Finished: Ask Us Anything With Norco Bicycles
Norco worked closely with Norco Factory Racing athletes, including Sam Blenkinsop, in the development of the Norco Aurum HSP over the last couple years. We first spotted Norco's new downhill bike, or an iteration of it at least, back in October of 2016. In February of last year, Mike Levy headed to Norco's HQ just outside of Vancouver to see the prototype and throw a bunch of questions at their engineers. And then finally, in April 2018, we got our first official look at the bike, which Sam Blenkinsop had an exceptional start to the season on in Croatia, with a 4th finsih.
We thought this would be a perfect opportunity for you to ask Norco's Jim Jamieson, David Cox, and Terry Brown your questions.
Terry Brown – Product Development Manager
Once a simple frame designer, now steering a whole department. These days Terry is mostly taking the beating from all the truly creative people. Six years in solitary confinement and still reasonably sane.
David Cox – Engineering Manager
Born and raised in the North of the UK, David is now living the dream in the Canadian Pacific North West. With a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, he joined Norco as a design engineer specializing in geometry and kinematics. In his current role as Engineering Manager he’s overseeing the engineering team, striving to design the best bikes in the world. If you can’t find him in the office talking about the optimal weight distribution on a bike, he’s probably out shredding trails.
Born and raised in the North of the UK, David is now living the dream in the Canadian Pacific North West. With a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, he joined Norco as a design engineer specializing in geometry and kinematics. In his current role as Engineering Manager he’s overseeing the engineering team, striving to design the best bikes in the world. If you can’t find him in the office talking about the optimal weight distribution on a bike, he’s probably out shredding trails.
Jim “JJ” Jamieson – Product Manager Full Suspension Bikes
Being with Norco since 1989, JJ knows where the ball rolls when it comes to full suspension bikes. He’s responsible for some of Norco’s flagship models such as the Aurum, Range and Sight, works closely with the design and engineering team and takes care of all component specs. As a Norco staple, JJ has also by far the coolest office in the building. If you want to see all retro bikes, gear and imagery in one spot, you should pass by his office one day.
Being with Norco since 1989, JJ knows where the ball rolls when it comes to full suspension bikes. He’s responsible for some of Norco’s flagship models such as the Aurum, Range and Sight, works closely with the design and engineering team and takes care of all component specs. As a Norco staple, JJ has also by far the coolest office in the building. If you want to see all retro bikes, gear and imagery in one spot, you should pass by his office one day.
How ‘Ask Us Anything' Works:
Starting at 10:00 AM PDT/6:00 PM BST on June 6th you can type your questions for Norco into the comment box below this article and the guys will have a crack at answering them. Sometimes your answer will pop up in a few seconds; others may take a few minutes while Jim Jamieson, David Cox, and Terry Brown work their way through questions that are popping up. Everyone who posts a question, large or small, will be taken seriously.
To make this go as smoothly as possible, try to follow these guidelines:
• Keep your questions relevant
• Stay focused and to keep your questions on one topic if possible. You can always ask about another item later
• Try to keep your questions to about 100 words
• Ask Us Anything is a service to PB readers who are seeking helpful information, not a forum to broadcast opinions or grievances. If you do have an issue that you want to ask about, no worries, just keep your complaints relevant and in the context of a question so that it can be addressed in a productive manner
• Use propping to acknowledge good (or not so good) questions and bump them up or down to where they belong
Other time zones:
• 1:00 PM EST (New York)
• 6:00 PM BST (London)
• 7:00 PM CET (Paris)
• 7:00 PM SAST (Cape Town)
• 3:00 AM AEST (Sydney, Australia)
MENTIONS: @norcobicycles
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Member since Jul 22, 2013
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If your're looking for an agile trailbike for twisty, natural trails you'll hardly find a medium trail/am frame with a wheelbase less than 1170mm....the only brand I know is banshee and norco. Just for the record ....in 2012 my freeride frame (M) had 1160mm. To me the bike industry is off track, and is being misled by race oriented test pilots and developers, and new bikeparks with straight forward motorway trails.
bansheebikes.com
With riders like Sam being able to whip his 29er and have a lot of fun on it as well as the capability of 650B being (for the most part) as easy to throw around as a 26" we feel there is a solid future for both 29 and 650B which is why we make most of our bikes with both wheel sizes for different riding locations and styles of riders. JJ
Can we please have a Shimano option? Some like chocolate some like vanilla.
