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Hi, after some advice, bought a Norco sight 650b (£2.6k) the other day from Evans Uk, so I have 30 day to change it if i dont like it. I've had it for a few tests rides and at my weight of 100KG I'm finding I'm blowing through the 140mm rear / 150mm front travel and at 250psi the shock its a bit unresponsive for smaller hits and i'm concerned for riding some proper Snowdonia mtn descents it will be a bit under-gunned. I'm thinking about swapping it for either the Trek Remedy 9.7 (2.7k), 150 rear travel / 160mm front and a 66.1 degree HA, it gets good reviews but the spec on the 9.7 is rubbish for that price. I can swap for the Norco Range 170mm front / 160 rear (3.4k) and the bike looks amazing, great spec, good weight but hard to find reviews. Ive organised a test ride at Coed y Brenin for the remedy, but will only get a ride round the Evans cp for the Range. Anyone have experience of the Range, or riding the Sight hard at about 100kg? Cheers
An extra 10mm probably won't make much difference, sounds like you need to stick some tokens in the forks/shock to make it more progressive, this should let you run them a bit softer and they'll ramp up as they go through the travel.
Great, thanks for your response. The other option is i change the back shock for a fox Dpx2 or maybe a super deluxe coil. Hopefully that would mean i didnt have to run the shock at such high psi
The Sight is a very sorted bike. I'd agree with TallPaul above, play around with tokens in the Pike to get it give a bit more support. I don't know what shock is on the Range or the Trek but you might suffer with the same issues. Get the suspension sorted and I'm sure you'll love it.
Yeah took the sight and the remedy for a test ride today. You could tell the trek was a slightly bigger bike when hitting the bigger lumps. But it felt "meh", where as the sight was lively and fun, even when it didnt perform as "big" as the trek it was still better. Defo the bike i didnt want to put down. . . just wish i could proper test the range !
I went to buy a Sight but walked out with a Range back in 2015, testing most spec options along the way. My thinking at the time was not that much weight gain or loss of feel in return for the ability to hit big when needed.
I noticed a big difference in feel when going up the model range of each bike and away from the lower spec Fox & Rockshox front forks. The Pikes at the time were so much better than the 32/34's on the lower spec Sight (even round the car park). Better forks + sorting the psi / setup with tokens made a massive difference to the point I'd focus on best fork / shock deal over frame choice if you're torn between the two. I'm under 100k and running tokens.
Evans will let you order in and take for a spin - try and find a location near some stairs / obstacles 🙂
I've got a 2018 Range C3 with DVO suspension front and rear. I'm loving it for what is designed to do (winching it to the top of a climb, then ripping down DH type trails where it's awesome at eating up chunder and staying on a line). If that's what you want then give'r, but if you want something a bit more nimble then I'd stick with the Sight and work on the suspension.
Did you go for the alloy or carbon one? If you went with the alloy one I’d be asking Evans what norco have done with the 2018 frames to prevent the drive side seat stays from snapping. The 2013-17 650b alloy sight and range all used the same stays and they were notorious for snapping, I had 4 go, and the mechanic at my local branch said he saw at least one a month, when my last one was replaced they had 3 bikes in with the same problem. I hope they have sorted the problem and can reassure customers they have, if not I’d walk away. Sorry to pee on your fire, the sight is an amazing bike, still the most fun bike ive riden, I just wished it stayed , no pun intended, together.
Edit this issue didn’t affect the carbon ones
^That issue was fixed a good while back.
If you into dets about the suspension etc on Norco's read this, its interesting http://linkagedesign.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Norco
Walleater . Sorry to disagree 2013 - 17 stays were all built in the same way. 16/17 stays they added a run of weld on the base of the seat stay to try and stop the crack starting, it might have slowed the numbers of crack down a bit but it did not stop it, the last frame I cracked was a 17 frame, which also was identical to a 16 frame. The 2018 sight seems to have had a major redesign in geo, so I hope norco have address the issue. Like I said, what a great bike to ride, still my favourite but I’d like to see a few years of good reports from 95kg + riders before I head back to the brand.
Living and riding in Whistler (walleater I'm sure is the same) I know a lot of people with 2014 onwards Ranges and Sights and none if then ride conservatively and none of them have had issues with cracking. It's anecdotal but I'd be inclined to agree with walleater.
Great to see Whistler snobbery still exists because you “live and ride in whistler” you must be right. Mate it’s a great place but no harder on your bike than 1000’s of other places . But that for another thread.
Edit google norco sight snapped frame .
No snobbery, just a reason why I might see a lot more of them around than your standard UK based STW.
Googled and seen a couple of threads with a handful of photos mostly of 2014 bikes. I'm not going to keep on looking as I'm not really that bothered.
^ I'm about 45 minutes south of you 🙂
Bigwill, when I came back to the UK for a week or so recently, I had a great ride around Eastridge, over the Stiperstones and the Long Mynd so no snobbishness from me either. But there's really no escaping the fact that this area destroys bike and bits (carbon rims being a 'favourite' at the moment). As you mentioned, the Sight has been redesigned. You also mentioned that the stays had a revision which helped. In my line of work, we always have cracked frames in the shop from any number of manufacturers but we don't see any more Norco failures than anyone else. Sure there were issues but it's old news so I'm not sure why you are bringing it up. Maybe you should have been on a Range or a heavier bike? The Sight is very much a 'trail' bike but people seem to treat them like DH bikes here, and most of the time they hold up to the abuse just fine but they are not indestructible.