PRESS RELEASE
Norco Unleashes A New Steel Torrent for 2020
Norco has been building a bike sporting the Torrent name since 1995, and over those years it's evolved from a steel XC hardtail, to a burly aluminum freeride machine, and even sported plus sized tires for a spell. Now though, Norco returns to the Torrent roots, with a burly steel hardtail with some properly modern geometry. Read on after the break for the full rundown.
Norco Bicycles is excited to introduce the 2020 Torrent – a burly, progressive steel hardtail built to handle the toughest trails, and test a rider’s mettle. Modern mountain bike trails have evolved, and bikes have adapted with them. Lines are getting scarier, gaps bigger, and technical sections are being built to push both rider and equipment to the edge.
Most riders have embraced the advantages of modern full suspension and today’s progressive geometry, which make riding these fast, scary trails seem downright reasonable. Norco created the 2020 Torrent to rage on modern trails without the need for rear suspension or advanced carbon layups – it’s just the rider, some hand-welded Chromoly, and whatever skills they’ve picked up along the way – so every bit of mud-splattered sense of satisfaction felt at the end of a tough trail comes from the rider’s skills - not just technology and suspension design.

The Torrent’s modern features and new progressive All-Mountain geometry provide stable, agile descending, paired with climbing capability that would elicit envy from a mountain goat – perfect for any rider looking to bring their trail riding to the next level without the extra expense and complexity of rear suspension, and a new challenge for advanced riders trying to keep themselves honest. With massive standover clearance, long reach combined with a short stem, and decidedly slack head angle, every Torrent also features Norco’s latest version of Gravity Tune which provides the same ride experience to every rider, no matter their stature.




The Torrent has been an integral part of Norco’s lineup since 1995, when it was first introduced as a steel XC Race hardtail – because that’s how we rolled in ’95. Everybody else was going full-on aluminum, but we still loved steel, so we went with what we loved. Hit the link HERE to find out more...
Comments
Bushpilot
5 years, 8 months ago
Glad to see a nice short seat tube on the large.
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khai
5 years, 8 months ago
Solid, modern, geo & reach numbers. Nice clean looking frame. But at $4k for the S1 I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't buy a Chromag for less...
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Peter Adamkovics
5 years, 8 months ago
> Norco has been building a bike sporting the Torrent name since 1995, and over that 15 years it's evolved from a steel XC....
1995 to today is 24 years, not 15, or am i missing something?
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Cam McRae
5 years, 8 months ago
You're trying to tell me it's not 2010?
Not sure where that error originated but I removed the offending digits.
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Mammal
5 years, 8 months ago
I'm assuming Norco website prices are in USD? $900 for the frame is almost desirable, but if it's USD, that's getting well into Chromag territory. I'd go Chromag all day long in that case.
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Bushpilot
5 years, 8 months ago
Looks like that's the Canadian price on their website, which is on par with ($29 more than) a Rootdown.
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Rob Gretchen
5 years, 8 months ago
Wow, just wow... Norco continues their world domination.. ha ha.... but seriously Chromag all day long FTW...
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flatch
5 years, 8 months ago
Love the grape, nice lookin’
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oldschoolsteel
5 years, 8 months ago
The Chromag rootdown has become a bit of a dated model in the last few years. This Norco has nice short stays and can take bigger tires than a Honzo. It probably takes wider tires than the Rootdown too. I'm a rowdy hardtail fan, and the geometry is definitely singing to me. These are some awesome numbers and spec. I'm loving the low-slung frame.
I just don't see many people willing to spend 900 on a Norco frame welded in asia with no-name steel tubing. This bike probably cost less than a hundred dollars to have made. If there's some added value I can't see, they need to market it better. If they'd made it out of Reynolds 853 or something similar, it would have been more compelling.
At this point, I'm just hoping this pushes Chromag to update their Rootdown.
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UFO
5 years, 8 months ago
The Rooty got updated for 2019, not sure if you're aware. It's now 64 HA 76 SA, reach is basically same as before. It keeps the ultra short 415mm CS if you're into that sort of thing. So the geo is virtually on par with the Norco, but the Rootdown uses the PF92 bb shell ugh.
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oldschoolsteel
5 years, 8 months ago
Nice. No, I didn't know they updated it. So basically, Norco may have slightly more tire clearance (maybe, I couldn't find the max tire spec for the new rootdown online, but the old one can handle 2.5s on some rims). The Norco also gets a better bottom bracket standard.
I like where they're going with the Torrent, I just think they need something more at this price.
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Vik Banerjee
5 years, 7 months ago
900% markup on the Norco frame? That seems highly unlikely.
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Aidan747
5 years, 8 months ago
I want one! How much??
Never mind......... How big is the market for a 4k hardtail?
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