Great review, I've been curious about this one! Props for taking this on hangover too! Saving the best for last. Nice job explaining the differences between this and a traditional trail/all-day hardtail. These modern long and slack hardtails require a pretty different riding technique or hardtails of yesteryear.
‘All mountain’ Hardtails are fun AF. They’re more capable than people give credit and IF you know how to ride a bike, you’ll have a blast. They will also help you to become a better trail rider overall, because you have to be smooth and make good line choices. When you return to your full sus, you’ll be amazed at how much faster you’ve become.
Aggresive hardtails are great fun on right trails, super fun on loam and rooty stuff less fun on fast rocky stuff but nothing they wont go down. $3200 is to much though, full suspension is always more versitile but on lower end like the Kona they can be best option.
Summed up the hardtail riders perfectly "you will be much faster on a full suspension, but there's always that one guy in your neighborhood who's faster on a hardtail" 😂
Going to the comment section it appears to me that we all want the same: more Hardcore Hardtail reviews! You at least will have enough time to make some. By the way, some Chromag reviews would be really awesome🙏.
That "planted feel" they are talking about is the steel frame. That's how it feels and that's what people are referring to with "steel is real" comment. Couple of comments - this bike looks heavy because they have Assegai's on there and it's a 29r. I have a mate who rides a Kona Honzo 29r, and one day we were racing... I ride a 27.5 Production Privee Shan... he lifted my bikie off his car and the first thing he said was "wow that's really light" (with a Crossmark rear tyre and Cushcore in there). The feeling of an Assegai to even a High Roller or DHR is astounding on a hardtail. Big tip for this type of hardtail is to put cushcore in the rear and run a ligther tyre - unless you are racing. Totally different experience. And riding over the front of a hardtail is a big tip. I ride EWS Qualifiers and big Enduro races on my Shan. You're never gonna be the fastest but the fun factor can't be beaten in my opinion navigating some serious tough terrain on a bike like this.
buddy of mine has an xl, it is very long, very slack and looks amazing. dude can ride so he has no trouble riding down hill and absolutely loves it. its basically made him the guy that turns up on hard tail regardless of what your tracks your riding that day
I know that guy. He sold his trek slash 9.8 for a stache, because he felt like he was “plateauing”. Guy still has more KOM’s on our trails than I do rides on the year.
I have a 2019 trek roscoe 8 and do downhill trails. The brakes don’t do shit but it’s super fun to do downhill trails on a hardtail so that makes up for the brakes.
I've been wondering why Trek doesn't offer a 29er trail bike like this for a while now. The closest you're gonna get from them is the Roscoe and that's a 27.5+ or the Stache and that's a 29+ mid-fat bike. Something between this and the Roscoe travel-wise could probably sell pretty well given that there's clearly a market for it
Hey cheers for the review! I was just a bit confused by one part when you mention that this is a fast and planted bike not as playful as the Honso ESD, which feels more like a dirt jumper, but this would be your choice at the bike park? I’m looking for something to take to the bike park and also smash the trails, what would be your pick of the two? Love from Sydney Australia
Got myself a Chromag Stylus for this season and this looks amazing as a longer 29er version of it. Value sounds bang on, geo looks superb. Can only recommend to try it for anyone who's curious about a hardcore hardtail.
I picked up a Steel frame and built it up to be a more downhill oriented trailbike. Yes I do think the geo, weight and dampening of this Steel frame does attribute to its lackluster "getup and go" feeling BUT I also believe Norco's S1 build itself is equally to blame due to its focus on no-comrpomise durability. By using RF carbon wheels with lightweight (high engagement) vault hubs, higher end (XT) cassette and non-Downhill (high TPI casing) tires (Hans Dampfs) has made the climbing and nimbleness alot more liveable. There is no way to avoid using a big 35/36mm stanchion fork (I use a DVO Diamond) as you need something stiff for 150+ travel, and a really long dropper (175 reverb) is also a must due to its super steep STA. Also using mostly higher-end (XT) driveline, brakes and cockpit (all carbon RF) with most emphasis on unsprung weight while delivers good trail prowness while remaining robust enough for my type of riding.