-Terry
Commencal has Shimano and SRAM builds. Norco's pricing is pretty high too.
Wake up, man.. Kickbacks, that's all.
It can be more expensive to produce this feature as well as introduces a level of complexity in manufacturing which takes more effort on our part to make sure it's made right. These aren't huge barriers, so we don't really have a good answer as to why you don't see this a bit more other than it is not the easiest way to make a bike!
-Terry
Some of the other brands had the same chainstay length on a small as their XL!
I've always assumed it was because of weight considerations and off-the-shelf parts availabillity, but was curious on your take.
For me makes a ton of sense, moto industry realized ages ago, different missions benefit from different sizes.
I'm riding 26er at the moment, but when the time comes to buy a new 650b, god knows I'm gonna slap a 26 in the rear on park days
-Terry
It doesn't make too much sense to me. I just don't want more front travel than rear for reasons I can't explain (dynamic geo?). I also don't want my ass to be buzzed if I tuck a bit too much landing on a downslope.
I do Remember the old 24 inch on the rear and 26 inch up front from 14 ish years ago...on the old kona stinky bike ripped!
1.1 Why hasn't this been done earlier? (I do much prefer a HPP on a DH-bike, and the new Aurum has got me considering changing out my M16c)
2. Why don't you have a custom paint program (or more colours available. I.e. black)
All models should come in two colours: Any colour and black.
1.1 Stigma around long chains and funny looking bikes. Carbon fiber structures also allow us to create a frame within the tight design parameters required for the components at an affordable(?) price. Tooling for an alloy version of the HSP will be more expensive than the carbon which would inflate the frame price and create a heavier product.
2. As our kit program expands, there will be more options for paint colours along with the ability to choose part kits. Hopefully we can get this going for Aurum at some point, but the business folks here are calculating which platforms (Sight) will see this happening first.
-Terry
Also what is your opinion on the emergence of shorter travel enduro bikes with big forks like the transition sentinel, pole evo link etc? Is there a benefit to having the same amount of travel front and rear over a mismatched set up?
100% AS = pedalling does not affect rear suspension
less than 100% AS = pedalling compresses rear suspension
No chain = no AS and no pedal kickback (PKB)
Aaron Gwin commented that his Demo felt great without the chain when he won Leogang 2015, even though the Demo already has one of the lowest PKB values of any bike. PKB feels worse as you go faster.
Pedal kickback grows with AS
AS and pedal kick are not always directly related. There are bikes that have high pedal kick and lower AS in the easier gears, while AS goes up and pedal kick goes down in the harder gears. (I have no idea why that is, it’s not intuitive to me at all).
Easier gear = less chain ring movement relative to the rear cog/cassette/hub
This is the way I see it;
Consumer: "I've been riding threaded BB's for 25 years and like the serviceability of threaded BB's, as well as the fact they tend to creak less."
Industry: "We know what is best for you."
Consumer: "I prefer serviceability over absolutely cutting edge design."
Industry: "We know what is best for you."
Sometimes, when your kid is whining for candy, just give him some. Everyone ends up happy.
1. What is your opinion on the market space for a burly trail bike? I live in an area with whole lot of blue trails but also love to ride the small selection of black trails with drops, steeps, and tech. I would love to have an over-forked trail bike but don't need the extra weight/durability of a full-on all-mountain bike.
For example: could an Optic 29 be run with a 140mm fork? Would it fit this gap?
2. What is your opinion on running shorter cranks? Bikes are getting lower and lower; I don't want to hit the ground. Why do medium and larges come with 175mm cranks? I even have decent foot positioning but with flats I still strike the ground more than I like.
3. Kids and Youth mountain bikes. Please make them lighter. And provide options without heavy forks on the front. And eliminate front derailleurs on them. And please use cable brakes (BB7 or BB5). This should be a niche that a larger manufacturer could use volume making to make up for increased costs/reduced margin. My bike should not be lighter than my kid`s 24" rig. The rear wheel on a Giant and a Norco bike for my kids is just shockingly heavy.
The goals of youth/kids bikes should be durable (resale!), lighter, low maintenance.
