When we moved back to the Westcountry my wife and I agreed that when we’d bought our house i could get a new bike (woooooooo).
I’d been out of biking for several years as i lived in a particularly uninspiring flat area and wasn’t really feeling the love. However, moving back to the edge of Dartmoor (shhhh, its terrible) reinvigorated my want to start riding again. So i started looking for a new bike. Man have things changed since i last bought a bike! Its so hard to decide on things now. Wheel size, geometry, spec…
In the end i decided i wanted a trail bike with not too much travel, modern-ish geometry that isn’t ridiculously long, ability to fit a bottle in the triangle if i want to, 12x drivetrain and a dropper post (or routing for one).
The Norco appeared on STW before Christmas and i was taken! The spec, the geo and the price looked great, so without riding one i pre-ordered. Have had it out a few times now round North Dartmoor and Haldon.
Its great. Love the feel of the longer geo, but then my hardtail is a 26″ which is too small a frame for me really. I’m riding a large Fluid and it feels spot on for me at 6’1″ with 32″ inside leg.
Climbs relatively well for the weight – don’t notice it. And being stretched out more than previous bikes and on the right size frame it feels like i’m making better use of my meagre legs! Downhill its fun, manoeuvrable and fast enough to keep up with (and sometimes overtake) my mates.
Spec – couldn’t be happier for now. I’m a perennial bike tinkerer. The spec on the Norco is fine, not blingy, but not rubbish either. So i’ll more than happily wear things out before replacing with an upgrade. The only thing I have done is fit a Fabric saddle so my ar5e only has to get used to one shape between this and my CX bike.
I haven’t checked if its set up tubeless or not, just been enjoying being out in the woods and on the moor. But if not then i’ll be doing a conversion this weekend.
I was waiting for the review after seeing it appear on here as “potentially the best bike below £2k” (or whatever Hannah said), but its not appeared yet so thought i’d share my limited thoughts for what they’re worth.
Anyway, here’s a photo. Love it so far. Anyone else got one?