Tag Archives: 29er

Bike Mag Putting the Shinobi to the test.

The Norco Shinobi is an All Mountain 29er that packs a punch. It’s neutral geometry and do-all attitude make it the perfect choice for any rider that is looking for a bike that can take on anything thrown at it. You don’t have to take it from us though. The team at Bike Magazine recently gave their two cents and published a review. Have a read and tell us what you think!
Post from BikeMag.com

Norco Shinobi 2. Note: The wheels pictured are different than the stock wheels, which are Sun Ringle’s Inferno 25

Review: Norco Shinobi 2
By Ryan LaBar

Norco’s Shinobi is designed for all-day all-mountain riding with big climbs and big descents. Its frame is packed with well-thought-out features including post-style disc brake mounts, Syntace’s 142×12 axle system, a spare derailleur hanger bolt (that threads into the frame by the bottom bracket for storage), and a headtube that is extra short in order to keep the front end from feeling a mile high with the long legged 140-millimeter fork and 29-inch wheels.

Norco uses Syntaces X12 through axle and derailleur-hanger system.

While having a bike frame that’s loaded with fancy, smart details is nice, the important thing is how it rides.

Climbing is a strong point for the Norco. It scoots up steep rough climbs without losing traction and pedals efficiently when settling in on longer grinders. However, while not a pig by any means, the bike’s ~30-pound heft could be felt a bit after a day full of climbs. Then again, at this build level and spec, you aren’t going to find a much lighter package.

continue reading at bikemag.com

Up, down, and around – a bike for every terrain

If you want to know something about bikes with 29″ wheels, 29eronline.com is your one-stop-shop resource on the matter. We recently sent a 2012 Norco Revolver 2 down their way to get some feedback on the bike and how it ranked among the masses. They were impressed with the do-all nature of the bike and recommend it as a mid-level multipurpose trail bike.

The Norco Revolver 2 was a completely unknown bike to our testers until late December of 2011. It is now a highly recommended bike by the crew that rode it over the last couple of months. It went through 4 testers and myself in that time. On arrival, all of us were very impressed with how complete this package was for the price ($3,350 MSRP). With a killer color combo and many house branded and OEM parts perfectly color coordinated, the Norco looks very tight and put together. Looks are fun and all but it was the ride that got the 29erOnline crew excited.

Read the full review at 29eronline.com

Big Wheels Keep On Revolving

The Norco Revolver is an XC/Trail bike that is new to the lineup for 2012. With 100mm of travel and fast-rolling 29″ wheels this is a great bike for fast, flowing trails. Whether you are looking for a marathon race bike or an everyday trail bike, the Norco Revolver could be it.

You don’t have to take our word for it though. The testing team at Mountain Bike Action swung a leg over the Revolver and took a gander on the bike. Have a read through the full review below. If you want to read about more bikes, events and riding tips pick up a copy of Mountain Bike Action at your local newsstand.

Download the PDF

What Mountain Bike? This Mountain bike, the Norco Revolver

What Mountain Bike is one of the top cycling publications in the UK. As a part of the BikeRadar family they are one of the most reputable mountain bike magazines out there. The product testing team recently spent some time on the 2012 Norco Revolver 2 and had some very positive things to say about it. With an overall rating of 4.5 stars this is one of the top bikes tested in some time.

Read through the full article here or better yet stop by your local news stand and pick up a copy for yourself.

 

Opinion of the People – A Blogger’s perspective

We all check out the major websites and magazines for the latest product reviews. They after-all are  a great resource to find information on new products. There is something more authentic though about a small-time up-and-comers opinion. That in mind, it was great to come across this independent blogger’s review of the Norco Shinobi 1. Have a read and visit the full blog at muddustanddirt.wordpress.com for more great articles.

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Reviewing Norco’s Shinobi 1 29er

For this weekend we managed to get our hands on something a little bit special, special in the fact that this is the first bike we have been lent to review and not only that, this shinny pony is currently one of not very many currently in the UK. So after Doddy from MBUK had his share and done a real review for this bike we wanted to see what it was like for ourselves.

So we all know that the wagon wheel has been around for a while, but like most things it’s taken a while to get right. After a few of years of being nothing more than a novelty, I am confident that manufacturers have started to really refine the geometry and frame design to optimise and fully exploit the larger wheels. With this in mind I had high hopes for the bikes capabilities and performance and in my opinion, now is a good time to start considering these growth disorder laden steeds as a liable option if you are of gangly stature. Well, I wouldn’t exactly say that these bikes should be reserved for taller gentlemen, but I certainly know that they don’t compliment my riding style.

