It keeps getting worse
Picard said:
Norco is not cheap but its design leaves much to be desired. Buyer must pay the top end Norco to get good quality frame. A majority of Norco bikes are made for the non-mtb riders out there. Theirs bikes serve as good recreational bikes but can't make survive the rugged single track trail. As for Kona, if there is no pivot joints at the bottom end of bike then it doesn't really qualify as FS. It imitates FS. I am refering to XC bikes not downhiller or stunt bikes. I check the kona before I chose the specialized stumpjumper. For any bikes that is a FS, there has to be 2 pivot points on the bike, if only one moves then where does the reamining shock vibration go through the rest of bike. I know people tend to associate brand name as hight quality product. For instance, Mercedes is a brand name but their cars have more mechanical problems than Honda. Alot of Mercedes owners are mad as hell because they paid too much for it. Mercedes recently recall over 1 million cars to fix their problems and eliminate many features on new models but problems persist. Car manufacturers used to install leaf spring on cars & trucks as shock absorbers. Those leaf springs were not true suspension for a vehicle. Now every manutacturer used independent wishbone, spring suspension.
There are lots of brand name bikes in the market but they don't necessarily mean they are all great. Each manufacturer does very well in specific design whether it is XC or downhiller. Elleworth, for example, is famous for its XC models. Giant makes good XC NRS model. NRS works like a hardtail, suspension is activated when there is a bump. I don't even want to mention Raileigh. Why don't people get excited with Raleigh bikes. Raleigh tries to make XC bikes too. It is sad for me to say that Raleigh engineering hasn't reach the magic goal of true XC design. Yeti is good bikes but it doesn't have wide range of XC models for buyers to choose. Santa Cruz also makes very good XC bikes and well proven design. Consequently many riders buy their bikes in Canada. If a buyer wants to buy a bike base on looks when there is few demo model available in store, It is best for the buyer to buy from true well test models that had been used by pro riders in the past decade and feedbacks from regular riders.
Norco bikes made for non-mtb riders huh. Interesting these two Norco bikes look like they can take way more abuse than most mtb riders can dish out. Only thing left to be desired is maybe a little less weight. But then if you are good enough to be using this type of bike weight doesnt really matter. And the Norco line up contains a lot more bikes like this.
As for the Konas, wrong again Picard. As you can see on this frame there is more than one pivot. One at the bottom bracket, one on the seatstay near the dropouts, two on the yolk, one on each end, and one in the middle of the yolk. Slightly more than one pivot. Its called a walking beam suspension. Been used by lots of companies for a long time very successfully. And this is their XC bike. And how can you say single pivots arent FS. Santa Cruz built its company around high quality single pivot FS bikes. Some of the strongest, simplest frames out there are single pivot.
Now to the Yetis. Yeti bikes have traditionally been built for one thing, racing. So what if they dont have a huge line-up of different models. If you want a great riding bike that goes fast, they have what you need. Just recently they introduced a trail riding frame the 575 that ventured away from the racing only philosophy and it has been incredibly successful. A light weight frame that gets nearly 6 inches of travel and pedals and handles great. That is a bike with not much left to be desired.
You keep tauting the NRS. Well the NRS is kinda outdated. It rides like a hard tail sometimes because the idea behind NRS is too put so much pressure in the shock that you have no initial sag and therefore no movement with just the riders weight. Not really a good thing in my opinion. Yeah it does pedal ok, but so do hardtails. NRS suspension is not very good compared to some of the other stuff out now.
If you dont know what you are talking about, then shut up. Pretty much everything you have said so far has been talking out of your a$$.
