Tested: Norco Sight Gen 5

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What’s old is often new again in mountain biking, and these days it seems that the classic “All-Mountain” designation is back with a vengeance. Norco’s latest Sight delivers a unique take on that genre that may really appeal to some riders, so let’s get to the goods!

Norco Sight in a Nutshell

• Travel: 150 mm (rear) 160 (front)
• Wheel Size: 29” or Mixed 29”/27.5”
• Size Tested: SZ4
• Head Tube Angle: 64°
• Bike Weight: 35.56 lbs (16.13 kg)
• Partial build weight (complete bike without wheels, tires, rotors, or cassette): 23.3 lbs (10.57 kg)

The Norco Sight is available now.

What’s New?

This spring, Norco announced new versions of their Sight all-mountain and Optic trail models. Both bikes moved to a high pivot Horst Link suspension layout, and use the i-Track patented idler pulley location, mounted to the chainstay.

Norco seems to be all-in on high pivots, with the majority of their traditional and e-bikes now using some variation of that suspension layout. So it’s no surprise that the Sight uses this new suspension layout, even though its travel numbers (150/160 mm) don’t change.

On one hand, this is no incremental revision, it’s a total reimagining of the Sight platform with a totally new suspension layout. But as the next few sections will make clear, much of the geometry and intended functionality of the new Sight remain the same. It’s a new chassis meant to do the same things, better.

Frame Details

In some ways the Sight is a relatively “normal” frame. There’s a threaded bottom bracket and guided internal routing, along with swappable shock mount and rocker links that allow riders to purchase a $134 kit to swap between 29” or 27.5” rear wheels. There’s plenty of space for a water bottle inside the front triangle, and it comes complete with top tube accessory mounts. Norco also uses a 34.9 mm seat tube, which I appreciate when it comes time to swap droppers around. It’s much easier to shim a big seat tube than it is to jam a too-wide dropper into a narrow one.

Notably, there’s no internal storage compartment on the frame, no integrated main pivot fender, and no adjustability built in via flip chips or headset cups. I’m not convinced that those are all “essential” features, but given the option between two comparable frames, one with that feature set, and one without, I’ll choose the full-featured bike every time. Give me all the chips, along with a place to store them!

Geometry and Sizing

Norco has gone to a “SZ” based sizing system, instead of t-shirt (S,M,L,XL) style sizing, and the sizing breaks have changed accordingly. While my 6’2” self would have ridden a large version of the latest Sight, with a 485 mm reach and 621 mm stack, I’m now on a SZ 4, with a 497.5 mm reach and 645 mm stack.

Norco’s size charts put me squarely on the SZ4 Sight, with the option to bump up to a SZ5. Historically, my proclivities would put me somewhere between the SZ3 and SZ4 Sights. I’m a big fan of reach numbers hovering around 485 mm, and I’d typically rather ride a 475ish mm reach bike than a 500 mm reach. However, with the Sight, Norco runs seat tubes notably short, and I’d have to deal with an absurd amount of exposed seat post in a SZ3 Sight, so I went for the SZ4 and it felt right in line sizing wise with bikes like the new Canyon Spectral .

The head tube angle stays the same as the old version, at 64°, the effective seat tube gets just a smidgen steeper (77.75° vs 77.7°) and the static chainstays get a tiny bit shorter (438 mm) since they’ll grow at sag with the new rearward axle path.

Nothing on the Sight’s geometry chart stands out as particularly outlandish, although it’s interesting to note that both the stack and bottom bracket are relatively high - this is a somewhat “tall” bike, which played out on the trail.

Norco’s “Ride Aligned” system is excellent - I’d consider it the gold standard for bike setup guides right now. The information it delivers is useful and effective.

Build Options and Price

Norco offers a lot of options with the Sight. You can get it in carbon or aluminum framed variants, with either full 29” or mixed wheels, and a variety of component specs. I rode the 29”, $7,499 C1 build, and played around with the Missing Link kit and a 27.5” rear wheel. This build is generally pretty excellent, with a SRAM GX Transmission drivetrain, Fox Factory 36 fork and DHX2 coil rear shock.

The SRAM Code RSC brakes were fine, although I’d love to see HS2 rotors specced on a bike with the Sight’s travel and intentions. Similarly, the RaceFace Vault hubs laced to Stans Flow S2 rims served me well, although I haven’t had much luck in the past keeping those rims straight for a full season of riding.

None of the Sight builds are terribly cost-conscious, but the $2,399 Sight A frame does seem like a great value for folks looking to build up a burly do-it-all bike.

There are two spec choices worth calling out. First, there’s some biased geography at play here, but I’d love to see 150 mm high pivot bikes come with tires that have burlier casings than EXO+, at least on the rear. When the highest spec carbon build is pushing 35.5 lbs, you might as well throw more capable tires on.

Second, all coil-equipped Sight models come with a Norco-branded Springdex adjustable coil. If you’re going to sell complete bikes with a coil you either need to offer customers the option to select coil weight at checkout, or spec a Springdex, so it was awesome to see that on the bike. However, Norco’s Ride Aligned tool was adamant that at 194 lbs, I should be running a spring weight beyond the 500 lb max specced for the SZ4.

Yes, I’m a bit more of a chunky bear than a svelte otter, but it did feel a little odd that at a pretty typical weight for my height, I’m outside of the stock range. No worries though! I happen to have a heavier Springdex in the garage – quick coil swap and I’m good to go, right?

