Norco Range 2021

PB Forum :: Norco
Norco Range 2021
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flag BrianColes
Posted: Nov 28, 2021 at 23:40 Quote
bradwalton wrote:
maxwharin1 wrote:
bradwalton wrote:


If you changed everything on the bike, you bought the wrong bike. Shoulda gone C1.

I was referring more to riders downgrading to structurally weaker components, like if you would have bought a Fox 36 instead of the 38. Or air shock instead of the coil spec’d on every model by Norco. Sounds like you are still within the parameters of Norco’s intentions.

Is a 36/lyrik or an air shock actually structurally weaker though? Never seen an air shock snap in half...seen quite a few coil shocks snap in two on peoples bikes..

I don’t see any Ranges winning races. It has its merits but if weight is a huge concern there are much better/simpler options out there that don’t have 100 parts in the schematic.

Henry Fitzgerald won Psychosis on the Range. You know, that 12 min DH race with a steep as f*ck up hill sprint.
flag bradwalton
Posted: Nov 29, 2021 at 5:22 Quote
BrianColes wrote:
Henry Fitzgerald won Psychosis on the Range. You know, that 12 min DH race with a steep as f*ck up hill sprint.

Well I stand corrected! A pedalable DH bike is exactly what it is.
flag chri92
O+
Posted: Nov 29, 2021 at 7:15 Quote
Would Would any of you consider the Range as an Enduro race bike? It is advertised as such by Norco, but I am not sure if it is the best choice for most trails. Especially considering the size recommendation, it can be too big for narrow tracks. What is your opinion on this?
flag bradwalton
Posted: Nov 29, 2021 at 7:50 Quote
chri92 wrote:
Would Would any of you consider the Range as an Enduro race bike? It is advertised as such by Norco, but I am not sure if it is the best choice for most trails. Especially considering the size recommendation, it can be too big for narrow tracks. What is your opinion on this?

That’s what I meant by the Range isn’t winning any races. It’s big and heavy, generally too much bike for enduro racing but not enough for DH racing. There aren’t many enduro race tracks with enough sustained steep and chunky terrain to utilize the Range’s strengths.

The rearward axle path does preserve forward momentum, but I find it requires a lot of energy to ride the Range in less aggressive terrain compared to simpler suspension designs that can be both lighter as well as have more pop and energy transfer (directly comparing the Range to the frame it replaced for me which was a Specialized Enduro). It definitely takes more energy to get the front end up on the Range since the chainstay gets longer under compression, which is noticeable in tighter terrain.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my Range. But if I didn’t have another bike, it would be too much bike. I prefer Norco engineering to Transition bro science, but if I were in the market for a ‘one bike’, the Spire would be a strong contender with its lighter weight, excellent geometry, and lively/responsive feel. I liked the Enduro but it was a bit long in S5 compared to XL Range and the head angle a bit steep. The Range is a bit of a specialty bike, really good at plowing wide open trail, but can also pedal back to the top. It really just depends on where you’ll ride it.
flag chri92
O+
Posted: Nov 29, 2021 at 8:06 Quote
bradwalton wrote:
chri92 wrote:
Would Would any of you consider the Range as an Enduro race bike? It is advertised as such by Norco, but I am not sure if it is the best choice for most trails. Especially considering the size recommendation, it can be too big for narrow tracks. What is your opinion on this?

That’s what I meant by the Range isn’t winning any races. It’s big and heavy, generally too much bike for enduro racing but not enough for DH racing. There aren’t many enduro race tracks with enough sustained steep and chunky terrain to utilize the Range’s strengths.


It's interesting that Norco misjudges intended use.
I ordered my Range before it was launched. The representative only said that it would be the ultimate enduro race bike. Maybe I should look around for something else.
flag Daveproride
Posted: Nov 29, 2021 at 10:15 Quote
BrianColes wrote:
bradwalton wrote:
maxwharin1 wrote:


Is a 36/lyrik or an air shock actually structurally weaker though? Never seen an air shock snap in half...seen quite a few coil shocks snap in two on peoples bikes..

I don’t see any Ranges winning races. It has its merits but if weight is a huge concern there are much better/simpler options out there that don’t have 100 parts in the schematic.

Henry Fitzgerald won Psychosis on the Range. You know, that 12 min DH race with a steep as f*ck up hill sprint.

He won it on an dh bike with a dh fork, another link and more mm of travel over all. So i think it is not comparable to the „enduro“ version of the bike.

I buy the bike for fun. If it does not fit i sell it. I will be racing some races but mostly i climb that thihng up and ride it down for the funSmile
flag austenselk
Posted: Nov 29, 2021 at 11:42 Quote
chri92 wrote:
bradwalton wrote:
chri92 wrote:
Would Would any of you consider the Range as an Enduro race bike? It is advertised as such by Norco, but I am not sure if it is the best choice for most trails. Especially considering the size recommendation, it can be too big for narrow tracks. What is your opinion on this?

