Nordest Sardinha ventures out with 27.5+ steel mountain bikepacking bike

Nordest is adding a new mountain bike to their line-up to fuel your next adventure, their first fully rigid bike. Pairing plus-sized tires and a suspension corrected chromoly fork, the new steel Sardinha is outfitted to haul all of the gear possible for your next backcountry mountain bikepacking adventure.

Nordest Sardinha steel 27.5+ mountain bikepacking bike

Nordest are reaching into their Portuguese heritage for their latest bike, harkening back to the Almocreve merchants who would travel from village to village in the harsh Nordeste region selling, among other things, sardinhas (sardines) out of their saddlebags, brought up from the coast. So it seemed fitting to name a bike designed to be loaded down with all of your supplies to head out in the backcountry after some goods you might still pack ifor an adventure.

So the new bikepacking rigs is designed for a nomadic life out on the trail.

Nordest developed the bike for their own adventure touring, and finalized the last prototypes while testing the bike at the fourth annual 48 hour Overnight Camp (S48O) with Portugal Bikepacking.

For its unsupported expeditions, the Sardinha gets a double-butted 4130 chromoly frame with modern stable trail geometry. That means a slack 67° headtube and compact 430mm chainstays that still manage to accommodate 27.5+ tires up to 3″ or 29+ up to 2.6″ wide. Nordest says the long & slack bikes, with 70mm stems, offer more comfortable and stable geometry for proper, loaded off-road touring than most other bikepacking bikes.

Rigid steel fork

The Sardinha’s rigid fork is suspension corrected for a 100mm travel fork, making the frame suitable for 100-120mm forks if you want to go down the road of front suspension.

Tech details

The bike gets Boost spacing at both ends with an interchangeable rear axle that could be made to work with a singlespeed setup like their Bardino enduro hardtail, but also means a stout integrated derailleur hanger for precise shifting.

The Sardinha gets all the braze-ons you should need for anything from racks to fenders and three-point bottle/anything cages, even if you will just stick with strap-on bikepacking bags. Cable routing is full-length housing and everything external for easy access. The fork gets the same attachment overkill treatment with 15 points to bolt on anything mounts, water bottle cages, racks, or fenders.

The Taiwanese-made steel frame gets a plate chainstay yoke for tire/chainring clearance, and features a threaded bottom bracket. It uses a straight 44mm headtube for straight or tapered steerer setups, while the steel fork sticks with a straight 1.125″ steerer tube. Frame weight is said to be 2450g for a M/L, plus another 1180g for the uncut fork.

The yellow Sardinha with fish-themed graphics and a proper headbadge will be available in three frame sizes (M, M/L & L) to fit riders from 168-193cm/5’6″-6’4.

Pricing & availability

The frame of the Sardinha itself is currently in full production. And if you pre-order one now you can save a bit of money – 474€ before Mar 31, or 499€ before Apr 30. From May 1 on it will retail for 550€ for the frame alone, 719€ with the fork & headset, or 999€ for the frame+fork+headset and a tubeless Rodi Black Jack wheelset wrapped in 27.5×3″ WTB Ranger tires.

The Sardinha 110 fork will also be available on its own for 125€ for anyone whoo needs a Boost steel adventure-ready fork. Both frame and fork will be available to ship in May 2018.

Nordestcycles.com