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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:

 

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._