Lets move on to talking about the ride of this bike as this is a review. I must point out that I am a religiously sold and devoted 26″ man. Many people call me short but I come in at a handsome 5’10″ and before moving on I need to state the following fact; we know that stature correlates directly to the suitability of wheel size (small men small wheels, big men big wheels) makes sense right? Anyway, the bike we have here is a large which felt about right for me and my long legs but I may have been better off on a medium. The first time I mounted the bike I was impressed with its ability to consume and annihilate anything in its path, although this bike only had a conservative 120mm of travel it just bumped over everything (I understood the argument).

After deciding that the bike was a great machine and a massive advance forward in 29er technology I handed it to my test subject a much more appreciating and needing tall man of 6’4″Evans Cycles

As you can see the tall gentleman was perplexed by the normal sized wheels, he soon came around to the idea as he started riding.

Richard, my test subject solely for the reason that he is very tall quite frankly needed to come around to the idea of 29″ wheels due to his mammoth size. Unfortunately and unsurprisingly the bikes frame wasn’t quite big enough for him. My prediction was right in that tall people should really opt for a bigger wheels. See illusion below, A normal sized man on a small frame with 26″ wheels, or Richard’s ability to swamp any bike with his long limbs.Evans Cycles

The Bike is adorned with Sram components a Sun Ringle wheelset tubeless as standard and finished off with Easton’s Haven bars and stem.

Conclusion

Effectively what we have here is a Mountain bike for tall people who sometimes like to jump if they’re feeling brave. I fully understand and appreciate the bike as a great full sus 29er but I don’t understand why you would choose it over the 26″ competition. Prejudice and bias aside it’s really great and very rideable. The componentry selection and set up is spot on with a 2 x 10 set up and Sram components throughout making for a tidy cockpit setup and a fully integrated Sram experience. Moving on to the most important component of any bike the wheels, this bike comes with a nice set of Sun Ringle straight pull wheels and what I especially like about the wheels on this bike is that they come standard as tubeless. Not mentioning suspension in this review would be stupid so, the bike comes with Fox up front and rear the front bouncers utilise Fox’s FIT cartridge giving you more control over damping than you could ever want or care about. Best of all on the rear of this full bouncer we see what could only be described as a horst link which provides a familiar progressive stroke controlled by a RP23 with three variable compression settings. All in all a great bike with a playable head-angle great componentry and very capable suspension.

A big thumbs up from me and Richard.

Andy.

Another one bites the dust… or at least switches to the big wheel

The past three years has been made up of a few eccentric people that had a passion for the 29″ wheel and a whole lot of doubters. While the masses started to switch their frame of mind and correct the stigma of a bigger wheel recently the shame of being different was still disseminated widely. Over the past 6 months or so we seem to have hit a tipping point where we as a society have finally accepted the 29″ wheel into our daily life, it is no longer a proper custom to discriminate from those that are different among us.

Here is a short quote from Dirt Magazine and one of their 26″ believers. Have a read for yourself.

Three weeks into riding 29ers I no longer sign up to the theory that 26 bikes offer great agility either. In fact I now find them more nervous and slower. For me it clicked on the Norco Shinobi amongst tight flat rooty corners, the place where I had previously been totally struggling to get any kind of timing and flow. Within a few turns and a change of style I found myself leaning, attacking and pulling away from my riding friend who shares similar speed. It was simply a moment of clarity, in an instant manualling, pumping the ground, confident and fully coherent of the timing required. In the mud the bigger wheel size translates to more control during the slide and certainly increased traction.

Read the full article here

Rolling Forward With The 29″ Wheel

29″ Wheeled bikes have been around for a while now and do not appear to be going anywhere. The adoption curve of big-wheeled mountain bike has been extremely segmented. What started as a Southern California idea slowly popped up here and there until seeing a 26″ wheel on many local trails is nearly an anomaly. The 29″ wheel has made it’s grand debut.

One of the last areas to catch on to the benefits of the  29″ wheel was Norco’s home of Vancouver British Columbia. While Norco has been making 29″ bikes for several years, the number of people riding on the local trails has been extremely limited. This was for several reasons. For geometry, strength, versatility and social reasons an excuse was always at the tip-of-tongue.

Today, these excuses are but a moot point. The technical advancements, manufacturing techniques and product availability have left Vancouver-ites speechless – Time to adopt!

Cornering has always been a downfall for 29ers. While riding in technical situations, there are a couple of things working against you in getting around a corner. For one, the center of gravity on a taller bike is higher. This higher center of gravity, decreases that stability of the bike. The second aspect of cornering is wheelbase. The larger wheels require additional clearance in order to fit into the frame. Improving the clearance for a larger wheel results in a significantly longer wheelbase than with a 26″ bike. A longer wheelbase will make the bike feel lethargic or slow through the corners.

