Finally it has arrived. Carbon bike in desert content…

After much delay and inconvenience of acquiring it, my Santa Cruz Nomad has finally made out with me to the desert.

Did a few km in the sand last night at 35C and that was hard work, but its still 45 at 6pm (was 50C at 10am) so I might give it a miss tonight… However it pedals exceptionally well.

Nice..you’ll be doing a what tyre for deep sand thread soon then…

Nice but you should gone for the blue x0 IMO

I was expecting to see it in a huge bowl of custard!

niceeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

nice terrain – check

nice bike – check

jealous – check

seriously 35degrees for this muddy shit bath i’d swap anyday of the week!

good lad.

lawn could do with a sweep.

Garden needs watering.

There’s a great big 2 headed snake in the background!

RUN!

lovely bike 😀

That’s nice. Wheels are a bit loud aren’t they.

my Santa Cruz Nomad has finally made out with me

Make sure you use a good lube, carbon can splinter awfully.

Err, not that I’d know… *itches*

Nice but you should gone for the blue x0 IMO

or easier still get some red frame decals :).. ooh dry soil!!! whats that???

Nice bike, not sure I’d want to be somewhere where it’s 35c at night though!

Yeah would have loved the matching blue decals but just trying to get a 2013 groupset in oz was enough of a mission. Was meant to be the flat black graphics but I’m just glad to have a bike out here. The Havens are a bit loud – im trying to get a conversion kit so i can put my carbon havens from the yet on it.

Tyres are fine just have to pedal harder, 4km in sand at 35C feels like 40km.

Also I am very unfit.

The garden has had a bit of a water I did 2″ in half a hour the other day, wet season is coming so it’ll be a bit greener again next year.

That looks posh. Your desert shrubbery needs trimming though.

On a serious observation – you may want to swop the uppy/downy lever over to the other side of the bar.

Mount it upside down so you dont break it off the first time you turn your bike upside down to change a tube. It will also unclutter the RH side of the bars.

You can also mount it so its just in reach of your thumb, that way you dont have to let go to use it.

What does it weigh ?

Yeah I ordered the RH lever so I could put it under the LH brake for just that reason. Haven’t had chance to do anything at all to it yet – that is basically as it came out of the bike bag. I can reach it where it currently is with my thumb but it will get moved eventually. Tempted to get fox Ctd remotes on LH side as well.

Competitive cyclist calculator put it at just shy of 26lbs. Don’t have anything really to weigh it on out here. Def feels sub 30 though.

Also I dont have to trim the shrubbery – it’ll catch fire sooner or later…

Should you not have gone for a Fat bike for the desert ??

Glad to see all that money you’re earning in the mining boom out here is being put to good use 😀

Might have to change your name to one-happy-bogan tho’… (Australian in joke)

Well I do like Emu Bitter, even though it’s not being brewed in WA any more.

Fat bike sound too much like one of the jack of one trade fashionistas things like fixies.

This is going to be my do all bike for bring back to the uk to ride everything on.

Update – after another Sandy ride – I must say from the limited experience so far I rather like the Nomad.

I also like the Fox CTD forks/shock – only used them in climb mode but it makes a noticible difference to how well it pedals.

Excellent all in all!

Mmmmmmm

You’ll get to see it if you come out for a ride in Jan at somepint mate!

I will do!

I’m going to make sure all your family send you mudguards for Christmas!

very nice, but not sure I like the downtube stickers

+1 needs blue detailing (and I’d rotate the bars a bit).

I see carbon FS as the future really, even though I’m a HT fan…

That’s not a desert. This is a desert…….

(Nice bike by the way)