Aug 27.10 Posted in category: Travel
We were recently at the Rocky Mountain 2011 Model dealer preview and saw lots of exciting new stuff, including the new Slayer and Element platforms.
We also saw another chapter in the "old is new again" category. Like the Camaro, Mustang and Charger, Rayban Wayfarers and skinny jeans, retro bikes (with modern features like disc brakes and forks that work) are coming back.
Always lusted after one of the Rocky Vertex Team Only in "Ketchup and Mustard" maple leaf fade? No need to hit craigslist. They're back, retro stickers, yellow fork legs and all:
Or how about a classic steel Blizzard, circa 1996. Yes you can have once of those timeless beauties too...
More details to come here and on www.bikes.com
These bikes will be limited edition, get your orders in now! No word yet on whether the yellow and grey jerseys and team gear will be making a comeback...
Aug 25.10 Posted in category: Reviews
Bicycle retail can be a challenging business, requiring that one be passionate about what they do. But it does have its rewards. Like when one of your suppliers drops off a few of its not-yet-available new bikes for the staff to try. And when that delivery happens during great weather in the summer riding season. And when, like yours truly, you are just about to head off for a week of riding in Whistler and area. That’s how I came to spend about 20 happy hours in mid August on the new 2011 Norco Range 1, criss-crossing Whistler’s renowned trail network. Here’s my report on the new Range and how it rides.
The Bike
The 2011 Range is the evolution and claimed combination of Norco’s Fluid LT and Norco Six bike platforms. Norco’s aim is to provide an all-around trail bike incorporating the strengths of each of those previous models. The LT and the Six were both 160mm travel bikes, with the LT being lighter weight, focused on epic all-mountain and aggressive XC riding, while the Six was burlier, had slacker angles and was more of a freeride bike that could climb to the descents. Norco’s goal with the Range was to retain and improve the light weight of the LT for climbing and long rides, while providing a geometry that could more easily handle technical and steep descents like a Six. The result was a heavily hydroformed and we think attractive new frame that carries a revised suspension linkage design (dubbed ART or Active Ride Technology).
The Range is new from top to bottom, and a closer inspection will reveal frame features and nice details including:
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1.5 in tapered head tube
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Syntace X12 142mm thru axle rear dropout system. (we loved how this worked)
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Unified rear suspension linkage pivot for stiffness
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Wide tire clearance from shaped chain and seatstays
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Cable mounts for adjustable seatposts
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ISCG mounts for hammerschmidt or chainguides
This new design claims to yield more stiffness, strength and also achieve a lighter frame weight than past Fluid LT versions.
Our test bikes were the Range 1 model, the second from top version, with a target retail price of around $5000. With the parts specification, even at that price point, we were impressed. There were really no compromises, with the only house-brand parts being the seatpost clamp, grips and seatpost. The indisputable performance of Fox suspension anchors things – RP23 rear shock and the 36 Talas RLC FIT fork (with lockout). Shimano’s new DynaSys 10 speed version of XT handled the drivetrain and shifting. Cranks, 11-36 cassette, shifters and rear derailleur are also all XT. Raceface Atlas stem and SIXC carbon bar handled steering. Avid Elixir R brakes with 185 mm rotors slowed things down, while the bike rolled on DT Swiss 350 hubs and M480 rims. Final OEM tire choice is not yet clear, our test bikes were equipped with the lightweight Schwable Nobby Nic 2.25. No pedals are included, we tested using Shimano XT SPDs.
Nothing super- flashy or impractically lightweight, everything durable and really nothing that needs to be upgraded. The top-line SL version will go all-out for weight savings with XTR components, Crank Brothers wheels, lighter fork and similar tweaks that will make the bike (and your wallet) significantly lighter. We liked the real-world spec on the Range 1. The weight of our bike as tested with pedals was 29.9 lbs. This is significantly lighter than a similarly equipped Fluid LT – just as promised!
The Ride
As context for this assessment, my riding style is endurance XC and All Mountain. I like to climb and to do longer, challenging rides. I am an average descender and appreciate when a bike helps me through the tougher bits and makes up for my mistakes. I have spent significant time in the past few years on bikes similar to the Range including RM Slayer SXC, Norco Fluid LT, Knolly Endorphin; bikes a bit lighter and shorter travel like RM Altitude and Kona Cadabra; and bigger bikes like Norco Shore and Knolly Delirium.
I put lots of hours on this bike on just about everything Whistler can throw at you, except for the bike park (although with the right tires, the Range would have no problems on plenty of the moderate bike park trails). I ripped XC style around the Lost Lake trails, played on the stunts in River Runs through it with my son, and ground up the Flank trail to some sweet technical descents. But the best test for me of this kind of bike was along the famous Comfortably Numb trail. Challenging climbing, tricky descending moves, relentless, demanding and a bit of everything – perhaps the definition of All Mountain riding. The Range gobbled up this trail for me, climbing and descending everything smoothly and steadily, even managing the 10km paved spin to the trailhead reasonably efficiently.