Wrong! The DHX2 on the Sight comes with eyelet bearings instead of bushings. So you either need to buy the expensive tool, or get sketchy with DIY options , to pull the bearings and swap your spring. I ended up running the stock coil at 500 lbs, which was five to fifteen pounds lighter than Norco recommended, as well as experimenting with an air shock. After running the undersprung coil, along with a RockShox Vivid at Norco’s recommended settings, I’m actually convinced that running this bike with a little extra sag out back is the way to go if you’re chasing steep trails consistently.

Where Does the Norco Sight Shine?

The Sight is maybe the most fun bike I’ve ever ridden on flat-ish blown out jump trails. It absolutely eats up braking bumps and other square edged obstacles, and is really easy to get into the air. I was initially worried that the undersprung shock would make for a gooey and lifeless bike, but on the contrary, the Sight provided a consistent and easy platform to pop off of. And I really noticed that rearward axle path and reworked suspension on the sort of haggard sections of blown up trail that usually make me grit my teeth and drop my heels.

The rear end of the Sight doesn’t seem to pack down under braking forces, and is super supple and active, with a solid ramp at the end of its stroke. All of that combines to make for a bike that lets you just stand on the pedals, and float through/over the sort of chunder that develops on popular flow trails. It’s a sort of magical feeling, where the rear end of the bike handles all the action and isolates it from your feet. Compared to the old Canyon Spectral mullet , or my personal REEB STEEZL , both of which feature similar stated travel numbers, the Sight feels much more supple and bottomless on those sorts of trails. In some situations it felt like the rear end was “outworking” the Fox 36, which is a sensation we’ll touch on later.

The Sight is fairly efficient uphill, and I only found myself reaching for the DHX2’s climb switch on very smooth climbs, which is good, because I’ve found that it doesn't mitigate pedal bob as well as RockShox options. The Sight has excellent traction on the way up, and pedals quite nicely.

I did initially find the Sight to have a lot of drivetrain noise – it was actually the loudest high pivot bike I’d ever tried. However, I realized that Norco’s integrated bash guard/chain guide had rotated back so that it was rubbing on the chain, and that’s what I was hearing, not idler noise. I loosened and repositioned the guide, and was stoked to find the bike was much quieter - until I missed my pop hopping a log and slammed the guard right back to where it started! Keep your chain lubed and clean, and keep an eye on that guide, and you shouldn’t have any issues.

How about that Missing Link?

Norco was kind enough to send along a 27.5” rear wheel, along with their Missing Link kit. While it’s not as easy to swap as a flip chip, the Missing Link kit should do a better job of preserving suspension kinematics and geometry. It didn’t take long to swap out the lower link and rocker, and all the tolerances were tight and well aligned.

I’m a mullet fanboy, and I rode the Sight quite a bit with the smaller rear wheel. However, I found that, similar to the new Spectral I reviewed this spring, the Sight’s short-ish chainstays and long front center mean that the smaller rear wheel felt, well, smaller, and less balanced than I’m used to on shorter mullet bikes. It still brought a new level of zest to the Sight, but I noticed its impact less than I have on bikes with shorter reaches.

Where does the Norco Sight make some compromises?

On flatter, more traditional mountain-bike-specific trails, I loved how the Sight’s rear end felt, to the point where I wondered if this was an enduro bike hidden in an all-mountain package. After all, Norco says you can run a 65 mm stroke shock to bump the rear travel up to 160ish mm, along with a 170 mm fork.

But my time with a longer-travel air shock didn’t leave me salivating to turn the Sight into some sort of enduro bike, and I think there are a few reasons for that. To be clear, these are compromises that I found between my personal riding style and terrain and the Sight, and probably won’t be universal experiences.

In the “Geo” section, I noted that this is a tall bike. The stack is fairly high, which I love, but the bottom bracket is also pretty high. It’s not anything outrageous, but, combined with how active the rear suspension is, even under braking, it felt like the rear end of the bike had a tendency to get bucked, and stay high in steeper terrain. That pushed my weight forward, onto the Fox 36. And while I’m normally adamantly in the camp of “36s and Lyrics are more than adequate for most riding,” the Sight had me wishing for a girthier option. The combination of geometry and kinematic meant that for my riding style at least, the fork was doing more work than usual. Add a slack but not-that-slack head tube angle, and some steep steppy trails, and I was honestly impressed by how precariously far over the front of the bike my weight felt.

All that to say, if lower-speed steeps are consistently on the menu, the Sight is not the most confidence-inspiring ride in this travel bracket I’ve tried. The traits that make it such a magic carpet at higher speeds and on flatter trails work against it in this terrain.

I did find myself wondering how the Sight would perform with the 29” links, and a 27.5” rear wheel and 170 mm fork. That combo shouldn’t drop the bottom bracket to a problematically low place, and would lead to a slacker, more rear-biased bike for sustained steeps. But ultimately, if that’s what you’re after, Norco makes the Range and Shore as well.

In Conclusion

Norco is all-in on high pivots, and the Sight is an interesting interpretation of the all-mountain machine. I think riders will mesh with it based on what “all” their mountains look like. If I still lived in Driggs, Idaho, and frequented the flatter but square-edged trails of the Tetons and Big Holes, the Sight would make a lot of sense. This would be an awesome bike to rally the Big Hole Crest one day and the Teton Pass jump trails the next.

Combine that chunder-eating rear end with the Sight’s consistent pedaling performance and you’ve got a bike that’s well-suited to take on a wide variety of rides.