Incidentally, the Enduro (the 2020, specifically in the rather rare granite) to also goes in my personal bike museum as both a beautiful and significant bike.
Forbidden caught lightning in a bottle with the first Druid, and to keep up those expectations for a V2 up, they had to do something - geometry changes don't cut it anymore when plenty of MTB commentary considers it closer to 'settled' than it has been in a long time.
When the Range was coming out to dealers, JJ (Norco FS product manager, I think is/was his title) dropped in at the store when his son was racing Sun Peaks - I asked about the Aurum HSP and how the Range was moving away from the 'single pivot' portion of the Aurum's design. He replied the main reason was the single pivot really limited their options as far as playing with variables in suspension design: too many things were instrinsically linked with too large an imapct on each other to tune it to a level they were satisfied with. I imagine the same is true for Forbidden between Druid 1 and Druid 2.
There's no criticism of Forbidden in my comment, or it shouldn't be interpreted that way, at least. Consider it a pining for the recent past, if you like.
May 9, 2023, 2:25 p.m. - Lu Kz
Incidentally, the Enduro (the 2020, specifically in the rather rare granite) to also goes in my personal bike museum as both a beautiful and significant bike. Forbidden caught lightning in a bottle with the first Druid, and to keep up those expectations for a V2 up, they had to do something - geometry changes don't cut it anymore when plenty of MTB commentary considers it closer to 'settled' than it has been in a long time. When the Range was coming out to dealers, JJ (Norco FS product manager, I think is/was his title) dropped in at the store when his son was racing Sun Peaks - I asked about the Aurum HSP and how the Range was moving away from the 'single pivot' portion of the Aurum's design. He replied the main reason was the single pivot really limited their options as far as playing with variables in suspension design: too many things were instrinsically linked with too large an imapct on each other to tune it to a level they were satisfied with. I imagine the same is true for Forbidden between Druid 1 and Druid 2. There's no criticism of Forbidden in my comment, or it shouldn't be interpreted that way, at least. Consider it a pining for the recent past, if you like.