I've been riding one of these in the same spec with the 900 battery. Even though this handles surpringly well for its heft, it's really turned me off to this type of ebike. The center of gravity feels foreign - coming from someone whom typically does emtb rides on a Levo. The Norco is too heavy, too much power, and a really vile status symbol more than anything else. A friendly greeting to a couple while passing by resulted me overhearing "..ebike..." in a not so friendly way.
Visually, the Norco looks like a bloated athlete whom is taking too many performance enhancing drugs without any self awareness. It's visually jarring.
This doesn't feel like a bike at all, and I don't like what the Norco represents....a rich person's plaything to "enter" a sport whom I doubt knows trail ettique, any aspect of the communal nature of trail riding, or how to descend at all. This combination results in destroyed trails, injuries (that doesn't matter, they can afford the hospital bills anyways), and justified resentment from other mountain bikers.
It's seriously time to ask which ebikes serve to "democratize", which are for the outsider trying to buy the greatest/latest/most expensive eMTB as a status symbol, and which are plain unregulated motorcycles with the "ebike" slapped on it that were never designed for mountain bike trail infrastructure.
Just because there's a single (or more) bicycle component on some unregulated motorcycles doesn't erase the fact that the pedal power aspect can be easily removed to facilitate it being operated as a motorcycle. How far will "Boost" functions advance in nearing that distinction is a good question - as one day the blue chip manufacturers may allow for some yuppie to slowly pedal as they fly up a hill, with traction control to control wheelspin.
The dumbing down of eMTBs will be inevitable- the gradually increasing amount of power will necessitate traction control systems.
Jan. 18, 2022, 9:57 p.m. - cornedbeef
I've been riding one of these in the same spec with the 900 battery. Even though this handles surpringly well for its heft, it's really turned me off to this type of ebike. The center of gravity feels foreign - coming from someone whom typically does emtb rides on a Levo. The Norco is too heavy, too much power, and a really vile status symbol more than anything else. A friendly greeting to a couple while passing by resulted me overhearing "..ebike..." in a not so friendly way. Visually, the Norco looks like a bloated athlete whom is taking too many performance enhancing drugs without any self awareness. It's visually jarring. This doesn't feel like a bike at all, and I don't like what the Norco represents....a rich person's plaything to "enter" a sport whom I doubt knows trail ettique, any aspect of the communal nature of trail riding, or how to descend at all. This combination results in destroyed trails, injuries (that doesn't matter, they can afford the hospital bills anyways), and justified resentment from other mountain bikers. It's seriously time to ask which ebikes serve to "democratize", which are for the outsider trying to buy the greatest/latest/most expensive eMTB as a status symbol, and which are plain unregulated motorcycles with the "ebike" slapped on it that were never designed for mountain bike trail infrastructure. Just because there's a single (or more) bicycle component on some unregulated motorcycles doesn't erase the fact that the pedal power aspect can be easily removed to facilitate it being operated as a motorcycle. How far will "Boost" functions advance in nearing that distinction is a good question - as one day the blue chip manufacturers may allow for some yuppie to slowly pedal as they fly up a hill, with traction control to control wheelspin. The dumbing down of eMTBs will be inevitable- the gradually increasing amount of power will necessitate traction control systems.