I guess I'm due to post a ride report. I have ridden this beast 3 times now:
- Narrabeen
- Ourimbah DH/GE
- Glenrock Lagoon
Narra has been the inaugural ride for this and it predecessor (NS Snabb-e reference
https://www.rotorburn.com/forums/index.php?threads/evolutionary-stages.305148/). It is a great location to throw around your "do it all..." while the other locations are places I have ridden many times allowing me to push the bike a little on familiar turf.
My riding style is a bit out dated these days. It is mainly short tracks that could probably best be called down hill or free ride (gravity fed, jumps, rocks, drops, berms, minimal pedalling), with a bit of dirt jumping thrown in as well. My two primary ride locations service this style perfectly and one (the top secret quarry of doom) requires more robust bike than my daily rider (pivot m4x). I have a very small quiver of tricks as well. On the old NS I often felt unbalanced and awkward pretending some of these were within my skill set, even throwing a whip didn't always feel the goods. The nomad feels perfect.
I haven't written one of these for ages...Ummm?
Positives:
- Manoeuvrability/agility of the bike
- low centre of gravity
- suspension platform (my favourite of the many tried)
Negatives:
- Weight penalty (it is heavier than I expected)
- seated climb position feels a smidge far behind the pedals (something I think
@Mywifesirrational pointed out a long time ago?)
- bottom bracket feels really low.
The bike felt awesome in the air. I sessioned the first drop at the top of the main runs (can't remember the names, liked the new trail sign though!) at Narra quite a bit as I don't have anything lime that at home. It felt perfect every time from lift off to landing and then punching down that first section and over the step up. I also sessioned most of the jumps there, as well as Ourimbah and my home turf at Glenrock. I found the newer jumps at Narra and the touched up jumps at Ourimbah (lots of jumps that need touching up though! The drought impacts us all...) were a lot of fun. The bike just launched he's and floats. I run very stiff suspension on my Pivot so the plush coil suspension takes a bit of getting used go on jumps (especially dirt jumps). Once I become accustomed on my local turf, I was able to get my funk on. The geometry is good though, allowing me to manoeuvre the bike for tweaked out landings, throw some whips and taaaaaay-bows into the mix, and pull a few x-ups (need to adjust bar/brake position though as there is slight cable contact across the top tube bringing this trick around). I haven't ridden particularly rocky terrain for a while (glenrock rock is either ruts or hard pack 85% of the time) so it took a bit of time to get in the zone for charging those sections of Narra and Ourimbah. When I did the bike just charged and popped off the bumps. It was smooth and fast, the vpp offers a great hook free ride. The low gravity and relatively short wheel base is awesome for cornering. It leans over, locks in, and shoots out with supreme ease.
I had something hit the frame and wow carbon is fucking loud! I spend a minute or two looking intently for marks but couldn't see anything distinctive.
All up I'm well pleased with this beast. I may put it on a diet soon, I'm pretty sure that switching in some of my air supply suspension I could shave off about 1kg. Still I'm liking the feel for now and may focus pumping the air suspension onto the 951. The colour has worked out well too, except most of my jerseys feature red. Hmmmm.
It's nothing rad, but it's the only action shot I have at the moment.