Norco Fluid 7.1

Some years ago now I remember a friend saying to me that cricket was an Indian game which was accidently invented by the British; no-one has a fervent devotion to the world’s slowest game like those from the sub-continent. In the same way, it could be argued that although mountain biking may have been born in California, its spiritual home is almost certainly a few thousand kilometres north in western Canada. Brands like Cove, Kona and Norco were synonymous with the advancement of the MTB scene for well over a decade and then, well, the wheels kind of fell off (pun intended).

Norco went through a phase where their bikes looked like they were made from wet noodles, and Kona and Cove made bikes which looked and weighed like they were made from bricks. Well we’re here to tell you that the Canucks are back at the very top of their game, and the new Norco Fluid 7.1 is a perfect example of that return to form.

The Fluid series from Norco is intended to take the technology and geometry used in their top-tier Sight and Range bikes and distil it down into a 120mm travel package that’s far more wallet friendly. The Fluid’s frame tubes are far less manipulated, there’s no rear thru-axle, and other frame elements such as the rocker link are manufactured in a slightly less expensive (and heavier) manner. There’s also no internal cable routing, with the rear cables instead running neatly along the underside of the down tube.

Component choice on the Fluid 7.1 is more about getting the job done than reducing weight or adding bling, but it’s all totally functional stuff. The end result is a bike that retails for $2,999 with a 3,100g frame (large with shock) that weighs 14kg as delivered (without pedals). There’s also an even more affordable Fluid 7.2 for $2,299, which uses the same frame but downgrades the suspension and other components to drop the price even further. We happen to like the smooth lines of the Fluid, and the bright green livery attracted many a compliment from other riders we encountered; it’s a good looking bike regardless of how much or little it costs.

Go with the Flow

There’s been a lot of very rapid change in the MTB world in the last two to three years; geometry has been getting longer, lower and slacker, cockpits have become shorter and wider, and wheels have been getting bigger (either by a little or a lot). Norco have been at the forefront of many of these changes, adopting 27.5-inch wheels before it was fashionable and dramatically raking out the angles on bikes like the Sight when other brands were tinkering with half a degree here and a few millimetres there. This loutish DNA carries over to the Fluid 7.1, with its mid-sized wheels attached to very short 425mm chainstays and a confidently slack 68.5-degree head angle combined with a long top tube keeping you well behind the front wheel when things get hairy. The bottom bracket is also particularly low, which gives a real ‘in the bike’ feel and provides fantastic cornering stability at the expense of a few extra ground strikes when you’re pedalling in the rough, but it’s a worthwhile trade off in our minds.

The team at Norco have done an outstanding job of choosing the components for the Fluid 7.1; money has been spent where it matters and saved where it doesn’t. Suspension is an integral part of the ride quality of any bike, and the Fox CTD suspension front and back offers plenty of adjustability for varied terrain and riding styles. It also does a great job of smoothing out the bumps and absorbing all manner of impacts, whether climbing or descending. Despite their budget nature, the Shimano Deore brakes work so well that, on performance alone, it’s very hard to justify the expense of their higher priced SLX, XT, and XTR stable mates. The stock triple chainring setup offers great flexibility; you can keep it as a 3x10, replace the big ring with a bashguard to create an ‘all-mountain’ style 2x10 or convert to 1x10. Although not super light, the Deore level crank and front derailleur combo shifted smoothly and never missed a beat.

The hubs and spokes are pretty basic but we really appreciated the decision to spec the relatively wide tubeless compatible WTB i23 rims; it was easy to ditch the tubes and the added rim width allows you to run lower tyre pressures without encountering excessive tyre squirm or burping. With the stock Maxxis Ardent tyres dropped to 25psi, the added cornering traction really unlocked the Fluid’s appetite for mischief.

At this price it would be too much to ask for a dropper seatpost, however any prospective Fluid owner would be stark raving bonkers to not factor one into their budget, and the cable guides are all there waiting to be used. There are only two things we couldn’t get our heads around. The first was why the appropriately wide 740mm handlebar was teamed with a so five-years-ago 90mm stem; chop 20-30mm off that sucker and you’ll be laughing all the way. Secondly, the XT level rear derailleur lacked the ‘Shadow Plus’ style clutch; we would have preferred to see a cheaper SLX or Deore level derailleur with the clutch as they really do help with reducing chain slap and keeping the chain on.

We did find that the gear cable housing moved around a lot within the cable guides near the bottom bracket—on our well-ridden demo bike it was starting to eat into the frame. This was fixed by wrapping a few layers of tape around the gear housing to make it thicker and allow the zip tie to clamp it firmly in place—it’s a simple modification and we’d suggest that any Fluid owners do the same before hitting the trails. Still, these are all relatively minor quibbles. The Fluid 7.1 might be a more price conscious offering from Norco, but its geometry and components clearly indicate that it’s intended for the serious mountain biker on a budget, not as a glorified fire road commuter.

Work of ART

The Fluid’s rear wheel is suspended by Norco’s ART (Advanced Ride Technology) system; it’s a Horst-link style four-bar linkage but with a lower than normal rear chainstay pivot. The net effect of this is twofold; a slightly more rearward axle path improves rollover on square edged impacts, and increased chain growth (and hence chain torque) helps resist unwanted suspension movement when you’re pedalling without the need for a firm compression tune on the rear shock. We’re big fans of this type of ‘active’ suspension design, as it leaves the shock free to absorb impacts and keep your rear wheel tracking the ground rather than choking the damper in order to control pedal-induced movement. The action feels quite linear through about 80-90% of its travel, with just enough progression at the end of the stroke to prevent bottoming out harshly; we regularly and consistently used every one of the 120mm of travel, but rarely felt the ‘thump’ of the bottom-out bumper.

In practice, what this means is that the ‘descend’ mode on the Fox shock is incredibly smooth over all manner and size of lumps and bumps, and it’s a testament to how sorted the Fluid 7.1 is that it always felt like it had more travel than listed on the spec sheet. There is some suspension movement when pedalling in the fully-open setting, however the rear wheel stays pasted to the ground in a way that had us opting to sacrifice efficiency for traction on many complex climbs. This was particularly the case when we could push the 32 tooth chainring, as dropping into the granny ring exacerbated the amount of suspension bounce, as well as exhibiting a comparatively high degree of kickback through the pedals when scaling steps and other uphill nastiness. We even preferred to run the shock in the open setting for the vast majority of traversing and undulating trails; unless you’re pedalling in squares or racing the XC world cup (which we’re certain you’re not), the predictability and suppleness of the unconstrained ART suspension outweighed the minimal loss of forward momentum.

Smooth and steep climbs or sections of trail where you’re pumping for speed or pushing hard into high-G berms are where the ‘trail’ setting comes in handy; the magic carpet ride vanishes but in its place is a slightly firmer springboard that gives back every bit of push that you put into it. Between these two settings there’s enough of a difference to justify their respective places; unless you’re shuttling on bitumen we don’t envisage a time when you’ll find the ‘climb’ setting of any benefit. It almost goes without saying but the Fluid’s suspension feels unaffected by braking, so you can get on the anchors regardless of the state of the trail ahead; most bikes these days are pretty good in this regard, and this one is certainly no exception. Overall we reckon Norco’s ART suspension is one of the best expressions of the Horst link design we’ve come across; it remains predictable, unruffled, traction-hungry, forgiving and relatively efficient regardless of what you throw at it.

Fluid Dynamics

Of course suspension is only part of the MTB equation; it’s the combination of suspension, geometry and frame construction that goes towards the overall ride quality of any bike. With that in mind, throughout our time on the Fluid 7.1 we kept coming back to the same realisation: If we had to spend the rest of our MTB days on this one bike, we wouldn’t be disappointed. Yes, it’s got quality bounce, but the frame numbers allow you to eke every last bit of fun out of the travel in a way that many bikes promise, but far fewer deliver. The short chainstays and low bottom bracket give the Fluid a lively and energetic feel that urges you to push just a bit harder on every turn. There was a small amount of flex around the bottom bracket but it’s not enough to unsettle the ‘green machine’ or push it off line. It transitions from edge to edge almost intuitively, and the weighting is such that the back end starts to push a little before the front, so once you learn the limits of your tyres’ grip, the world of one- or two-wheel drifts opens up before you.

These same traits combined with the long and slack front end and ample standover make the Fluid a highly enthusiastic descender; it doesn’t just eat up the downhills, it swallows them whole. Yes, it’s only got 120mm of travel at both ends, but within the bounds of sanity you’ll be stunned by the gravity-induced grins the Fluid 7.1 serves up. On step downs, drops and jumps you feel far enough back to fly with confidence, and airborne stability is excellent. You will be wanting that aforementioned dropper seatpost however; we could only lower the stock post by a paltry 80mm thanks to the subtle kink in the seat tube, and no-one’s mojo is enhanced by having a saddle up in their business.

It’s again testament to the Fluid’s overall package that on climbs and flatter trails you never feel like you’re pedalling 14-odd kilograms of bike. Perhaps it’s because the supple suspension saves your body from the fatigue of constant trail battering, or perhaps its playful nature unlocks your hidden reserves of adrenaline, but regardless of the cause it pedals lighter than the scales suggest. With upgrades done over time, we’re certain that you could shed almost a kilogram from the wheels, cranks and cassette, but as it comes out of the box we still had no problem winching our way up some seriously steep and sustained climbs. On the techy ascents you’ll need to find the right gear and damper combination for your riding style, but as previously mentioned once you do it’s capable enough to scale just about anything that doesn’t require a rope and harness.

You’ll probably notice that we haven’t gone into a long-winded monologue about the pros and cons of the Fluid’s so-this-minute 27.5-inch wheels; that’s because functionally you can’t separate the wheels from the rest of the package. Previously we’ve covered the differences between the various wheel sizes in great detail (FMA 2013 and ASO 2012), but it’s the combination of wheels, suspension and frame geometry that dictate how any bike performs. Suffice to say that the wheels on the Fluid do what they’re supposed to do (go around) and there’s room for genuine 2.3-inch tyres plus mud.

It should be as obvious as a boil on Jennifer Hawkins’ bum that we really like the Fluid 7.1; Norco has done a stellar job of bringing the performance of their top-tier bikes to a substantially more affordable price. No, it won’t handle the big drops and ultra-gnar of its longer travel cousins. It’s not quite as stiff, or as light, or as pretty either but it really is a proper do-everything mountain bike and it doesn’t cost one or more appendages to buy. We don’t know when sub-$3,000 bikes became this good, but thanks to trickle-down technology the Fluid 7.1 is good enough to justify component upgrades when necessary, and if you can’t ride it up, down, or across something then chances are the limitation isn’t the bike, it’s you.

Thumbs Up

Current and capable geometry

Excellent suspension

Great fun and good value

Thumbs Down

A clutch-style derailleur would have been nice

Lumpy pedal action in granny ring

Could do with a shorter stem

Specifications

Frame: Alloy with tapered steerer

Shock: Fox Evo CTD 120mm travel

Fork: Fox Evo CTD 15QR 120mm travel

Headset: FSA, 1 1/8 - 1 1/2

Handlebars: Norco Alloy riser 740mm

Stem: Norco Alloy 90mm

Shifters: Shimano Deore

Front Derailleur: Shimano Deore

Rear Derailleur: Shimano XT

Cassette: Shimano HG62 11/36 10-speed

Chain: SRAM PC1031

Cranks: Shimano Deore 22/30/40

Bottom Bracket: Shimano

Pedals: N/A

Brakes: Shimano XTR Trail

Rims: WTB Frequency i23

Spokes: Stainless steel

Hubs: Formula

Tyres: Maxxis Ardent 2.25

Saddle: Norco

Seatpost: Norco Alloy

Weight: 14kg without pedals (Large frame 3,100g)

Available Sizes: XS, S, M, L (tested), XL

Price: $2,999

Distributor: Advance Traders 1300 361 686 / www.norco.com