Doesn\'t get much better than this. Photo: Ashley Kinghorn.
Norco 2008 product launch.
Early impressions of the 2008 Norco Lineup.
Author: Chris Armstrong |
Created: 2007-08-08 10:23:27 |
Location: Whistler, BC
The fine folks at Norco invited ol’ Whsistlermountainbike.com
out for there 2008 launch hosted at the Westin Resort & Spa
in downtown Whistler Village during Crankworx. I
got a tour of the Norco facilities down in Port Coquitlam
a couple of months ago and I was totally blown away
with the scale of their operation. Norco isn’t
just a manufacturer of bikes; they are also the largest
bike parts distributor in Canada. They guarantee
that if If you place an order before 3pm it will
ship the very same day. There aren’t
many companies in Canada that can make the claim
and back it up. Needless to say Norco runs
a very tight ship and has been making serious inroads
with their bike line over the last few years.
2008 Norco A-Line.
With peak chair in the background. Photo:
Ashley Kinghorn.
Pete & Skip started off our day with an explanation
of the changes to the Norco line for 2008. Starting
at the top of the line with the Team DH most of the
products received refinements and tweaks from the
2007 line. The most noticeable change was in
the graphics and colours of the bikes. The
bikes are flashier this year, with some bikes having
coloured spokes and cable casing.
After the run through of the bikes we were able
to pick out a 2008 bike of our choice and get ready
to head up the hill for the journey to the peak for
lunch. I picked out an A-Line Park as my stead
for the day as it might be the best value for Whistler
riding. We promptly loaded up with priority passes
onto the gondola and made our way to the peak and
the Roundhouse Lodge. Once at the top we were
treated to a private lunch of the largest burritos
I have ever had and enjoyed the 360-degree views
from the deck.
Sparing
no expense, Norco rolled out the red carpet
for us. Nothing beats lift priority. Photo:
Ashley Kinghorn.
Several of the Norco team members were on hand to
ride with us and have fun. Ryan Leach, Jay
Hoots, Fionn Griffiths, Ben Boyko and Darcy Turenne
all came out and were genuinely stoked to be there. Once
everyone was fed and watered we grabbed our bikes
and started down the ski run to the trails. Since
you can’t really ride from the top to the Garbanzo
area we had some bike park guides to lead us down
and through the remaining snow to the start of Original
Sin / Freight Train. I can’t say
that many people including myself have a lot of experience
riding on snow, but we followed Fiona in to the snow
and did our best not to take a header on the way
to Freight Train.
Group
Shot. Kind of a Norco "Where's Waldo".
Photo: Ashley Kinghorn.
The A-Line Park is outfitted with an 888RC and Rocco
rear. The ’08 888’s have all new
38mm stanchions, which made the forks feel a little
stiffer than the 2007 ones. SRAM X9 drive train was
handling the forward motion with Code 5 brakes slowing
us down. Both of them worked flawlessly
on our limited time on the bike. All the long
travel bikes in the Norco lineup use the FSR suspension
design, which is a time proven design that performs
consistently. I found the cockpit of the A-Line
to be a little tighter than I am use to, but in line
with what they have been before. The bike handled
well on Freight Train and was stable at high speed
and through the trees. I hadn’t ridden a Norco
since the original VPS came out and it didn’t
take much to get use to.
Norco A-Line
Park Edition. 2008. Photo:
Ashley Kinghorn.
Norco A-Line
Park Edition. Original Sin Hip jump. Photo:
Ashley Kinghorn.
Norco A-Line
Park Edition. Railing around lower Freight
Train. Photo:
Ashley Kinghorn.
Norco A-Line
Park Edition. Railing around lower Freight
Train. Photo:
Ashley Kinghorn.
Doesn\'t get much better than this. Photo: Ashley Kinghorn.
