Norco 2010 – Part 2

If you missed the first article from the 2010 Norco Launch, check it out here.

Day two of the Norco 2010 product launch started off with an urban ride for the journalist types while the shop reps had some round-table product discussions. I sort of felt bad for the shop reps and tried not to be conspicuous when grabbing a bike to take with me on the urban ride. As a result of being a long time member of the NSMB community, when I hear the words “urban ride”, I immediately think of the container drop or the BC Place stair gap we used to hit during the classic Friday night urban rides. This urban ride however was a little more literal – we rode bikes in the city. In addition, we did a lot of watching while Ryan Leech and Dylan Korba rode trials on pretty much anything they wanted to or we asked them to.

^{Anyone need a beer-basket for their bike? We’ll save oddities like this for Interbike.}

When I arrived at the hotel in the morning, most of the trendy bikes suitable for such a ride had already been taken by the other journalists. I was about to grab a Norco XFR when from the corner of my eye I spotted one last gleaming white Spade. The Spade falls under the road-bike divider in the product catalogue, but really it’s a single speed narrow-bar chrome toe-clipped hipster machine. Truth be told, it has a Formula flip-flop rear hub so you can run it hipster or freewheel if you like (the default). The frame is double-butted chromoly with track bike angles and a chrome plated fork. The stem and risers are also chrome plated. Blue anodized deep-dish rims, headset, handlebar, hubs and seat post add just enough accents to make this bike a looker. Norco had WTB do a custom silverado saddle that put the bow on the whole package. Like any road bike, the Spade is light and responsive with a mix of stiffness and forgiveness that only chromoly can provide. With a retail price of $850 CA, it’s a pretty sweet deal if you’re looking for a new commuter.

^{The Norco Spade. White, single-speed, chrome and blue anodized particulars. Not shown are the silver clasps that hold the rear brake cable in place along the top tube. Norco paid a lot of attention to detail with this one. Photo courtesy of Norco}

Our urban ride started from the Wall Centre hotel and went south down towards the sea wall at English Bay. As a downtown resident, I know the area very well and looked forward to a scenic laid-back cruise around my home turf – something I’ve never done before. Our group was big enough to make most of the usual commuters realize something out of the ordinary was going on. Unfortunately there were a few agro types late for work who didn’t appreciate our occupation of both the bike and pedestrian paths. If only they’d slowed for a moment and looked around, they would have been treated to some pretty technical riding from Ryan and Dylan. Our journey took us East toward Science World, and then around in front of the the 2010 Athlete’s Village and eventually onto the gorgeous Island Park Walk into Granville Island. The more bike-friendly Burrard Street Bridge brought us back downtown to the Wall Centre just in time for a group photo and some lunch.

<sup>Ryan Leech gapping the waterfall at the bottom of Howe Street.


Ryan again, getting ready to hop along some blue pipes with some onlookers uh… looking on.


Dylan Korba getting tired of people complaining about us riding on the sidewalk. What you don’t see is Norco’s Peter Stace-Smith behind me watching while cringing at the same time. I think he kept imagining his own kids up there.


Ryan scoping out new lines in front of the Athlete’s Village. Photo: Derek Vanderkooy</sup>

After lunch we made our way up to Burnaby Mountain for an afternoon of riding, both on the trails and the Burnaby Mountain Skills Park. I haven’t been riding on the trails on Burnaby mountain for quite a few years. It was refreshing to rediscover those trails and to ride some gnarly bits I’d never been on before. The shop reps eventually made their way over to Burnaby Mountain to ride as well. At some point in the day, there must have been 4 or 5 groups of riders meandering around the trails. Dylan Korba wanted to take a group who were interested in riding fast down-hill and zero uphill, but that plan must have failed because we ran into that group later on and they were definitely doing some climbs. Or at least they were at the bottom of the mountain with no way of getting back up except to climb. I’m sure they didn’t walk their bikes up. Who would when they’ve got an LT 6.1 under their legs?

^{The man behind the dinner rolls is also the man behind the Burnaby Mountain Bike Skills Park, Jay Hoots.}

The LT 6.1 is an all-mountain 6″ (adjustable) all-in-one machine. The LT series grew out of the Fluid series to fill a small gap between a full-on freeride bike and the more conservative xc single-track rides intended for the Fluid series itself. It’s a robust design that feels solid enough to ensure your confidence level doesn’t take a bit of a drop. Beefing it up slightly over the previous model is a tapered 1.5 – 1 1/8th head tube that provides plenty of stiffness and a larger surface area the welds. The head angle on the Norco Shore is 66 degrees. On the LT series it’s 68 degrees (67.5 on the XS frame), and on the Fluid series it jumps up to 69 degrees. The FSR suspension is adjustable between 5.25″ and 6.1″ and the hydroformed frame comes in XS, S, M, L and XL sizes. A 34.9mm OD seat tube allows for the standard 30.9 adjustable seat post, if you like. The 6.1 comes standard with a Crank Bros Joplin seat post with remote. More on that in a moment.