You can definitely build a bike with this spec for much cheaper than this, I recently built up a Chromag Stylus with NX drivetrain, SLX brakes and a Fox 36 Elite for $1700 total? To be fair I got the frame for $300 brand new and the fork for $400. I really like the look of this bike though, good to see more mainstream companies making hardcore hardtails.
hahafunnylaugh chromag is expensive, but not overpriced. They’re a smaller company located in one of the most expensive places to live in Canada. Rent is incredibly expensive, wages need to be higher, and manufacturing costs more due to the low numbers. Many parts are also made in Canada.
@hahafunnylaugh Also of note: If you'd ever dealt with Chromag, you'd understand that while there is a sort of cult HT following behind their bikes - it's not without reason. Best customer service I've ever received, great group of people, they absolutely stand behind their product, and to some people (myself included, full disclosure) that's worth a little extra cash.
Nice review 👌 but I will have to say that I like my Commencal meta HT better, I build it a la carte with top of the line components for way less and the geometry is similar. I think that a lot of bike companies now jumping on the bandwagon after seeing increase in sales and success of other hardcore hardtails. Chainstays getting shorter and adjustable and HA getting slacker. The frame is whats important and components make or take profits. I believe that the Canfield brothers were the forerunners of hardcore hardtails and it went from there. 3000$ buys a lot of nice frames and components, not everyone's route but rewarding for me. My first hardtail was a KHS chrmoly 26" with no suspension,v-brakes lol, I rode it for many years in NZ and didn't miss anything, even downhill 😏 fact is I ride my Commencal meta hardtail everywhere 😎🙌Again, thank you for the nice review. Keep them coming.
I just filmed a review of one today. It's the first hardtail I've ridden where I cut the review short because the frame was so stiff it wasn't fun to ride. I describe it as an aluminum anvil.
@@hardtailparty I love that attribute, combined with low pressure plus size tubeless tires and the premium fork. It gives me great pedalling power transmission and the jumps are also so much fun. That's for flowy trails. BUT on very ruff terrain a fully is more fun.
U guys should have done the ragley blue pig... bought mine for 2200 brand new and it come with a pike rct3, mt5 brakes, xt shifting, and a lot of other nice stuff. Love the bike. Absolutely crushes any terrain
Although technically a downgrade from full suspensions, good, capable hard tails are definitely under rated. They are so much fun in the way they make you pick out your lines with precision detail. The skills that these bikes bring out in bikers make you feel like a pro and in my time riding hard trails, the lack of speed isn’t even that noticeable when you’re having a blast!
I enjoy these hardtail reviews, its deffo one of the burliest bikes I’ve seen. I can understand the price tag, but for this money I’d probably build one from the ground up. That would be really good fun!!!
Thing to upgrade: OneUp Carbon Handlebar, takes care of some of the extra fatigue you can get on a hardtail. I run them on my hardcore hardtail and I won't be running any other bars any time soon!
I would only get the frame and build it up. This one and the Commencal Meta HT frame is similar and also very nice frames. the comps are always different imo. There is always comps you can change and make it better. Even with this bike.
I'm steel curious. It's missing some of the things that people love about hard tails though. Like light weight, and low cost. I would definitely consider a steel hardtail if it didn't weigh more, and cost more than my full suspension Ripmo AF. It seems like to only real benefit here is the bragging rights and novelty value of shredding a steel hardtail. And yeah, it looks sweet.
It's not about going fast, or climbing, or descending, or jumping, or manualing....I mean we're foreclosing a lot of stuff that make mountain bikes fun. To each his own I guess, but I don't really get the point.
@@cheefreefer Because steel is more of a niche nowadays and you pay a premium for that. There are some cheaper steel frames that are great but usually they're a bit overpriced.
@@viperrules24 The Diamond is very close to the Lyrik's performance and the Ripmo includes the topaz and an excellent suspension system (DW-Link) . Furthermore, with the extra 149 USD you can sell the stock brakes and get Magura's MT5. Aluminium E13 wheels are not great, I rather have those S35 Ibis wheels, which I tested and are pretty reliable. You can upgrade the Drivetrain after you wear it or brake it. Nuff Said...
@@benward3544 Exactly my point, if something is cheaper 2-3 times then something else it does not mean it's affordable for the regular Joe. I'm not saying whether it's a good or bad bike, what I'm trying to say is that maybe we should think about the meaning of the word before saying it. For example, I've bought a FS bike, with 165mm travel DHX2, Fox 36 170mm grip2, GX 12-speed, Truvativ descendant 6k, Maxxis DHF and DHR with all them labels, DT 1900 Spline, Magura MT 5/4, for roughly 3,500K. In my book considering what I've got that's quite a reasonable price, but still not quite affordable.