That’s what I meant by the Range isn’t winning any races. It’s big and heavy, generally too much bike for enduro racing but not enough for DH racing. There aren’t many enduro race tracks with enough sustained steep and chunky terrain to utilize the Range’s strengths.


It's interesting that Norco misjudges intended use.
I ordered my Range before it was launched. The representative only said that it would be the ultimate enduro race bike. Maybe I should look around for something else.

Besides a number of professional riders, the Range wasn't released to the public until the fall of '21. Well past any racing series or competitions, and for those of us who picked one up same dilemma. I myself am not a racer nor will I ever be. I for one bought a Range because of its geometry, balanced travel, HVP, and its climbing characteristics are superb for a bike with this much travel and geometry.

The "representative" is a salesmen first of all and probably hadn't ridden one on dirt for a significant amount of time. There hasn't been any long term reviews that I've seen or come across. Most are first impressions and some riding, but none have been for a genuinely long period to give a serious in-depth thorough review. The shop where I bought mine from all said the same thing, "Its a big bike that's incredible for descending." Which is what I thought of the 2021 Specialized Enduro that I demoed for a day and after spending nearly five hours riding that day, I decided that while was amazing at descending and felt incredibly in control regardless of trail or condition of said trail, the way it climbed I could not commit to having it be my one bike. I only have one bike to my name and that's how I've been for years now, and the Range is no different as it is my only bike that I own and ride. Now again, I bought my Range in the middle of August. I cannot say how many miles I've put on it, or even hours I've spent in the saddle (though from an estimation standpoint I would be pretty accurate as I know my local trails very well) and with everything under consideration. I really was unsure leading up to, if I could stomach this big of bike as being my one and only bike and making it my daily rider.

My initial and first impressions of a bike with a HSP being a Forbidden Druid were not good and were such that I immediately posted it and sold it as I found its climbing characteristics to be subpar and again something that I could not fathom being my daily rider. Which is why I go back to talking about the Range as its character when climbing is superb for a bike with this much travel. We have to climb, and you have to deal with said climb (I don't typically go to resorts or get shuttles to the top) and thus far with everything that I've climbed up with the Range, I've been impressed that I can scale up technical terrain incredibly well and have been surprised from time to time that I was still on my bike going uphill after taking a particular line and still afterwards proceeding upwards and forwards.
flag bradwalton
Posted: Nov 30, 2021 at 6:41 Quote
Both of you share the sentiment as me with the bike, we bought it for and use it for FUN! The level of mid stroke support is astounding and having such a linear suspension design with rearward axle path means it just plows everything in its path. I agree, it does climb VERY well, for any kind of bike. It’s mostly aimed at DH though, which is where it really shines. I’m constantly impressed with how well it holds a line and gains momentum through chunk.

On tighter technical terrain, my Stumpjumper Evo is way faster though, being 10 lbs lighter despite being 160/160mm with the Cascade link. I have the Stumpy set up at 63.5 degree head tube angle and it has much shorter chainstays than the Range, as well as being 495mm reach for S5 vs 515mm for the XL Range. After riding the Range the majority of the time, the Stumpy feels like a rocket ship! I save the light bike for epics and race pace rides. While I can ride most of the steep gnarly stuff on the Stumpy, it’s a lot more fun on the Range, and I do worry about breaking the Stumpjumper frame or the super light DT1200XMC wheels that are on it. The Range on the less steep trails is less exciting because it’s much slower in all regards, and the characteristic lack of pop in high pivot bikes is blatantly apparent. That doesn’t keep me from pedaling it uphill.

I find the rearward axle path can help on technical climbs as well, once I learned how to compensate for it. I finished building the Range September 1 and haven’t shuttled it once. I ride it 8-10 hours with ~10k’ vertical a week and have done no maintenance to the pivots. The dropouts came loose after the first ride but after a blue loctite bath haven’t been an issue since.

The low linkage protector has some cosmetic impact damage but is perfectly intact. I’ve learned it’s location relative to high rocks/logs and usually can avoid them by unweighting the rear end to keep from hanging up.

One reason I sold my Enduro was I heard alot about frame failures, and I was concerned in this short-supply economy I wouldn’t be able to get a warranty frame for some time. I’m big and heavy and have broken a lot of bikes. I feel super confident in the Range with its stout and robust construction. I’ve been riding it a ton during this unusually wet autumn in WA, and there are no squeaks or creaks thus far.
flag austenselk
Posted: Nov 30, 2021 at 7:40 Quote
bradwalton wrote:
Both of you share the sentiment as me with the bike, we bought it for and use it for FUN! The level of mid stroke support is astounding and having such a linear suspension design with rearward axle path means it just plows everything in its path. I agree, it does climb VERY well, for any kind of bike. It’s mostly aimed at DH though, which is where it really shines. I’m constantly impressed with how well it holds a line and gains momentum through chunk.

