Bikes & Big Ideas BLISTER

The Norco Factory Team has a new DH race bike, and the story of its development is an interesting one. So we sat down with engineers Adrian Ward and Kirk McDowall to hear their take on the goals and design intent of the bike; what they learned from the development of the existing Enduro bike, the Range (and its modified DH version); the original test mule for the new race bike; working with Greg Minnaar to continue the bike’s development; and a whole lot more.
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TOPICS & TIMES:
Introducing Adrian and Kirk (2:03)
Origins of the DH bike project (3:59)
Racing DH on the Range (6:35)
The next steps (13:27)
Kirk’s testing (17:28)
Building “the fastest race bike” (22:53)
The design of the bike (28:41)
Wheel sizes & going MX (32:33)
Suspension layout (41:07)
Greg Minnaar & reconsidering 29’’ wheels (46:52)
Future development (56:26)
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We’ve been testing a massive assortment of new bikes and other gear, and David Golay and Zack Henderson sat down to chat about a whole bunch of them, including the high-pivot Norco Optic and Sight, the new Specialized Epic Evo, the newly-mulleted Yeti SB165, and more.
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TOPICS & TIMES:
Yeti SB165 (1:29)
Norco Sight & Optic (8:46)
Kavenz VHP 16 V7 (22:43)
Rocky Mountain Instinct (31:52)
Rocky Mountain Altitude (38:33)
Ibis HD6 (45:46)
Specialized Epic Evo (53:18)
SRAM Maven brakes (58:58)
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March was an interesting month for bike news. There was a dispute at Crankworx Rotorua which resulted in the men not competing in the finals, Scott is having crazy management drama, there are a bunch of interesting new lightweight eMTBs, and Simon had a recent trip to ride in Tuscany. In our third installment of Reviewing The News, Ryan and Simon get into all of this and more.
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TOPICS & TIMES:
Simon’s recent trip to Italy (1:50)
Riding eGravel bikes in Tuscany (4:03)
Are gravel bikes just reincarnated 30-year-old mountain bikes? (4:48)
John Tomac’s drop-bar riding prowess (7:39)
How did we ride without dropper posts? (7:54)
Slow eBikes in Europe (10:38)
The Slopestyle strike (20:40)
First-ever women’s slopestyle event at Crankworx (27:32)
Scott drama (32:50)
The year of the lightweight E-bikes (38:04)
Norco Fluid VLT (39:58)
Mondraker Dune (50:11)
Short-travel high-pivot bikes (53:24)
Old brakes vs. new brakes (1:01:51)
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Racing World Cup DH isn’t easy under any circumstances, but doing so after a spinal cord injury — and needing to relearn how to walk, much less ride — is something else entirely. Brook Macdonald pulled it off, but he’s also struggled with bike setup, burnout, and more over the last couple of seasons. For 2024, though, he’s got a new team, a new bike, and a renewed hunger to race — we sat down to hear all about it.
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TOPICS & TIMES:
Getting a fresh start for 2024 (2:24)
Coming back from breaking his back in 2019 (4:09)
What does (and doesn’t) work in a DH race bike (18:06)
Moving to Forbidden (23:40)
Hardline Tasmania (26:58)
Losing weight (35:44)
The evolution of DH racing (39:04)
Changing race tracks (50:05)
Brook’s 2024 goals (54:42)
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Georgia Astle is one of the many ultra-talented riders to come out of Whistler, BC — but she actually grew up kitesurfing and doing a whole bunch of other sports, rather than mountain biking. Once she fell in love with mountain biking in high school, though, her rise through the ranks was astonishingly rapid — first as a racer and later as a freerider — and we sat down with Georgia to hear all about it, including the state of Enduro racing and women’s freeride, Georgia’s goals for 2024 and beyond, and a whole lot more.
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TOPICS & TIMES:
Growing up in Whistler and not mountain biking (2:44)
Getting into racing (7:51)
Georgia’s meteoric rise (13:42)
DH vs. Enduro as a privateer (21:32)
The folly of eMTB racing (31:06)
Moving to freeride (34:04)
The state of women’s freeride (39:06)
Georgia’s 2024 plans (48:52)
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Dakotah Norton finished the 2023 DH season strong, with two podiums and a 6th place finish over the final four races, but as he put it, the season started with “near failure.” We sat down with Dakotah to talk about the struggle of finding consistency at the limit; his move to Mondraker Factory Racing and the dissolution of his former team at Intense; the state of DH racing both at home and abroad; how to better develop up-and-coming American DH racers; and a whole lot more.
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TOPICS & TIMES:
Getting up to speed with the new team (2:20)
The 2023 season (3:45)
Finding consistency in a chaotic season (6:34)
The dissolution of Intense Factory Racing (17:35)
Finding a new team mid-season (21:38)
The state of World Cup DH racing (22:41)
Broadcasting races (25:34)
Running World Cup DH (30:25)
Developing American DH talent (33:42)
Dak’s 2024 goals (41:09)
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