It’s back, baby — I guess it never really went away. Either way, the Santa Cruz Nomad 5 is here, and it’s a looker. Just look at the Oxblood colorway.

Updates from the Santa Cruz Nomad 4

If you guessed that the new Santa Cruz Nomad 5 is slacker and longer than before, you’d be right. But, don’t get too excited — I’m not going to give you too many internet points for getting it right. The longer and slacker treatment happens pretty much every year. And of course, the wheels stay at 27.5″ inches. Maybe what’s actually surprising, though, is it didn’t get more travel. Santa Cruz has apparently found the sweet spot for the nomad platform at 170mm front and back. And, this is a big one, the seat tube is properly steep now at 77.6/77.2 (XL) degrees depending on the flip-chip position. Speaking of the flip-chip, it will take the slack 64-degree head tube angle to 63.7 degrees when in the low mode.

Let’s talk for a minute about the best thing Santa Cruz is going with frame design this year. Like the new 5010, the Nomad 5 comes with size-specific chainstay lengths. Praise the beings that be who decided to start doing this. I get it, short chainstays are cool. But, I’m a tall lanky dude and what is a short chainstay for a normal human becomes pretty stupidly short for me. The bike ends up being all front end. I don’t know about you, but I like to be somewhere between the wheels when I ride. I love seeing chainstays that keep the front and rear center proportionate across all frame sizes.

I’m going to risk sounding like a fanboy here, but I’m going to sing the praises of the frame-making folks again. The Nomad 5 uses the Sram Universal Derailleur Hanger or UDH for short. Don’t know why that’s cool? In a world of ever-changing standards, the UDH is designed to simplify the sheer number of derailleur hangers on the market. A handful of brands have built their frames around the UDH rather than relying on a small, expensive, proprietary part that always seems to break and impossible to replace. I mean, if the UDH takes off, we could potentially have one derailleur hanger that works on every new bike. Praise be.

Santa Cruz Nomad 5 Build Kits

The Nomad will be available in four sizes and more than twice as many build kits. At launch, the Nomad 5 will come in 10 different build kits with a mix of both air and coil options. Frames will be available in C and CC carbon with no alloy frames. C builds start at $4499 with Rockshox suspension and a Sram NX drivetrain. CC builds start at $7499 with an XO1 kit and Fox suspension. Tack on an extra $1200 for the Reserve wheels.

If it’s me and my money, I’d go for the C XT RSV build for $7399. It seems to hit a nice sweet spot for value.

At launch we have the Nomad 5 in stock and ready to roll. Come pay us a visit!