Page 81 - AMB Freelist

chain-stays, varying head tube angles and more on each frame size to retain the ride characteristics they set out to achieve.
I mentioned earlier that the Range is overbuilt and hefty and the last thing you would want to point up a hill looking at the weight. But thanks to its balanced layout and steep 77 degree effective seat angle on the large, the rider is sitting firmly over the bottom bracket shell. This is a very comfortable position which makes long and arduous climbs quite pleasant. Flick the Fox DHX2’s climb lever and it sits higher in the travel and has minimal excessive bob. For a 170mm travel bike from the long, low, slack pattern that is equipped with a coil, it’s really impressive how easily it goes uphill with a rider flailing on the pedals. Sure it could be lighter, but the anti squat values and kinematic characteristics make it feel much less of a beast going up and Norco should be commended on how they have pulled that off! Of course, if you’re interested in the Norco Range, the ability to pedal up is good, but this bike is all about working with gravity, not against it.
Once you’re at the top of your mountain, thoughts like ‘what can I send this thing off’ will be frequent. The suspension is dialed and all touch points are bang on out of the box; with nothing to get used to at all, I could just let it go. Knowing that you have pedalled this thing up a mountain fairly easily and can then charge the most demanding trails and features without the bike breaking a sweat is something else. the Norco Range’s rear wheel moves back and out of the way of obstacles, flattening out the chop and sticks to the ground perfectly without feeling boat-like or dead in the mid-stroke. The RockShox ZEB and its chunky 38mm legged chassis up front keeps everything in check, with the huge frame and hardware ensuring the
bike never has any sense of wiggling or squirming off your line.
In addition to the Ranges’s rearward axle path, the beautifully balanced geometry and efficient pedalling are two characteristics that are important to dive into a bit further. Some of you may see these as a pro and some a con, but both traits are common with high pivot bikes.
Firstly, applying the rear brake makes the bike squat and stick to the ground. Without being boring, high pivot (or in the Range’s case, a Virtual High Pivot) have high anti-rise values. When under brakes they sit into their travel, gain traction and reduce the feeling of sitting up, becoming light in the back end and pitching the rider over the front causing the fork to dive. While that’s a good thing, there is a compromise, which is why not every bike is designed like this. The anti-rise also inhibits the rear suspension’s ability to work smoothly and follow the contours of the ground (the Virtual High Pivot does this better that Norco’s High Single Pivot Aurum). This means that applying the rear brake makes the bike sit lower into its travel which leads me to the second point.
The more travel you use, the longer it gets and the more it sticks to the ground. While this is also another Good Thing for many, there are still reasons why every mountain bike isn’t designed like this.
Both of these key ride qualities and key attributes of the Range make it one of the most capable bikes I have ever ridden. The harder you push the Range, the more stable, more composed and faster it goes, it really is that good.
However, in order to make the most of the braking attributes, precise short and hard braking is a must to keep the rear wheel tracking as intended. Brake hard
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