For me, there was never any question about sticking with Santa Cruz for the rest of my professional racing career... so long as they'd have me!"

"Steve is one of a kind in the industry right now," replied Rob Roskopp, team owner. "His 20 years of racing and product development experience is invaluable, and I want to keep that knowledge here within the team."

In addition to downhill races, the Syndicate also looks set to compete in a select number of Enduro World Series rounds in 2013.

"I'm eager to see how the whole Enduro World Series format develops," says Roskopp. "Given all the scandals in cycling recently, I think everyone in downhill can feel proud of what they've built... all in spite of the poor direction our sport's had from the top. The Enduro World Series gives gravity racing a fresh opportunity to develop a self-sustaining model, free from the sort of illogical constraints the World Cup faced. So for that reason, Santa Cruz will be an Official Supporter of the series."

The Syndicate is also proud to announce they'll be working with all their World Championship winning partners once again for 2013.

The squad's first official outing of the year is in March, when they head to Spain for the annual pre-season test session with Fox Racing Shox. All riders will be on the new production V10c frames, the exact same models as those available to the public.

Racing kicks off in April with the traditional DH season opener at Sea Otter (USA) on April 21st. The first round of the Enduro World Series takes place on May 19th in Punta Ala (ITA) whilst the Syndicate's World Cup campaign proper starts on June 9th in Fort William (GBR).

The Syndicate retains the indomitable Kathy Sessler as team (& team party) manager, with tech support from Doug Hatfield, Jason Marsh and the occasional cameo.

"We do our best to build a sense of stability and family within the Syndicate," concludes Roskopp. "Maintaining long-term relationships with the right athletes, personalities and crew is key to that. It creates something greater than the sum of its parts, and that's what delivers consistent performance over time... which I think our track record proves."