Anyone got any experience of these two? I'm looking to buy second hand and have my eyes on each of these frames from 2008. The nomad will be roughly 100 quid more expensive.

I want a bike that it fine to pedal for long days, and do most of my riding in the lakes/ trail centres. Obviously the nomad has an extra 1/2 inch of
travel but I doubt this will affect the uphills too much. I plan in building with flows on pro2's, 150mm revs, xt triple cranks just to give an idea of where I'm going with the build.

Anyone got any experience of the two? Is the nomad too much for day to day use? Which is the better built/
More reliable frame??

James

Treid a Nomad, too much bike for me, back to Heckler, and I don't really justify that either.

Nomad looks pretty solid, never see any broken ones.

There always seems to be cracked/bent intenses knocking about so if your going 2nd hand get a nomad.

get the intense lovely bike and can be ridden all day , mate of.mine has an intense and has had no problems apart from changing the bushings every 12 months. don't listen to that David bloke above he is a total internerd knob who thinks he knows it all

don't listen to that David bloke above he is a total internerd knob who thinks he knows it all

Ha, and this is coming from a guy who thinks an Orange 5 is a good bike.

What an idiot

Best bet is do a bit of research on here and mtbr etc. There was a topic only about a week ago where some one psoted up there cracked 5.5

hav'nt ridden a nomad but i do have an '08 intense 5.5 which i absolutely love. superb bike imho, never fails to make me smile. equally capable of a quick blast and a long cruise, and always encourages you to go faster. singletrack did a glowing review some years ago, not sure what issue.

David your a complete **** , and yes an orange 5 is a good bike , you got a problem with that ? obviously you have and that statement makes you look like even more of a twunt, get over yourself

the best bet for the op is to not take any of your advice fukwit

Seen Nomads being used on the Scottish Downhill series, so will take plenty of punishment. From reviews I believe the Intense is more twitchy, and there are more SC dealers around.

From what you said about the build you should also be looking at a Blur LT which is a true all day do anything bike and a bit lighter than the Nomad

Ok ladies, lets keep this on topic…..

I had an intense 5.5 and it was/is a great bike. I'm 14.5 st and I didn't break mine. I demoed a SC blur LT and an Intense tracer and the difference between them and the 5.5 was minimal at best (or negligable at worst). Nomads are nice bikes for sure though. Whatever you get, enjoy it!

so who reckons the nomad is too much bike for day to day riding??? to be honest im drawn towards the 5.5 at the moment as its 100 quid cheaper and i know 5.5 inches will be fine- i'm just not sure if 6.5 inches will be fine also…

I've been riding a Nomad for getting on for two years now and I would definitely agree that for most days it is far more bike than is necessary. However, it is the best all rounder I have ridden that will allow me to do all day rides one weekend then race DH the following weekend so is perfect for the one bike I could afford.

Neither, get a Mav ML8

I went shopping on my Nomad just the other day. It was awesome.

I demo'd a Blur LT and wasn't blown away, despite the hype at the time. Demo'd the Nomad around the same time and was amazed. I am still amazed at it.

The shock makes a big difference, consider your options.

I own a nomad and am definitely overbiked. It's had 2 or 3 outings this year, seem to always end up on the hardtail. Great all rounder if you can have only one bike. Swap the tyres to dual plys and it will do morzine/uplift days. Think mine weighs in around 32lb with a coil shock.

"extra 1/2 inch of
travel but I doubt this will affect the uphills too much"
No it'd probably be the slacker head/seat angles, shorter/more rearward cockpit position, heavier/burlier build you'd end up with

With 150mm Revs on a nomad instead of the typical(/designed?) 160mm forks, which will be 17mm lower when fully wound out (not 10mm), could/would you not have a bit of a problem on the nomad of a too low BB height (as well as steepening everything up) or can nomads run with less than a 160mm fork?

I would have thought anything from a slightly slack (eg 69 or less) 120mm bike upto a not so slack 140mm bike (so not a 67deg orange 5/spesh pitch) might be where you want to be looking?

5.5 is fairly steep angled for a 5.5" bike IMO. I've ridden one in Morzine/Megavalanche etc and it was a bit of a handful on the super tech stuff*

*obviously if you never intend to do riding like that it wont be a problem

james – Member
"extra 1/2 inch of
travel but I doubt this will affect the uphills too much"
No it'd probably be the slacker head/seat angles, shorter/more rearward cockpit position, heavier/burlier build you'd end up with

Completely agree. If you are looking at 150mm you should go Blur LT which is an all day/freeride bike vs the Nomad which is freeride/DH with a bit of all day capability if you're pushed.

Not sure why you're looking at such long travel for an all day bike. Bottom line is go and ride all 3 as you are spending too much money to get it wrong

5.5 is fairly steep angled for a 5.5" bike IMO. I've ridden one in Morzine/Megavalanche etc and it was a bit of a handful on the super tech stuff*

BETD do a nifty kit to slacken about a degree off the head angle, makes a world of difference. Was about £40 IIRC.

Wish I hadn't sold my 5.5 – don't know what it's got until it's gone and all that. But you will end up replacing bearings regularly.

Not familiar with these frames, but in total agreement with Spey Stout:

The shock makes a big difference, consider your options.

Perhaps the £100 difference could help service/tweak/tune/upgrade the shock?

Not sure what "over biked" is? did a 30 mile chiltern loop this weekend on my Nomad. It weighs as much/little as my 456 hardtail, handles like a dream and is a joy to ride anywhere. Flying out to colorado for 2 weeks biking and I'm sure it'll fit the bill there too. I dont even use lockout or fork wind down. Back in the bad old days long travel bikes were heavy and pedalled/climbed badly so there was an argument for being "over biked" but IMHO it doesnt apply to the Nomad or most 160mm bikes these days.

I have an early Mk1 which suffers a bit from pedal-jack in the granny ring, they have tuned most of this out on the later frames, and any frame with a lower VPP style link will suffer a bit (as the chainline means the chain is pulling the linkage towards the BB, so that includes the Intense). I think other comparison threads have suggested Intense suffer from alignment/quality control issues?

If youre looking at Naruto's frame on here it is a bargain. He's already given away a Transition so go on mug him, he obviously loves it.

I'm now on my third rear chainstay on my Intense Tracer.. apparently Ive got the updated version with a beefed up yoke.. only time will tell.. no issues with alignment or bearings, i pop the seals of once in a while and re-grease… the rp23 shock was useless on it.. so I replaced it with a manitou isx6.. great bike even better with the isx6, climbs really well and thats with Lyrics to boot.. descends even better.. Ive nearly had it for 2 years and Ive missed out of 3 months worth of riding with it due to waiting for warranty replacement rear chainstays.. in reality 6" setup is probably to much for what I'm riding… if i could turn the clock back id get a SC Blur LT2 instead

It's a bit unfair compare the 2 side by side as really the Nomad is a competitor to the 6.6 being honest and the Blur LT is a better side-by-side bike to compare against the 5.5
I've had a 5.5 and as long as you look after the bearings then it will be fine. The VPP system works really well, climbs well and tracks small bumps superbly and as for going downhill the 5.5 is a blast. Yes it's a bit steeper than the LT but as an all day bike it's a very very fine bike and builds up quite light if you want. I got mine down to 25.5lb without too much spent on it

I also had a Blur too and the 5.5 was a much better all-round bike being honest but if it was a pick between the Nomad and 5.5 I'd still go for the 5.5 as an all-day ride. Hope that helps a bit.

"Not sure what "over biked" is?"

Trails feel too easy.