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Bike park rental fleet purchasing managers are licking their lips right now. All jokes aside, it's good to see Norco filling out their Range (pun intended). They've got everything from XC halo builds to entry hardtails to this new park bike, while still seeming a bit "core" with Brage and the DH team. It's refreshing compared to the appeal to Bentonville and Marin County dentists that Specialized is leaning into.

So this is kind of hilarious to me because forbidden just ships a pile of parts along with a frame that isn't even put together. Having built/QC checked a lot of bikes from Transition, Ibis, Cannondale, Orbea, and Forbidden I can honestly say that the QC on the Forbidden frames are absolutely stellar, on par with Ibis carbon (Ibis alloy leaves a lot to be desired). Unfortunately, with bike brands that ship just frame and parts end up leaving a lot of their bikes "QC" impression on the skills of the builder building the bike. If your headset creeks, or...

I've been happy with the v2's so far, no dramas, and the dreadnought got beat down hard as a park bike most of the summer. But I acknowledge that all bikes have issues, and new designs typically have more issues. Specialized has less issues certainly because they're a thoroughly mature product at this point. But unfortunately are also dragging the conservative geo/design along with that maturity. Well polished, but ultimately uninspiring would be my best description. It was really hard to take the sj15 off the rack when there were other more exciting bikes to choose from, like the arrival...

More fuel to that fire...

This was so cool to hear.

They could jsut keep making XC bikes more expensive for the same thing.. is that an innovation?

If I remember correctly, they mention in the video that they internally reduced the travel to 140mm.

Someone over FB mentioned that new demo is 12K eur bike with just a RS build, no Brembo. Lol if true.

That looks like a SJ 15 EVO

Yeah, that doesn’t look ideal at all. I had much the same clearance issue on mine and ended up fitting this little number: https://finesse-components.com/products/seatstay-chip-protector-for-for… It’s been spot on so far. Keeps the paint on the frame nicely protected and helps flick the worst of the mud away from the tyre, so you don’t end up with it grinding away at the paint like in your photo.

Normal Mavens, but with the option to get the linear swing-link in the Base model, for all the models. The Base is more on/off like Shimano. But without the wandering bite point (if you bleed well and massage pistons)

We're 14 years in already. What makes you think the new Saint is going to be released?

Man I've got some terrible news for you about mountain bikers and the word "loam:"

I can see some advantages of a short cage UDH derailleur on a DH bike.. A 90 mechanical version would be my choice..Electronic is nice but not needed. As for electronics on the suspension, I can't see a benefit to someone just doing park laps..