To improve how a 29er handles through the corners there are a couple of things that have been changed. The first addresses center of gravity. Bikes today are designed to be as low as possible. To achieve this, Bottom-Bracket heights have been decreased, tubes are curved and head-tubes are shorter. Each of these design features help to keep the bike as low to the ground and stable as possible. In order to keep the wheelbase as short, traditionally head-angles have been notoriously steep. Norco 29ers tend to be a bit slacker than the competition but we have a unique feature that allows for use to do this while offering a shorter wheelbase. The wrap-around stay design eliminates the need for an arch between the rear wheel and the seat-tube. This improves the clearance and allows for the use of a shorter stay while maintaining stiffness and strength.

Head Angles on 29ers have always been steep, debatably too steep. This perception however is part fact, part fiction. Norco designs its 29er mountain bikes to correspond closely to the ride characteristics of a corresponding 26″bike. To do this we take into account the head-angle, fork rake and wheel size to determine the trail of a bike. With a larger wheel and steeper head angle a 29er’s trail will correspond to that of a similar 26″ bike with a 1-2 degree steeper head angle. With this in mind, a 140mmm 29er with a 69 degree HA will ride similar to a 140mm 26″ bike with a 67.5 degree HA. While the angular numbers are different, the trail and ride characteristics are much the same.

Another aspect that slowed the universal adoption of the 29″ wheel was Parts Availability. As with any new standard, the adoption by manufacturers and consumers does not happen overnight. In the initial years fork, wheel, tire and frame manufacturers did not all jump on board. It is only in the past couple of years that forks have become available at up to 140mm of travel, wheels are easy to come by and have increased in strength and frames are available in a wide variety of sizes, suspensions and price-points. With everyone on board with the bigger wheels the whole package comes together. Parts are easy to come by, affordable and technically superior compared to the offerings of only a few years back.

The 29er is here to stay. The bikes are efficient, capable, affordable and most importantly, a lot of fun. The Norco lineup has 6 different 29er platforms for 2012 with a total of 16 different models. If you have not yet strayed from your 26″ roots, this is your time. Head on out to your local bike shop and at least give one a try. The big wheel may not be for everyone but you have got to give it a chance. I can almost guarantee that you will like it.

Testing out the Shinobi with Whistler Mountain Bike

When I was asked to test and review a 29er I was not sure how objective I could be for the type of bike.  The majority of my riding has been on 26″ wheel bikes of various types.  Hard tails, Dual Suspension XC, Freeride, and of course always a road bike in the quiver for some fast training rides.

The day the bike arrived I was eager to build it and see what it really felt like pedaling something with 29″ wheels.  Bike build went smooth although I wasn’t comfortable with the brake housing.  With a little trim and bleed all was good.

read the full review at whistlermountainbike.com

MTBR’s Two Cents on the Shinobi

Norco is one of Canada’s biggest bicycling brands and, as such, has a large lineup of bikes. Till this season Norco lacked a full-suspension 29er. With the introduction of the Shinobi, Norco addressed this omission and did so with style. The Shinobi’s design goes against some conventional thinking. Namely geometry tweaks to “standard” 29er geometries, using a new standard for rear ends and changes to the tried and true FSR suspension; all of which I will canvass more in this review.

In producing the Shinobi, Norco has managed to combine value and performance (uphill and downhill) yet managed to distinguish itself from the pack. Until recent times, 29ers were the domain of the buff less-technical trail fans. If you wanted to try a 29er that could handle even moderately aggressive technical terrain your choices were limited. The Shinobi is a strong candidate for any rider who wants a full-suspension 29er which can climb decently well yet can also handle aggressive lines.


Read the full review here

“A solid trail bike that inspires confidence” The Norco Shinobi

The Norco Shinobi is in a classification of its own when it comes to 29ers. There are a few similar bikes out there but not many. At 120/140mm of travel this bike is slacker, burlier and has more travel than your typical big-wheeler. That said, there are some that need convincing that this bike is really worthy. Well, pinkbike has been testing a Shinobi for the past few months and they are sold. Check out their review for the full story.

Norco’s 29″ wheeled Shinobi is the Canadian company’s stab at constructing a trail/all-mountain big wheeler that capitalizes on the advantages of 29″ wheels, but doesn’t forgo the sturdy B.C.-friendly pedigree that their bikes’ have become known for. This is no anorexic, skinny tired race steed, but rather a 120mm travel bike that will be happy to be ridden day in and day out on challenging terrain – no matter if that is climbing or coming back down. pb