The Range looks slack, with its 66.5 degree head angle and long travel suspension. And it is slacker than its predecessor. However, I found the ride very balanced and the handling sharper than you would expect from the numbers. Although equipped with Fox Talas travel adjustment, I managed all my climbing with the fork fully extended. Steep pitches required a little more body English to stay over the bike, but in general it was a very good climber and felt lighter than it is. The rear suspension was partly to credit for this, sticking to everything uphill with minimal bob or pedal feedback. Not XC-bike climbing ability, but solid, steady and enjoyable.
Point the bike downhill, and now it felt slack, in a good way! This for me was the most noticeable difference over the previous LT versions. This bike descends much ‘bigger’ than it is. Steep and rough sections it gobbled up and never felt twitchy. The frame felt very stiff laterally and as solid as any I have ridden in this class. Confidence inspiring and definitely a capable technical descending bike!
The rest of the ride report is mostly good, just because of the absence of surprises or problems. Everything worked flawlessly and quietly. The wider gear range of the Dynasys 10Speed was useful and seamless. I have been riding a 2x10 XC bike this season and am very positive about this evolution of gearing. Brakes, suspension, everything performed steadily, no fuss. The bike was definitely not new when I received it and after 20 more hard dusty hours with me remained tight and creak free.
Any minor issues I had with the Range 1 were more about personal preference than bike problems, and the type of thing that makes a product manager’s job hard. Tires – everyone has favourites, and few are good at everything. The Nobby Nics are pretty good dry condition tires and are certainly light. But they are poor in most wet conditions and have very thin sidewalls. (I cut both in the Whistler rocks). Tires are easy to swap. The SIXC bar is light and good looking, but I felt it was too wide for tighter trail riding. Personal preference and on my own bike I would simply cut them down.
The Verdict
The 2011 Norco Range delivers on the design goals and marketing claims from Norco. Built on extensive experience with previous models, this bike is a significant improvement over the Fluid LT and Six it replaces. It is lighter, stiffer, and handles extremely well in its designed use, which covers a wide spectrum of riding styles. The bike is attractive and has a high attention to detail and an excellent name-brand parts list.
Its biggest challenge is probably that it is now good enough to now be compared to just about any similar segment bike from any supplier, and that means lots of competition. The Range 1, at around $5000 is a good value with top shelf parts, but is also priced where the customer has a lot of choice for their money. We think it is definitely worth a look for those in that market, you may be surprised. The Range 1 performs as well or better than just about anything in its class, and debatably better than custom bikes costing much more.
However, the lower priced Range 2 and 3 models will also be very well equipped for their price and will deliver most of the performance of the higher priced SL and 1 versions starting at half the price. This type of well executed and solid performing bike is much harder to find in that $2500 - $3500 price point. We expect the 2011 Range 2 and 3 will be hard to beat and you’ll see plenty on the trails next year.
I liked this bike going uphill and loved it going downhill. The 2011 Range is the best Norco FS bike I have ridden to date and one that deserves comparison to the best in its class.
_The 2011 Range line is expected to begin arriving in stores late this year._
Jul 15.10 Posted in category: Events
There is already a lot of great coverage cruising around from Norco's 2011 product launch (NSMB, Pinkbike, MTBR, etc), so rather then try and reinvent the wheel we figured on sharing the bikes and features that really spoke to us.
The DB crew was fortunate enough to get a close up view of the new bikes and to meet a lot of new friends, locally and from the mother ship, out on the trail.
We will also be following up with a more detailed, multi-ride, review of the new Norco Range, series of bikes in the next few weeks.
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Speaking personally for the moment (as everyone had a personal favourit and I am the one writing this), Norco's bike of the year for 2011 is definitely the new Storm. Yeah, yeah, it isn't a game changer like the Shinobi (29'er All Mountain bike) or the, super-capable, Range series but it is a $760 trail ready hardtail with a lightweight aluminum frame, hydraulic disc brakes, Shimano's Alivio drivetrain and an oil damped Rockshox fork.
Easily the sweetest rig I have come across under 1k and definitely a tool-of-choice for the beginer rider in sizes right down to 12.5" for your tween ripper (or the vertically challenged amongst us).
2011 Norco Storm: really nice $760 entry level Mountain Bike / Photo: Drew@NV
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The bikes getting the most attention from minute-one were the new 2011 Range (replacing the Fluid LT series) and the fully redesigned Vixa.
Both bikes, based on very similar framesets, are featuring Syntace's very sleek (x-12) thru-axle system for increased stiffness, a new axle-path that improves climbing performance and keeps the suspension more active under hard braking, and slacker headangles (66.5 degree) for improved downhill performance.
