| Model: |
Norco Atomik |
| Category: |
Freeride |
| Suspension: |
7 inches front; 7 inches (or 6 inches) rear |
| Ideal for: |
The Atomik is ideal for highly technical situations where climbing is not too much of an issue -- like Bob's Trail, Shawn's Trail, and Cedar Dust. You can get to the top on this bike without having to push it, but you'll have to work a little if you want to turn it loose on trails in Galbraith's Tower region like the Scorpion, Refrigerator Door and the Heinous Rock Wall on Wonderland. You can have a ton of fun on the Atomik on Galbraith (as GalbraithMt.com's Usual Suspects can attest), but it really comes into it's own where you can car shuttle or ride the chairlift to get to the top. |
| Over all performance: |
Norco used to have an image that was about as sexy as a Canadian PE teacher, but all that changed with the rise of the North Shore and the huge shuttle / chairlift scene at Whistler, Fromme and Squamish. Today, BC-built Norco is totally hip, and it's bikes are paragons of The Shore style. The Atomik is a splendid example this transformation. The Atomik climbs surprisingly well for a 42 pound bike, but climbing is not the point. With a 14.5 inch high bottom bracket, 67 degree head tube angle, beefy hubs and seven inches of travel front and rear, this bike was born to wear body armor. It's really not a pure downhill bike, but a big-hit combo bike that you can trail ride, free ride, and run downhill on if you want to. |
| Front end: |
The Atomik comes stock with the Marzocchi Drop-off triple with 170 mm of travel, QR-20 hubs, preload adjustment and SSV. Like the Marzocchi Junior T, which it closely resembles, the Drop-off allows quick and easy adjustment of stiffness on the trail (but not on-the-fly) via the air stems in the top of the legs. |
| Rear end: |
The Atomik boasts one of the best performing rear ends in mountain biking today, Specialized's patented four-bar with the Horst link, which the Atomik marries to a Fox DHX ProPedal coil-over shock. The Specialized rear end is so good that you can just power over a lot of stuff where other bikes either loose traction or toss you around enough to disrupt your peddling, and best of all for a bike like the Atomik, it is virtually free of brake jack. Kona uses a similar rear end, but Kona's "faux-bar" version doesn't have the Horst link, and therefore is not quite as good. Advantage: Norco. |
| Brakes: |
The Atomik comes stock with excellent Hayes HFX-9 hydraulic disc brakes and 8-inch rotars. |
| (The devil is in the) Details: |
It's a little hard to get a standard shock pump head on the recessed air stems on the top of the Marzocchi Drop-off's legs. Also, the bash guard that comes stock with the Atomik is a nice touch, but the Usual Suspect found it started to get banged up quickly. |
| Durability: |
This is a beefy bike in just about every respect, and it should be able to handle anything that Galbraith can throw at it. |
| Geometry and sizing: |
The Atomik's head tube angle measures 67 degrees in the stock configuration, but it can be slackened to almost 65 degrees if you outfit it with a 24 inch rear wheel, which many people do when they ride it at Whislter. |
| Weight: |
42 pounds as pictured. |
| Video: |
Check out this video of the Atomik in action on Shawn's Trail. |
| Reviewed: |
February 2005 |
