I got my Nomad in October last year after my Enduro was stolen. Fortunately I got a very good insurance payout and some help from a friend with good contacts at Santa Cruz in the States led to me getting the very first Mk 2 Nomad in the Country. Anyway, over the last 14 months I've ridden it loads, more than any of my previous bikes and have had some great highs and some lows on it.

It took a while to get used to and for the suspension to bed in but once it did I've got on with it really well. Certainly seems to work better for me than my previous Patriot and Enduro. I've done more miles on this bike than those two put together even though I owned them for much longer in total.

I have raced DH on the Nomad, it's carried me through the Singletrack Weekender, I've done big (8 hour) days out in the Lake District, lots of weekend and night riding around the Peaks and plenty of DH at Wharncliffe. Seems to work really well for me in most circumstances. It may not be the lightest bike or the best climber (the angles mean the front can float around a bit on steep technical climbs) but then I am not the lightest or best climbing rider out there. Basically, the bike has proven to be better than me in most instances and I definitely don't feel like it has ever held me back (apart from the odd climb). It does seem to be the perfect compromise bike for me as I can't afford or house a seperate bike for every different style of riding. This also means I never really have that thing where I regret not having the "right" bike with me. I have also crashed this bike more than any other though and I reckon that is down to it egging me on to try more stuff and go faster. I have suffered some confidence loss from this but I am getting that back slowly. Not really the bikes fault at all though.

I have made some changes to the spec over the last 14 months. I changed the E-13 bashguard that I originally fitted for the Gamut which saved a third of a pound. I fitted some 30" wide, low-rise Azonic Bars that have proven to be a fantastic upgrade over the previous EA70s. I've had a couple of different wheels on it but now have some proper ones. Industry Nine classic hubs (20mm front, 10×135 Bolt Thru rear) with some rather special Stan's Flows that I built up with DT Comps and using the new Shimano XT rotors. I've changed from the original Kenda Nevegals to 2.35 SPC High Rollers and now have 2.4 Advantages with both the High Rollers and the Advantages run tubeless. The saddle was also recently changed from a Spoon to a Knife. In its current spec it weighs a smidge over 33lbs which is pretty decent imo.

Anyway, having cleaned it and put a new drivetrain and the new wheels on yesterday I thought I would take some new photos:

There are a number of signs of wear on the bike, chainstay rub, cable rub, engrained dirt, drive-side crank is now just X rather than SLX etc but these are things I have earned and I like as it is definitely not just a garage queen. All in all, I would highly recommend these as great bikes.

2nd what he's just said. Absolutely love mine. Great for everything from xc to dh. The only full sus i've owned that i'm happy to do everything on.

Nice build Matthew. Not a fan of advatages (running mine with minion front and ardent rear at the moment) but each to thier own.

Cheers.

I've not tried the Advantages yet so it'll be interesting to see what they're like compared to the High Rollers I'm used to.

How mant million sets of bearings did you use?

Still on the original set, just gave them some attention over the year. The grease ports on the lower link work really well. Top link bearings are a bit rough but not too bad really.

hey up matt, good effort to build the wheels up and getting them photo'd. it's a great looking bike. have you done the wheels tubeless? i love my advantages but watch the sidewalls i seem to wear them out quickly. john reckons they do a 1.5 ply which i'd be buying when i'm riding again.
(i'm the hairy one who came in friday afternoon!)

No bad

Hey up Nick,

Yeah, the tyres are tubeless. Can't really not do it can I. I'll see how they go and how tyres that big compare to what I've been using before. Got the wheels built on Friday after work. Built up really nicely, should stand up to a good bit of riding.

Sounds like the grease posrt are a good job.

I got rid of my Blur LT before the bearings could give any bother

Do you think that DT QR makes any difference over a regular one? Been thinking of getting one for a while…

Not sure yet. Need to give it a good test on some rocky stuff to see if I can notice any difference.

OK, nice looking bike BTW

Cheers

I'll report back once I've given it a workout.

those dt skewers are a PITA, nice idea but executed in plastic so limited life if you try and tighen them enough to make any difference.

nice bike fella.