- [Interviewer] Can you give me three words to describe it?
- [Mike] The Norco Optic is
(upbeat intense music)
(bikers chatting & laughing)
- Hey everybody. I'm Mike Levy here
at Pinkbike's annual field test in Pemberton B.C.
And this is Norco's completely new Optic.
It's a 125 mm travel trail bike with a 140 fork
upfront that's rolling on 29 inch wheels.
All right, frame details, its pretty straight forward.
There's not a whole lot of craziness here.
There's room for 2.5 inch rear tire on this bike.
With a 125 mil travel
you don't often see that together.
Internal cable routing and
there's a set of bolts underneath here so you
can attach a pump or some kind of tool kit,
whatever you like.
Its a Horst Link system,
vertical shock, little tiny rocker arm,
pretty straightforward.
But, there is something interesting here.
Their specing Rockshox's Super Deluxe Ultimate DH shock
and guess what? It does not have a cheater switch.
There is no pedal assist switch on this shock
only a low speed compression dial and a rebound dial.
Norco has gone heavy where it counts.
Four piston brakes on all the models
across the line. Upfront you get a Pike Select,
adjustable low speed compression lever
and you get a SRAM GX drivetrain with a set of
carbon cranks.
So that's your introduction to the Optic.
We're gonna go ride this little bike
a whole load here in Pemberton.
We're gonna report back and tell you how it feels.
(light happy music)
Like all the other bikes at Field Test
we're using control tires.
They're from Maxxis EXO+ casing so,
fairly sturdy tires.
Tire pressure at 21-23 PSI
both Kazimer and I weigh the same, 155 lbs.
So, we can ride the exact same suspension settings.
In the back, 30% sag and we're on a large
with a 480mm reach. So its pretty roomy.
(light happy music)
All right, so we did a ton of climbing on this bike
and a lot of it was on some pretty technical trails.
We climbed up the Nimby climb here in Pemberton
here just behind the house and
in a lot of ways the bike climbs very good.
It's very efficient but it doesn't handle
like your usual 125-130 mm travel trail bike.
It's not that short and it doesn't
feel that small in the technical sections.
- Yeah you're talking old fashioned bikes.
- Yeah.
- As far as modern bikes it feels pretty normal to me.
I've been riding a lot more
longer travel kind of enduro bikes so the handling
I get along with it right away.
Super easy to just maneuver.
The Optic has 435 mm chain stays.
Well, for this size it's a cool feature that the bikes have.
The chain stay length increases as you go up in size.
Um, but I found those are a little easier to handle
on some of the tighter switchbacks that we encountered.
Compared to the Pole which has 450mm chain stays.
As far as the rest of the suspension,
actual suspension movement when you're climbing
it was pretty calm.
- Yeah, I thought the bike pedaled really good.
With 125mm it should pedal good.
(techno beatbox music)
This thing, it might only have 125mm but man,
it goes down like a bat out of hell.
Its a lot of fun.
- Yeah, exactly. Like we said,
the Whistler Bike Park in addition to our test loop.
I mean I took this down A-Line, Crack Addict
has a different name but that's what the trail is called.
Um, just some kind of rocky stuff.
They had some junk trails you normally
wouldn't think would be fun on a bike like this
I had a great time. Totally comfortable.
It wasn't as if I was on the edge of the bike's limits.
- Can you name another 125mm travel bike
that you would like to ride in the
Whistler Bike Park day in and day out?
- Not really, off the top of my head for awhile.
- Yeah and I think a lot of that is down
to the smart spec, they've got that shock on there,
Its got more oil, Its gonna be more consistent,
they got 4 piston brakes.
Unfortunately their resin-only rotors
with resin pads but whatever.
The rear end of this bike is really impressive.
Its just 125 mm of travel
but they've done a lot with it.
The last time I was this impressed
with a rear end it was the SB100.
This time its the new Optic 125mm
you know for that much travel,
its pretty simple on top.
Feels like there's a lot of support
as there should be and at the other end
of the stroke Kaz.
