Santa Cruz Nomad LT 7

When I broke my rear triangle riding in towards the end winter it gave me time to undertake a project. In an effort to make the Nomad as downhill oriented as possible I designed and machined a new lower link that boosted the frame to 190 mm of travel and lengthened the chainstay 6 mm. The new configuration runs a 230 mm x 65 mm shock as opposed to the stock 60 mm stroke shock. I created a bit of code in Mathematica that can analyze any configuration of the Nomad's suspension layout and designed the lower link to be more progressive than the stock one. Since I was switching from the Super Deluxe that came with the frame at this time, I decided I wanted to make a bearing eyelet for the DHX2 in order to get unparalleled small bump sensitivity. This combined with the more progressive leverage curve makes the bike track insanely well over chunder while also delivering more pop when hitting jumps. All the while the lower link added a negligible amount of weight and maintains the stock ride height while seated so pedaling is largely unaffected.