2. Shorter cranks are interesting and something we are looking at. Lower and lower is not necessarily going to provide the ride characteristics we want out of a bike when looking at geometry as a complete picture. So short cranks may or may not be sensible on bikes you want to pedal all day.
3. We've been making improvements to our kids bikes over the past few years, but as you can imagine, have to balance cost with features. We know there are people out there who gear for their kids which won't hold them back, but it's not easy to convince a larger number people to spend the money that is required to make something light and functional for kiddos. We'll keep chipping away this!
-Terry
To each their own, but I couldn't believe the difference 10mm made (yeah yeah, "that's what she said").
Did you work with them on the design or is it just coincidence?
Thanks
-Terry
And are we going to see prieces drop now again? as all the developement is slowing down again? (have frames for 27,5 and 29) so are we gonna see a shift to price focus again?
@Hambo24: Terry is right though, get here on a working holiday visa which gives you 2 years to get your foot in the door somewhere, make contacts etc and even get PR if you manage to find the right job quickly.
I'm also curious how the process of designing a new product looks like; do you design the bike for race purpose only in the first step and if there are some reliability or other issues to fix them the for mass marked or do already have enough knowledge to know how a bike needs in order to make it work for mass marked.
thanks and cheers.
As far as chianring wear, goes, we haven't seen any issues over the roughly two years that we have been developing and racing this bike.
-Terry
Thanks
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or maybe not.
Would a rearward axle path used on a shorter travel bike, like the Revolver or some other XC/light trail bike, extend some of these benefits to the pedaly-bike realm? I could see the ability to maintain momentum as a huge advantage in racing, but I'm curious what the trade-offs would be (besides weight/complexity).
I heard that Solidworks is the industry standard, but are there more bike specific applications out there that are a must?
BTW the new Aurum frame design is amazing, best looking DH bike by far
Enduro/AM bikes are even more capable than in the past and for riders that only have one or maybe two bikes it makes sense to have a trail/Enduro bike only which can be ridden in bike parks on occasion
Our take is that World Cup DH racing is still the Formula One racing for bicycles and will continue to be popular. We also see some interest in longer travel Enduro (freeride) so maybe there will be some growth in this category in the future. JJ
Here my questions:
- have you done any S-N curves of your frames?
- how do you test your frames?
- are the applied loads measured before during riding?
- have you done any FEM simulations of your frames?
- have you done a lifetime assesment of your frames?
- how many dh bikes get manufactured in one year of production?
- is the engeenering of your bikes completely done in Canada?
- do you test your frames in house?
- how many broken frames do you get back per year?
thank you in advance for answering!
Have you used aluminium or similar inserts for head tube, BB etc?
What kind of idler pulley have you used?
Thanks
Why you change the suspension sistem for the new Aurum?
Are you insatisfied with the old Aurum? the new Aurum look is hot!
Are you incorporate the new linkage to the enduro or freeride bikes?
Love my XL 27.5 carbon Sight, btw.
I know a few people besides myself who love the idea of a small wheeled race bike. I wish i had jumped on the idea back when!
Good places: big long structures like frame tubes, handlebars, and other areas that don't see impact?
Questionable places?
#moreridersmorebetter
-Terry
do you think the benefits of the high pivot with idle pully HSP can translate into a smaller travel trail/enduro bike?
-Terry
Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions!
-Terry
-Kenny
-Terry
1. How many different fibre moduluses and orientations do you use?
2. Any interesting fillers/additives in the resin blend?
3. How do you combat the variance in co-efficient of thermal expansion of the resin/fibre/tool interfaces during frame moulding?
Is it like some tuned mass damper? Viscoelastic damper?
Seems too small. I'm skeptical of just how much it can do. Maybe it works on very specific frequencies, but I read that it's possibly butyl rubber and foil like those automotive self-adhesive sound damping kits.
I’m pretty sure that Australianism went over everyone’s head.
Also when do frames arrive???
Will the more modern sights fit a bigger shock?
-Terry
Thank you guys!!
assign as you see fit.
-Terry
When I look at a company's top bike, I want to dream a little bit ! Looking at the HSP 1, and what I would get for 10K, I feel I"m getting profoundly screwed.
@norcobicycles: