First Look: Norco Optic C3 - A max aggro, little travel 29er
Short travel trail bike is sorted with a carbon front triangle for a hair over of £3k
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The Optic is Norco's trail 29er that comes with a proper aggro geometry, especially when you consider the amount of travel that's on offer. With descent tearing intentions and the promises of an uplift erasing ability up the hills, we're pretty excited about this one.
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The C3 is the base level Optic that's priced at £3,100. Even though it's the cheapest bike in the range, it gets the very same frame as you'll see on the £5,000 Optic C1. That frame consists of a carbon front triangle with an alloy rear end bolted on. The combination then follows Norco's Ride Aligned system that uses a combination of a bike setup guide along with geometry and suspension adjustments across the size range to help buyers pick the correct size for them while keeping the bike's ride ideal for their size.
That means that the Optic's chainstay stretches throughout the four size range. So, it starts off at 425mm and stretches up to 440mm on the XL frame. While we're on the subject of geometry, the medium sized bike we've got on test rocks a 450mm reach with a 76° effective seat tube angle, a rather slack 65° head tube angle, and a 415mm chainstay. That geometry looks pretty aggressive to me.
What's really got me interested in this bike is that its four-bar suspension handles just 125mm of travel, a nod to what could be quite a rowdy ride. That suspension is handled by a vertically mounted and piggyback equipped RockShox Super Deluxe Ultimate with a custom DH tune. Up front, the bike benefits from 140mm of squish supplied by a RockShox Pike Select RC with the brand's DebonAir damper.
Moving along to the drivetrain, the Optic C3 gets its kit from Shimano with an XT mech and SLX shifter. There's a 10-51t SLX cassette too. Slowing down the bike, and further hinting upon its speed machine intentions, there are four-piston brakes at both ends. They also come from Shimano in the form of the BR-MT420s. At the front, you'll find a large 203mm rotor with a smaller 180mm disc at the back.
The wheels on this bike are made up of Shimano HB-MT400-B and FH-MT510-B hubs laced to Stan's Flow S1 29" rims. Those then get tyres from Vittoria with a 2.4" Mazza at the font and a 2.35" Martello at the rear, even though the frame comes with clearance for up to 2.6" rubber.
Rounding off the bike with the cockpit, the 780mm bar comes from TranzX that's properly sorted with DMR Deathgrip grips and there's an X-Fusion Manic dropper with 150mm of drop on this medium bike.
The Norco Optic C3 is available from Tredz in the UK and what's extra nice is that the bike shop has included a drawstring bag full of handy goodies. In the bag there's a multitool, pedal spanner, and helpful instructions on how to get the bike ready to ride, ideal if you're new to the sport.
Now, it's time to get this bike tested so for a full review, be sure to check back in soon.
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