On tighter technical terrain, my Stumpjumper Evo is way faster though, being 10 lbs lighter despite being 160/160mm with the Cascade link. I have the Stumpy set up at 63.5 degree head tube angle and it has much shorter chainstays than the Range, as well as being 495mm reach for S5 vs 515mm for the XL Range. After riding the Range the majority of the time, the Stumpy feels like a rocket ship! I save the light bike for epics and race pace rides. While I can ride most of the steep gnarly stuff on the Stumpy, it’s a lot more fun on the Range, and I do worry about breaking the Stumpjumper frame or the super light DT1200XMC wheels that are on it. The Range on the less steep trails is less exciting because it’s much slower in all regards, and the characteristic lack of pop in high pivot bikes is blatantly apparent. That doesn’t keep me from pedaling it uphill.

I find the rearward axle path can help on technical climbs as well, once I learned how to compensate for it. I finished building the Range September 1 and haven’t shuttled it once. I ride it 8-10 hours with ~10k’ vertical a week and have done no maintenance to the pivots. The dropouts came loose after the first ride but after a blue loctite bath haven’t been an issue since.

The low linkage protector has some cosmetic impact damage but is perfectly intact. I’ve learned it’s location relative to high rocks/logs and usually can avoid them by unweighting the rear end to keep from hanging up.

One reason I sold my Enduro was I heard alot about frame failures, and I was concerned in this short-supply economy I wouldn’t be able to get a warranty frame for some time. I’m big and heavy and have broken a lot of bikes. I feel super confident in the Range with its stout and robust construction. I’ve been riding it a ton during this unusually wet autumn in WA, and there are no squeaks or creaks thus far.

Where in WA do you live?
flag bradwalton
Posted: Nov 30, 2021 at 8:23 Quote
austenselk wrote:

Where in WA do you live?

Bellingham
flag austenselk
Posted: Nov 30, 2021 at 9:35 Quote
Good good. I had lived in Camas for just a month, but I was amazed by all of the green. Absolutely beautiful.
flag nskerb
O+
Posted: Nov 30, 2021 at 10:57 Quote
austenselk wrote:
Good good. I had lived in Camas for just a month, but I was amazed by all of the green. Absolutely beautiful.

Larch boiz
flag austenselk
Posted: Nov 30, 2021 at 11:17 Quote
nskerb wrote:
austenselk wrote:
Good good. I had lived in Camas for just a month, but I was amazed by all of the green. Absolutely beautiful.

Larch boiz

Eh?
flag maxwharin1
O+
Posted: Nov 30, 2021 at 12:24 Quote
Long post Trigger warning

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Finally got around to weighing some stuff. Let’s keep in mind, just because one wants to shed some weight from a bike, doesn’t mean it’s the wrong bike for them! Thinking of this like a long term experiment. Most people, myself included, would likely swap these unnecessarily heavy parts out eventually, like the crank set.

Current C3 build came in at 40.5lb, that’s with pedals, DD tires front and rear, Cush core in the rear and Cush core XC up front. Nobl TR37 wheels with DT350’s, 220mm rotor out back w/NSB caliper adapter, full length mud guard, and to be extra specific..4 volume spacers one the fork. DHX2 in the picture is setup with a SAR light spring. Cockpit is RF stem/Carbon bar. Pretty much everything else is stock.

Switching to the Super Deluxe Ultimate drops just over 1lb, brining the bike to 39.5lb. (We will have to see how the bike rides with the air though. I’m skeptical of the claims that the bike won’t work well with air, since as we’ve seen the progression can be very similar, so I’m not worried about big progression spikes, but I suspect the mid stroke might get weird.)

With that in mind, I expect one could drop quite a bit of weight from the range without sacrifice. The stock Shimano cranks on the C3 are boat anchors. You could lose at least 3-400 grams just by swapping cranks to a higher quality alloy crankset or carbon if you’re brave enough.
flag bradwalton
Posted: Dec 1, 2021 at 7:04 Quote
“ With that in mind, I expect one could drop quite a bit of weight from the range without sacrifice.”

Good luck with that. Do you not think Norco has tested it, knowing their bike is heavier than others? I’m all for experimenting, don’t get me wrong, but the bike is designed around a linear rate (coil). You probably won’t be able to get full travel with air, or will sag deep into mid stroke. Delete the volume spacers if you must try it.

 


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