Way back in about 2002, Norco hit upon a bit of an idea. The idea was pretty simple, and fairly straight forward: build a bike for the abuse the new school of riders was dishing out. Make it for street, park, jumps, and whatever else. And thus, the 125 (and its siblings) was born.
The current evolution of the 125 is a great toy. Based on a beefy yet refined 7005 aluminum frame, the Norco 125 is designed primarily as a dirt jump frame, but can handle a few things other then that fairly well. With slotted machined dropouts in back, going single speed is an easy upgrade/ downgrade, and the euro BB means you won't be stuck for cranks either. A big compliment to Norco for including V-brake mounts for both 24" and 26" wheels. This really shows how much Norco listens to what the riders want. The rest of the frame is obviously built to survive, with a super thick 7mm headtube, massive tubes and gussests all around, stick stays and beefy dropouts. You break this frame, you're probably more concerned with how hurt you are.
The parts spec is decent, and pretty standard. DJ3 fork with 20mm drops and 100mm travel, pretty much common at this price range for this type of bike. Full Truvativ Hussefelt parts all around, including a rather good chainguide and cranks. A huge surprise was the seat and post, which uses the Macneil design for a super light and stop setup. Again, great job Norco. Drivetrain is a Sram affair, with an X-7 rear deraileur pushed by an X-5 shifter. Not fancy, but it worked just fine (despite a bent hanger from the idiots at DHL). Brakes were Avid Juicy 3s. This was our first experience with the low end Avids, and thankfully it was a pretty boring experience. No problems, no complaints. They aren't as impressive as the more expensive 5's or the 7's, but at that price, they shouldn't be should they? The 6 inch rotors were prefect for the bikes intended use, no complaints.
The wheels were tricky. Hubs were nothing special, Formula 20 front and solid axle rear. Decent, they work, and although heavy, they are just bloody fine. The spokes were white (yeah, white!) stainless jobs, that looked awesome....until you rubbed them. The paint came off fairly easily, which made us sad pandas. Not gonna lie, i still love them. They just look so cool. Tires were Kendas excellent K-Rads, which as always rolled along fast as hell with little complaints. Just watch out for those fast dirt corners. The rims though, those were a disappointment. Sun Singletracks may be good trail rims but on this bike they were just not up to the task. We had to constantly true them each ride, as they'd get good and wobbly even without landing sideways or big impacts. They are just weak, hands down. I would have much preffered to see Sun's S-Type rims here, even with the weight penalty.
Speaking of weight, this ain't a light bike. Our medium stock bike came in at 37 pounds, which I suppose is not a big surprise. The fork and hubs are definitely big contributors to the weight, but theres definitely a lot of heft in the frame too. Thats to be expected of course, since this is a bike designed to take some seriously abuse. The weight, while a bit of a hindrance sometime, is pretty much inline with other bikes similarly priced and designed for similar riding.
Ride wise, the Norco is a bunch of fun. The short rear end makes getting the front up super easy, especially combined with the super stubby stem. Some might find the top tube a bit short, but overall its not bad, and definitely not out of whack. Its a nimble little bike, although lightening it up some would definitely help things there. For jumping, the Norco is prefectly suited to doing what it was designed for. No surprises, just hit them and go. Geometry is very intuitive, so it won't take long to get used to the bike at all.
The Avids were great, with more then enough bite for Abubacas and the like. One thing that was disappointing was the front brake wasn't routed through the head tube. On most bikes we wouldn't even bring this up, but Norco went so far as to actually spec a hollow starnut, so its almost like being teased. Since the three's lack the adjusting dial of the Sevens, you have to use the "remove the brake and squeeze the lever" trick to get the brakes to feel how you like. Once dialed in, they were great, except for a bit of pumping up.
While the 125 is designed as a dirtjump bike, of course its going to see other use, and this is where things get weird. For street and park use, the 125's weight really bogged it down, making spins trickier and tiring out the rider. Also, its kind of odd that the 125 has a chainguide and gears, while the 250 is a dedicated single speed bike. I guess thats because the 125 is aimed more at novice riders and the gears make the bike more versatile, but in the end we'd have preferred a singlespeed setup. The gears definitely assisted in getting the bike up to speed, but also caused a bit of an issue with banging the deraileur off things. To Norco's credit through, they used a super tight cassette and medium cage deraileur, which helped things stay under control and tucked out of the way. The gears shifted cleanly, but of course not as smoothly as the higher end offerings. Also, check your cable housing going into the deraileur. Ours was too long, causing the housing to bow, and eventually the cable end cap to snap. A quick trim resulting in a better shifting system, and a cable that stayed tight to the bike.
On a side note, a comment about the DJ lineup from Marzocchi. I have to say, with the introduction of the Argyle line from RockShox and even the gold label from Manitou, I have learned to seriously dislike these forks. They are heavy, they bob, feel generally tankish, and are just outclassed by the other two. Yes the air assist can help with the bob, but in general, the DJ line from Marzocchi needs a pretty big goddam overhaul. They do the job, but they are just so....unrefined. Hell, even RST's new forks look to be serious competition, and thats a huge statement.
Overall, tne 2007 Norco 125 is a fun ride. Its got a good base to it, so the bike has lots of room to be modified into exactly what the rider wants. Yes there are some parts that can use an immediate upgrade, but for the most part its a solid build on a good frame. At $1260 Cad its a decent deal for sure, and right in line. If you're just getting into the jump scene, this is definitely something to take a look at.
