Norco Sight 3 SE 2013 - new pic 23/11/13

bigpee

After the sad loss of my Commencal Meta 55 to the local tea leaves my insurance paid out (without any fuss and quite quickly which I was really pleased with). Against the wife's advice I have spent the entire payout on a Norco Sight 3 SE. It's pretty much stock - I've removed the reflectors, plastic thing by the cassette and added some Shimano 520s. It will get a reverb seatpost dropper - just waiting on that (Evans price matched JE James at £200 but the Evans one also includes the bleed kit which is a bonus). Future upgrades will be new brakes, possibly new bars and depending on how I get on with the forks a replacement. I'm hoping the seals just need bedding in as buttery is a word that I certainly can't apply to my forks at the moment. They're Fox 32 CTD Evolutions - and I'm not hearing particularly good things about their CTD stuff so will wait and see. All I can say at the moment is my Sektors were much much smoother. The bike will get it's first ride today so soon there will be some proper muddy pictures .

Ben_morris

Hi,

I have just been looking at this bike in a magazine. Looks very nice and i am interested to know what it is like on the trails.

Im coming from a 10year old hardtail so it will be a ferrari compared to mine anyway. Lol

Ben.

Kowalski675

Looks good. I thought the Fox CTD stuff was supposed to be good kit though, am I mistaken? I must admit the forks on the Trance X2 I was looking at in my local shop did feel quite sticky, but I figured maybe they just needed bedding in.

bigpee

One of the reviews did mention the forks improved massively after bedding in - so I'm sure that'll happen here.

Just had the first shake down ride. First impressions are good. I don't think I'm skilled enough to notice small changes but the bike felt a lot more sure footed than my Meta (could be the extra stiffness from the 12mm rear axle and the tapered head tube). It also felt quicker - but I've not been out for over a month so maybe my brain was just slower! One thing - they are wide bars (760mm). My previous ones were 710mm and the extra was enough to catch a tree on the knuckles are slide off head first into a tree!

plasma_man

Very nice Norco, I was in a Norco dealer today, getting some bits n bobs, lucky I just bought a new bike or I might have just spent double my budget on one of these, very smart bikes I must say

concorde

Could have gone with the Sight 3 not SE model if you wanted Sektor forks...

bigpee

True - although I'm not sure how well stocked the sight 3 was. Besides the double setup and thru rear axle that the se has is more important to me.

Kowalski675

How are you getting on with it, racked up any more miles on it to report on? Tried a Sight 2 SE briefly today, and it did feel good.

bigpee

Had a nice ride out round the Surrey hills yesterday and set some strava pbs which was good :-) . Before that I'd had some bad chain suck that knocked all the gears out. Not the bikes fault though. User error :-D . Otherwise getting on very well with it. For me it adds confidence and just feels very planted. Can't wait till my dropper post comes as I'd forgotten how much of a pain it is to do it manually!

bigpee

There's been a few changes to my bike since the last pictures. Plus I think it's good to show it covered in mud:



Handlebars - 710mm Easton Havens - the stock bars were just too wide for me. I kept clipping trees!
Stem - Funn 90mm - bike a touch too small for me so needed to extend my reach.
Seatpost - Reverb
Seatpost collar - Hope
Drivechain - gone to 1x10 with a 32T Hope chain ring. Combined with a SLX clutch mech it works well. No dropped chains yet.
Tyres - Minions up front, and Ground Controls at the rear.

Future plans - I think I'll go tubeless at some point so the wheels will get changed. Also the brakes might get replaced but to be honest none of it's urgent. A decent bottom bracket is though - put a cheap Deore one on there and it looks like it'll last less than a month.

Forks have also been serviced as part of the Fox recall - which was nice.

mike hunts alpine

Thats a nice