Peopl Le don’t understand this bike. If your not racing, why do u need a bike that turns everything into a magic carpet. A bike like this makes no difference except slows u down. Your skill is still ur skill. The only difference with this bike is that u get to ride for longest
I just dont know why you wouldn't buy a ripmo af instead of this. Components are nearly as good and its a awesomely reviewed fs bike. I guess it's just for those people that love hardtails? I love my hardtail, but it's not a 3k "enduro" hardtail, it's a carbon cross country/trail 2k bike (so it has some advantages over the full sus, as opposed to this which is just kind of why?). Anyway I'm for some it's worth it to not have to deal with full sus I guess.
In my younger days I probably would have gone for this. Problem was in my younger days this kind of HT didn’t exist. Glad they’re around now. I think there is a definite segment of riders that want to ride aggressively on aggressive trails but want the experience of doing it on a HT that bikes like this and Cromags etc with the right geo are great for. Just more choices for us consumers which is always good. Unfortunately now I like (and need) the cush provided by my full sus. But if a buddy gets one of these I’d love to throw a leg over it and bomb a trail or two.
DADventureTV yeah your right. Nothing wrong with with choices and a growing mtb market! :). It does seem like it’s well made and nice, just seems like a very niche item, which isn’t bad I guess :).
I think it's a great bike to compliment your existing full sus. It has amazing spec, geo and a steel frame. Super rewarding riding experience. And with less moving parts it's great to ride in wet conditions.
The steel frame does look very nice. Aluminum always has that crude look to it up close with all those huge uneven welds (regardless of brand). With that said I always buy aluminum - my main concerns are performance, long term reliability and bang for the buck. I have zero use for a hard tail like this. Makes no sense for my riding. I just lock out my rear suspension when I’m pedaling relatively flat smooth stuff.
Gotta say, I love the bike. HOWEVER, if you are going for a affordable, capable aggressive hardtail, the chromag rootdown is actually cheaper, lighter, and feels faster and more capable.(I’ve ridden both) still an epic bike to ride tho.
Feels and is are two different things. It's only 100grams lighter in the frame which is stuff all when it comes to gravity bikes. Both are nice but my primer is tooo fragile!
I've been riding this bike for 7 years now! ru-vid.comUgkxHL1v1R3NE5x4KiYfyt8dnQmyNYz7qi5L It was a great bike the day I got it, put it together, and went on my first ride; more importantly it's an even better bike today. I've ridden trails, street, and skatepark all on this bike. I have replaced almost every part on the bike. Some stuff has broken: derailleurs, wheels, shifter. Everything else were upgrades. The only ramaing original parts are the frame, bottom bracket, and crank set. BB and cranks will be upgraded soon. The geometry isn't great but that is really the only draw back to how good a value this bike is. Even after all the money I've spent upgrading it's still a more affordable bike than I'd have bought from a proper bike shop, especially with full suspension. I've also learned a lot about bikes working on it over the years. It really is one of the best perchases I've ever made and hopefully it'll still be around for another 7 years.
Pienimusta well it’s all gx besides the cranks - it has a Lyrik ultimate fork, code brakes, e thirteen rims, expensive tires. I think the price is fairly justified
Yeah the price is a bit strange. You could literally get a FS bike with similar components for less money haha. And if you compare consumer direct brands, you could get a fs and have money left over.
Smoked Salmon believe me I know I have a 2019 yt capra al comp which was this price. But alas Norco is not consumer direct, I still think the high tower is by far the worse offender
@@alextokmakoff6521 Santa Cruz is ridiculous with their pricing. My buddy spent 2400 on a chameleon and it came with nx eagle, rhythm fork, and entry level sram brakes. I went direct to consumer and got a full suspension on sale for 1500 haha. For some people, it seems like name is more important than the specs of the bike.
Justin Mandeville Depends where you ride... I’ve let 3 people borrow my pump trail side in the last week for flats. They all had light casing tires. Where I am, less than EXO+ is asking for it. This bike isn’t about racing the clock.
I built my Meta HT from scratch with better components than this Norco for 2500 EUR in total. 150mm Lyrik Ultimate, Shimano Drivetrain, better Wheels, One Up dropper. So how in the heck can Norco justify this pricing? In comparison thats roundabout 1000 USD/EUR for a Hardtail Frame? Just because its steel? WTF?