I was, speaking personally again, most impressed with the new one piece alloy rocker link (which in addition to looking WAY better then previous efforts should be much stiffer) and very cleanly applied tapered headtube. The one piece postmount disc tab/gusset is also a very thought-out piece.
The clean new graphics were definitely a hit as well.
The backend of the Range: Slick disc mount, new Syntance thru-axle, quality hardware, clean graphics / Photo: Drew@NV
2011 Range: One-piece Rocker Link. YUM! / Photo: Drew@NV
Can't get enough of the new Rocker Link. Here it is in Vixa dress. Those are indeed finger holes on the bottom of the linkage for your next hike-a-bike adventure / Photo: Drew@NV
New headtube. Vixa looks WAY better in person then my crappy photos / Photo: Drew@NV
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The new Shinobi 29'er is also very cool and definitely the bike I was most excited to throw a leg over. It uses a 140mm Reba up front with 120mm of rear travel. Geometry feels dialed. Rear end is SUPER STIFF thanks to the new linkage and the Syntance X-12 rear axle system. The chainstay lenght was also very reasonable for a 2-9'er dualie.
The 29'er Reba and I have never gotten along in the past; however, their 2011 offering feels very smooth. The 10-speed shifting from Shimano was flawless and the wider 11-36t gear range out back helps get the big wheels up the steep-and-tech.
Worst. Photo. Ever. Cool bike though: The new Shinobi / Photo: Drew@NV
Shinobi being put through the paces by our friends at Bay Cycle / Photo: Drew@NV
Shinobi being put through the paces by our friend Morgan at Bikeland / Photo: Drew@NV
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Norco also has a new 4" Travel XC bike in their stable this year called the Fazer. We were more interested to see the Faze bumped up to 120mm of travel (and the Fluid bumped to 140mm and slackened a degree at the headtube angle) but our new friends from Ontario were definitely stoked.
If you are in the market for a new singletrack slayer or affordable race rig this may be your ticket as well.
If you recognize this shop jersey fire me an e-mail: the new Fazer / Photo: Drew@NV
Our friends at Bikeland rip the new Fazer / Photo: Drew@NV
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Thanks to Norco for the chance to explore their new rigs. We were very stoked for the chance to share our backyard with riders from across the country.
Regrouping on the XC Ride / Photo: Drew@NV
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Okay, one more. In the spirit of a good end-troduction; is anyone else stoked on the idea of grom-sized commuter/city bikes?
Grom sized city/commuter bikes. AWESOME / Photo: Drew@NV
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Questions? Plain, inane, insane, or regular; answered here: info@differentbikes.ca
-Drew@NV
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Jul 07.10 - We Ride - 2010 Kona Cadabra
- June 2010
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Jun 24.10 - Get Rev El’ Stoked in Revelstoke, July 11th, 2k10
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Jun 22.10 - Race Bear Mountain! (July 3rd-4th 2010)
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Jun 13.10 - Big Events This Weekend…. Get your bike in early for service!
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Jun 05.10 - North Shore Bike Fest!
- May 2010
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May 30.10 - Colin win’s the first ever NIMBY 50 race!
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May 13.10 - Nice New Video
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May 05.10 - FIRST LOOK - 2010 Rocky Mountain-Different Bikes Team Kit
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May 05.10 - UBC Tuesday Night World Championships - have started!
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May 05.10 - Canuck playoff FEVER!
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May 02.10 - RBC Gran Fondo Whistler Special Offer!
- April 2010
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Apr 29.10 - The 1st Annual Princeton Chugger (June 12th)
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Apr 11.10 - New XC Race in Pemberton - NIMBY 50
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Apr 01.10 - We Ride - Titus Carbon X and SRAM XX
- March 2010
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Mar 26.10 - West Van Store MOVED!
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Mar 09.10 - DB Partners with BONDtraining
- February 2010
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Feb 02.10 - We Ride - Knolly, Niner, Kona
- January 2010
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Jan 16.10 - Gore Tool Windstopper jacket
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Jan 04.10 - We’re Hiring!
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Jan 03.10 - Carbon Goodies
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Jan 03.10 - Gore Ride-On sealed derailleur cables
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Jan 02.10 - Vertex 50/70RSL vs. Vertex Team RSL
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Jan 02.10 - Altitude 90 RSL
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Jan 02.10 - The Rabid, Yet Discerning, Consumer
- December 2009
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Dec 20.09 - New Blogs, Where is the Forum?
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Dec 15.09 - XC Ski Demo - Cypress on Dec 19th
- November 2009
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Nov 14.09 - First Ride - 2010 Kona AbraCadabra
- July 2009
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Jul 30.09 - Vélos Différents Blog