^{The new Norco LT 6.1 all mountain machine. Photo courtesy of Norco}

Norco made some slight changes to the seat-stay yoke to lighten it and provide more rear-tire clearance. There is new hardware at all the main pivot locations and on the shock mount. This year the 6.1 comes with a Rockshox Monarch 4.2 Air (the 6.2 and 6.3 come with a Monarch 3.1 and 2.1, respectively). On this ride I made certain that I was running with ample pressure in the back end, but found out later that you can run this shock with less pressure than normal. Suspension duties up front are handed off to a Rockshox Lyric 2 Step Air on the 6.1, a Solo Air on the 6.2 and a Revelation 150mm with Maxle lite on the 6.3. Stopping power comes from Avid Elixir CR’s with 7″ rotors on the 6.1, and Juicy on the lower models. The Crankbros remote-adjustable seat post was mostly good. I didn’t like the way the seat could float up when it was set in a lower position (sometimes it would catch my shorts or jersey and move up and down with me). I couldn’t get the collar tight enough to keep the seat from swiveling left or right if I bumped it with a bit of force.

<sup>The LT felt like a slightly heavier xc bike when it was time to ride uphill (yes, that’s uphill). Photo: Derek Vanderkooy


Ryan has a huge smile whether he rides trails or trials.</sup>

In the writeup for the first day of the launch, Cam mentioned his experience with the Truvativ Hammerschmidt crank. Like Cam, I tried it out last year at Interbike on a small demo-trail behind the SRAM booth. The LT 6.1 comes standard with Hammerschmidt and I was eager to try it out in a situation where I was going to be doing some proper climbing mid-ride. It took some time to decide on which mode the Hammerschmidt would be in by default. I left it in overdrive, where the gear ratio is 1::1.6. Therefore, when I “switched gears”, I dropped it down to a 1::1 ratio. This meant I had a huge amount of power going to the back wheel, and was great for sudden technical uphill sections. It was equivalent to a 24 tooth granny gear up front. The shifting is literally instantaneous and can be done while pedaling, not pedaling, or even pedaling backwards. If you get a chance to try it out, I highly recommend it. I’m curious to see where Truvativ takes Hammerschmidt over the next few years.

^{Single speed belt-driven 29incher: The Norco Judan.}

Twenty-Niners still haven’t caught on in a big way up here like they have been down in the US for the past few years. Regardless, Norco has bikes to cover that segment of the market as well. Of particular interest is their belt-driven Judan: a slick black cro-mo frame with red accents and a Gates Carbon Drive Belt for ridiculously smooth and quiet drivetrain operation. One member, Adam from mtbr, grabbed the Judan as his weapon of choice for the afternoon ride, taking many of us by surprise. I didn’t have a chance to test drive it myself, but judging from the smile on his face all day long, I think Norco has a winner with this bike. Maintenance on a belt drive can be a bit trickier because belt tension is very crucial. Norco has designed the drop out such that it will retain your tension setting when the tire is off the bike. If you need to make an adjustment on the trail, be sure to have a small adjustable crescent wrench with you. Perhaps Norco can swap those tension bolts for something that accommodates an allen key instead.

^{Detail on the drop-out. The belt is extremely strong and should last you a very long time.}

With Ben Boyko on the Norco squad, it should come as no surprise that they also have a couple of bikes dedicated to the world of slopestyle riding. The winner of Crankworx in 2007 has had a lot of input and testing time on Norco’s Empire line. The frame design is a direct result of his involvement. The two models are the Empire 5 SE and the empire 5. Both share the same hydroformed top tupe and down tube, low standover, stiff rear-end, shorter chain-stays and low shock mount for a low centre of gravity. The head angle is fairly steep at 68.5 degrees, but who is going to argue with Ben? 5 inches of travel was also deemed to be plenty. The SE comes with a higher grade component group and a grey/orange paint scheme (vs. blue/green on the 5 model). Both models come in small and medium sizes, which shouldn’t be a problem unless you’re tall like Kelly McGarry.

<sup>Studio shot of the Empire 5 SE. Photo courtesy of Norco.


Darcy Turenne x-upping at the Burnaby dj’s.</sup>

We wrapped up the day at the Burnaby Mountain skills park where some of us took the opportunity to practice our dirt jumping skills while Norco prepared some bbq goodness for dinner. Dylan, Hoots and Darcy were on hand to tear up the dj’s and provide some fodder for the camera guys. It’s a great setting for that golden evening sun. Not much has changed in the dirt-jumper lineup from Norco. They’ve got models for all of the different sized riders out there. My intrigue in sturdy shore-worthy hardtails began when I first took sight of a Norco 250 way back when. The 250 is still around, and still a cro-mo frame (although it was aluminum when I first saw it). New from the previous edition is a Rockshox Argyle fork and Avid Juicy 3’s front and back with 6″ rotors. The dirtjumper series include the 4hun, 250, 125, Ryde and Havoc.

<sup>Ben Boyko as Superman.


Dylan Korba gets upside down.</sup>

Norco has more goodies that we’ll save for Interbike. I haven’t bought a new mountain bike for quite a few years, and quite frankly, I don’t know how I’d be able to make a decision on a new bike now. There are so many good bikes out there filling so many niches that we fall victim to the tyranny of choice. I was impressed with the new bikes presented by Norco and by the company as a whole. Keep up the good work Norco.

^{Boyko on a sweet summer evening in a nice flat 3.}

If you have any comments or questions (pricing, frame sizes, geometry, specs etc.), please post them here.

Fergs

^{Just for kicks: Friday night urban, circa 2003ish. Any familiar faces in there?}