Description
Despite what the 125mm of rear travel has us thinking, the Norco Optic isn’t our Lycra-clad buddy’s cross-country bike. The Optic is designed for taking on hard-charging descents, pedaling right back up to the top, and doing it all over again. The frame is a combination of a lightweight carbon front triangle and a durable aluminum rear triangle giving us the perfect balance of strength and responsiveness. The Horst Link rear suspension system gets paired with a custom-tuned Fox Performance Elite FLOAT DPX2 rear shock making the 125mm of travel seem endless on the descents. This gives us a consistent and intuitive ride feel all over the mountain without sacrificing traction on gnarly climbs. An aggressive geometry just further reinforces that the Optic is all about speed with a slack 65-degree headtube angle for stability at speed and a steep 76-degree seat tube angle to put us in a climbing position that’s not only powerful but comfortable too. Plus, we get size-specific chainstays to deliver a consistent, playful ride feel across the entire size range, no matter how tall we are. The Norco Optic C2 build utilizes smartly chosen components with speed at the forefront. The reliable Shimano XT 12-speed drivetrain shifts smoothly and has a wide-range cassette to get us up and down the mountain efficiently. We’ll have plenty of stopping power and speed modulation to navigate techy sections thanks to a pair of 4-piston Shimano XT brakes, while a pair of 29-inch Stan’s Flow S1 wheels give us the confidence to tackle just about any obstacle on the trail. A 140mm Fox Performance Elite 36 fork helps keep us locked in on our line thanks to its torsional stability, plus it has the highly tunable GRIP2 damper so that we can dial in our suspension to suit our riding style. For those of us looking to add a trail ripper to our quiver or one bike to do it all, the Norco Optic C2 Shimano Mountain Bike is short on travel, not on fun. *Due to a high demand in the global supply cha…
