After spending years watching people ride mountain bikes, and riding single track on poorly equipped cyclocross/gravel bikes, I finally purchased a real mountain bike. I got a Norco HT Torrent 2. Coming from a road and gravel background, this is a lot of bike. It has massive 2.8” tires, a 140mm suspension fork (more on this later), and slack geometry. This is a hardtail trail bike, meaning that its designed to smash through descents, while still being reasonably capable on climbs. In order to accommodate the 27.5+ tires, the drive side chain stay scallops towards the ground. This asymmetric design, coupled with the sleek hydroformed tubes looks pretty awesome.

The first time I took this thing out on some trails, I hit a rocky descent that would have been almost impossible on any other bike that I’ve ever owned. Instead of painstakingly choosing a line with the least amount of rocks, I decided to just go straight, slamming through all the rocks and roots, dropping of all the little ledges.

Riding a cyclocross or gravel bike on mountain bike trails, you’re always at the limit of the bike’s ability to grip, climb hills, or brake. I remember taking my cross bike to the Dandenongs. Soon after leaving the train station, I realized that I had neither the gears nor the geometry to handle the hills. Going up, I would grind at 30 rpm in my lowest gear, and going down I would get in the drops, squeeze the brake levers until my knuckles turned white, all the while trying not to panic. With the Norco, I have a 28 tooth chain ring in the front, and an 11-speed 11-42 in the rear. Coupled with the wide tires, I can do all but the loosest, steepest ascents. For descending, I’ve got a suspension fork, hydraulic brakes, and a dropper seat post – I simply get low over the rear wheel and pick the line that looks the fastest.

Despite only have the Norco for only a few weeks, I’ve noticed that I’ve started to adopt a new perspective when riding my bicycle. The world is no longer the narrow bike trail ahead of me. Instead, it’s composed of all sorts of exciting alternative paths. While riding to work, if I get stuck behind a car in the bike lane, I simple turn, jump the curb, and pop back down once I’ve gone around. I go up the narrow, steep hiking trail that diverges from the main, paved path instead of telling myself that my tires aren’t wide enough or my gears aren’t low enough. I take the fork in the single track that takes me over a log, leaning way back over my real wheel, my saddle dropped comfortably out of the way.

Ultimately, the Norco accomplishes the primary goal of any recreational bike: its fun. Grinning like an idiot, laughing like a maniac, whooping like a wild animal fun.

As far as the technical aspects of the bike, I’ll look at the brakes, drivetrain, wheels and suspension separately.

The Torrent 2’s Tektro HD-M285 hydraulic brakes are pretty solid. Coupled with 160mm rotors, I’ve found the brakes to be more than adequate most of the time. The HD-M285s are quick to engage, and they offer superb modulation, allowing for precise, controlled stopping. However, I’ve found myself doing a few steep, fast descents where I wish they had a little more power.

As far as the drivetrain, the Torrent 2 comes with Sram NX 11 speed, and a Raceface Aeffect direct mount crank. Once I dialed the shifting in after a few hours of riding, I’ve never had a missed shift, and I’ve found that it works well under load. To be honest, I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about the shifting because it simply works. Other than a slight wobble from hitting my chainring against a rock, I find the Raceface crank pretty
unremarkable.

The Torrent’s wheels are some stock, boring hubs laced up to some generic Alex rims. The Maxxis Minion folding tires are pretty nice. Both the rims and tires are tubeless ready. Within a week of getting the bike, I bought a tubeless conversion kit and got rid of tubes. I was able to pretty easily set this tire/rim combination up with just a floor pump. I’ve been hearing people extol the virtues of tubeless for a few years now, and after making the switch on this bike, I can now say that I am a convert. I instantly felt the difference after getting rid of tubes. The bike accelerated more quickly, felt lighter on climbs and more nimble on descents. I can run the tires at absurdly low pressures and not worry about pinch flats.

The single biggest issue with the Torrent is the SR Suntour 35 coil suspension fork. In principle, this is a 140mm fork, but I was never able to get more than 70mm of travel out of it before ordering a new, softer coil. With the new coil, I can get most of those 140mm, but I still feel that the fork isn’t set up right for me. Given the $2700 MSRP, I would expect a nicer fork for the money. If I were to upgrade any one aspect of this bike, I would opt for a
mid level air sprung fork.

The Norco HT Torrent 2 is a super fun, versatile mountain bike thats let down by its poor suspension fork. If funds and geography allow, it would be worth it to plop down the extra cash for the Torrent 1, which comes with a DVO diamond air sprung fork.