I got my Nomad completed on Friday and rode SC UC trails on Sunday.
The UC trails sort of remind me of Calaveras but with longer climbs and descends within trees. There are steep technical trails, there are cross country trails, there are jump trails, and everything in between. People bring their kids to ride the easy trails and others bring their DH bikes for some trails.
Here are the pics from the ride.
http://imgur.com/a/Tj2i6
And here is the video.
http://www.pinkbike.com/video/453806/
If you guys come up North, UC trails and Demo forest are definitely worth riding.
The new nomad initial thoughts:
We did about 20 miles of riding, climbing on the new nomad is not as good at the 2013 nomad. I did climb everything just fine, but with the gearing I have (34 front, 10-42 rear 11spd), the climb felt harder and likely due to the increase in wheel size. At the end of the day, I felt like I could go another 20 miles without any problems.
On the descends, the bike handled everything like my previous DH bike (demo
. I made really bad choices on my lines, and the fork and bike definitely saved me. Some places I ran out of gearing, the bike wanted to go faster, but the 34 front ring wasn't large enough. The Lyrik and Vivid Air combo definitely gives the bike good grip, but the plushness takes extra effort to get the bike into the air. Overall, the Nomad with 180mm Lyrik and vivid air felt like a DH bike that climbs similar to an AM bike.