Best Norco Mountain Bikes
Built tough, heavy and to last – I've owned my Norco Sasquatch for the last 6 years - yep 6 years! I purchased the very first 2006 model to hit the Eastern Australian coast and paid… Read more
dearly for it when they came out - there were cheaper options but the Norco Sasquatch it had to be!
When I purchased the bike I was going to use it for basic commuting and bush bashing, this bike is more suited for the heavy abuse of North Shore, dirt jumping and heavy trails. I understood the limitations of the bike however fell in love with the absolute brawn of the machine itself.
The frame itself is a 6061 T6 aluminium, fair enough it should be light but thats completely reverse of what it is. This frame is built to take a truck head on, the head tube is machined from a solid block of aluminium and the top and down tubes are hydroformed and quiet possibly 2 to 3mm thick in places and it sounds like it when you knock on it (sounds like a I beam being knocked on). The rear triangle is built from square and rectangular tubes which give unsurpassed rigidity to the rear and an absolute snow balls chance in hell for a normal person to crack the frame, this partly due to the welds which are hand welded and beautifully done!
The frame presents in a slope style where the head tube is elevated above the top tube for a low stand over angle, great for short riders and tall riders like myself that want to experience a low centre of gravity ride = like a inflated BMX. Personally I wish I purchased a medium frame over the small, however it still satisfies me to ride and it is nimble enough to take into the streets and get around. The only downside is riding it for a long distance! (Bad for the knees!!!)
The Sasquatch was set up with OEM Truvative parts, Hussefelt goose neck and Hussefelt DH riser bars - these two parts can never be broken naturally within any sort of riding style! Absolutely bombproof parts that were chosen for the Sasquatch! The bottom bracket bearings are the Hussefelt series, however the cranks are the Ruktion which are one series down from the Hussefelt's and the legendary Holsfeller cranks. There are some issues with these cranks and they were replaced by Norco with the Holsfeller's at the time - unfortunately my cranks didnt get the swap due to being ok.
The forks from factory are Marzocchi Drop Off IV's - the set that came on the bike were faulty from factory so were replaced when they blew up and coated me and the bike in fork oil - Norco's Australian importer was such a hopeless company to deal with about these and I was without a pair of forks for about 2 months. Marzocchi claimed 150mm of travel - seriously I can only get about 130mm at maximum compression. These forks are the better type than the Dirt Jumpers and the Drop Off triple clamps which suffer some serious top out issues. The forks are hydraulic and work smoothly and effortlessly, the hydraulic dampener in them is easily adjusted for rebound and compression and you can manage your fork quiet easily so that it doesn't suffer the dreaded top out "CLUNK". I run a special 15 weight mix of Motul fork oil for personal preference and line the upper wiper seals with teflon grease and they are smooth as silk. I also run the required air pressure in the left and right fork for my body weight and now after a good number of years of careful maintenance and service I cannot fault them!
The business end of brakes, again Norco didnt fit the correct front brake adapter in the box and it took near 2 months to get this from them - but the Hayes HFX 9's are the anchors on the Sasquatch and were on a number of models of the Norco line for a very long time; these brakes were also fitted to allot of other more serious mountain bikes (eg: Kona Stinky and Orange Bikes) without the need to change a thing for competition use - they were twin piston and worked well and centred themselves good enough. They came pre bled and with their semi sintered metallic pads which needed a huge amount of burnishing in to get working - nothing a few straight line bitumen hills couldn't solve - a few runs down to the point where the pads were nearly glowing sorted these out! The discs are 8 inch sweep disc design and I quiet like the look and performance of these, they make a certain noise of air poping when the brakes are applied heavily, and I found that dirt and mud are safely swept from the face and no gouges are noticed after a lot of use, they're made from a Stainless material but can rust so look after these... Otherwise these brakes are cheap to run, pads are cheap and now come in all sorts of densities from organic to full metallic compounds, replacement brake levers from aluminium to carbon fibre, replacement high compression pistons for the brake lever housing and Goodridge hose kits to increase compression at the brake end and to personalise the bike more (something I wish I had the money to do!). The brakes are a little fiddly to bleed at times with a bike stand honestly needed and a good bleed kit (syringe and hoses and 6mm spanner), this plus some basic knowledge of how to bleed a line without injecting air bubbles. Once this is done, there are no issues and absolute fantastic brakes that are more than dependable from such old technology!!!
The wheels of the Sasquatch were pretty mundane, round and pretty basic! The hubbs are Shimano HB-M475 non sealed bearing hubs, there is a small wiper seal on the cone however this is rudimentary and does a good enough job keeping most of the dirt out of the bearings. These hubs took a massive beating during the 'bedding in' stage of owning the bike where I went through two sets of bearings on the brake side of the hub. The brakes were putting so much pressure on the bearings that they failed within 6 months of ownership? Now I ensure that I clean and inspect the bearings themselves and the races for wear and use a high quality waterproof Teflon based grease to keep things quiet and cool under pressure! The spokes of the wheels are 14 guage and in stainless black - had a massive stick go through my wheel once and it didnt manage to break the spoke - managed to break the stick in two against the forks! The rims of the setup were standard black single wall but high side walls, these so far have held up well with only one minute flat spot and no terrible buckles - just pull them out myself when they occur. The tyres that are on the bike are Kenda Nevegals - however I changed these to Maxxis Holey Rollers just to suit my urban style of riding, without compromising any level of dirt use.
The running gear eg: derailleur and sprockets are typical Shimano Deore, the handle bar system is rapid fire and notably so. These cockpit controls have had to be stripped and cleaned from time to time as they gum up and become sticky, the cables have had to be replaced with teflon lined cables and stainless steel cables and the cable housing were changed to one long piece housings to reduce dirt and water ingress into the lines. The rear sprocket is Deore or Alivio, either which way it has lasted a very long time! The front shifter is Deore also and it has suffered along the way but is rock solid - this would be something that I would change to a short rear derailleur and only a single chain-ring up the front with a chain tensioner or guide to keep it where it should be. Nothing worse than a thrown chain on the way down, the chain needs to be kept clean and replaced every 5000Km's as per usual.
The pedals that came with the bike were thrown out for a change to SNAFU unsealed pedals that have been faithful, nothing a bit of a clean and re grease cant solve.
Overall the bike is one solid piece of metal, weighting close to the 20kg mark for a small framed low stand over bike. There would be a lot of things that could be changed or replaced to suit your own personal tastes or riding habits. I think its a great bike and I love it's strength, but I wish I got it in large or extra large due to the way that my knees bunch up on a long ride - and for the future as I am aging. Strength of total bike package, lifetime warranty on frame. Looks serious and rids the same! Lots of little niggly issues when I first got the bike - quiet a few months wasted with waiting for parts to fix the bike - mostly due to importer negligence!!