At Crankworx in Whistler, Norco had Bryn Atkinson’s one-off custom painted Norco Range on display. Painted by Tony Baumann, the bike reportedly took upwards of 80 hours of labor to complete. The paint takes its design cues from an Australian Red-Bellied Black snake, and is complete with custom Fox decals on the 36 that feature snake scales on the fox tail.
The biggest question remains: would you hit the trails on a bike with a paint job like this? Or delegate it as ridable art, and stick to doing wheelies around town?
Equally of interest to me though, is Bryn’s take on sizing.
Geometry and Sizing
At 5’11” Bryn has spent time on the Range and Sight both wheel sizes as well as medium and large frame sizes, with his preference leaning towards medium for playing on the trail. For racing, the large would probably be his choice for race speed stability, but considering his home is in Bellingham and his home trails are littered with berms, jumps and other features, he prefers the shorter reach for the ability to move it around and nail his lines.
Bryn is riding a medium, but has also spent a lot of time on the large. At 5’10” I’m an inch shorter than Bryn; I often find myself debating between a size medium and large. Last year I mistakenly purchased a Norco Aurum C7 DH bike in a size medium. The reach on the medium was spot on with my Santa Cruz Nomad, but after spending time on a Transition Sentinel with 450mm of reach, I replaced the Aurum with a size large with a 432mm reach that feels spot on at speed in the bike park and on DH trails.
With the Medium Range coming in at 437mm for a size medium and 461mm for the large, I’d be hard pressed to decide on which size I’d prefer for “enduro” style trail rides. (for XC its an easy call – the large) For an additional comparison, Yeti’s new SB150 Enduro 29er has a medium frame that measures in with a 460.2mm reach.