- [Mike] Yep, no harsh bottom out.
We rode this bike a lot in the wet.
Its kinda wet, slimy.
That's really when you want that traction.
You want that nice supple feel.
This bike had it.
(happy upbeat music)
- So basically we use Free Lap
and we set a cone at the top and bottom
and we used Afternoon Delight into Lower
Whistler Downhill.
Its fairly rocky, fairly fast, fairly chunky
but there's also some berms and stuff in there
and I would argue that it's probably
more challenging than what the average
trail bike sees.
- Yeah exactly so it's a good way to kinda push
the limits and get just a bunch of times to see
you know, which one ended up quicker.
- Yeah. So the Optic was my 2nd fastest bike.
It was 5% slower than the Pole
The Pole was easily the fastest
but it was 1.2% faster than the other bikes.
- For me this happened to be my fastest bike
and it was two different days of testing those
there's lots of variables but I put down
my quickest time as about 2.5% faster than the Pole.
(happy light music)
- There's a few interesting things on here.
First thing I'm going to talk about is that
X-Fusion Manic seat post, its not the most expensive thing
around not the sexiest thing around, but,
It just works.
- As for me one of the not so positive aspects
was the fact that Norco chose to spec those
resin-only rotors, and what resin only means is
you can only use resin pads.
It might be nice and quiet, but,
metallic pads are stronger and work better in the wet.
We live in a place where it rains a lot so for me,
I would have to swap out the rotors and the pads
if I purchased this bike.
- Now the bike is speced pretty well for
how much it costs, carbon frame,
obviously they have to save money somewhere,
the cockpit, it looks pretty cheap.
- Kinda like that house brand stuff they used to have,
its just not as great, it works fine.
- Doesn't matter it works fine but,
I could see some people wanting to upgrade that
- Yeah exactly
- Other smart things, Stans wheels,
zero troubles, and that SRAM drivetrain
(upbeat music)
- For both of us I think we agree,
probably the most fun bike in this category.
To goof off, do what you want,
another pro, the bike has excellent geometry,
really forward thinking,
you got that steep seat tube angle,
slack head tube angle, kind of everything
I'd say most consumers are going to be looking for
in their next bike, its all there, uh
also there's a suspension tune itself,
its really dialed great, we didn't have to adjust it,
mess around with any volume spacers or anything like that,
so they nailed it there too.
(upbeat music)
- So we've got to talk about cons too,
now this bike was a lot of fun but,
one thing that I should mention is that the geometry
it lets you go way faster than you think you should be
going on 125 mil bike, or maybe do things that you don't
think you should,
sometimes you don't have the suspension to
back you up, so, I kind of found
I definitely was on a little more of a knife edge
on this bike, if you mess up there less travel,
there's probably less traction, you know,
than something more forgiving, so,
just something to note, yeah.
Now the other thing we already talked about it,
those resin pads and rotors,
this bike deserves something better,
get them out of there.
(upbeat music)
Who is the Optic for?
Um, basically anybody that wants one bike that's
going to pedal a lot, I mean,
you could ride this thing as far as you want.
I'd love to ride this bike on big days,
four, five, six hour days, but,
at the same time,
you can have a lot fun, you've got some friends
with enduro bikes, its a pretty quick bike isn't it.
- Yeah its pretty fast, I mean if you really are
going to be doing enduro races and that kind of thing,
probably looking in the wrong category,
but, this one does let you push your limits
into that more gravity oriented realm,
and just kind of great fun bike that
you're gonna want to put a lot of miles on it.
- I would say that who it isn't for though is
someone who wants maybe a traditional handling bike
uh, there are still those people out there,
I mean this thing isn't short
and its pretty slack for what it is.
It all works on the trail but, maybe that geometries
not for you, look at the numbers, make your decision.
All right, so that's everything about the Norco Optic,
stay tuned for more videos for Pinkbike's Field Test
as well as a round table discussion where we argue
the pros and cons of all these things.
(upbeat outro music)