Danbianchi881

Today i pick up my first Canadian high end road bike. The Frame is Ishiwata EXO Quadruple butted tube, Suntour SVX, Suntour drop out, Suzue hubs.
Don't know much about this brand and want to know more.
seen to be in the garage more then it has been on the road.
Score this for $65 and i can't wait to clean and get it back on the road.

prairiepedaler

Hi, nice bicycle. I imagine down in Michigan there isn't much Norco product? And, "Clean"? It looks great already! I'd be all over that in a 64 CM for an around town speedster.

clubman 

I've have a bunch of them over the years. Ver decent mid level bikes. I can't say I've seen a top tier road bike.

I've always thought they did mtn bikes a little better but still, nothing flash until the last several years.

randyjawa 

The Monteray came in a few different quality levels, in my mind. I have owned several but this SL is the only one that made it into my website...



They are nice bicycles and I am sure that you will more than appreciate the ride quality of that lovely one you just got. Ride safe, be happy and recall the feeling of being a kid again...

mikemowbz

Nice mid-range bike, in a harder-to-find very small size. Great price.

Norco has been, in its 50+ years of operation (founded 1964), perhaps the biggest player in terms of Canadian importers and distributors of bicycles made elsewhere (mostly Asia).

While its not overly rich in detail, I kind of like the little pictorial timeline on their corporate site:
About Norco Bicycles - Timeline

My first 'real' (adult-sized) bike a was 26" wheel Norco Cherokee hardtail MTB purchased back in the 1990s, and I've owned a couple since.

Nicest was a 1983 Norco Magnum, which carried a mix of 600 Arabesque and some other bits added by the person who restored it prior to my purchase. Pretty elegant in black with gold lug lining and decals. Quick bike, but flexy in the large size I require.

Norco is based in the suburbs of Vancouver, British Columbia, where I live.

I actually sell Norco (and Brodie) bikes at work, and see bikes like the one you snagged here pretty much every day. From what I can tell, their product range includes much higher-end product now than was typically the case in the past (They've got 5k+ race bikes or 8k full suspension MTBs, if you like).

With the older stuff, the nicest of it tended to be upper mid-level large-volume production bikes contract built in Japan with Tange 2 or similar and Shimano 600 or Suntour Cyclone-level components. Very serviceable, sometimes elegant and quite well-put together, but generally not straying into the 'premium' end of the market.

T-Mar

The subject bicycle appears to be circa 1987, which was the year that the Monterey SL converted to 700C wheels. The main frame is seamed, butted CrMo but the fork and stays are only hi-tensile steel. I'd be hard pressed to call this anything above very low, mid-range. If the OP is interested, I can probably determine the exact year from the serial number.

prairiepedaler

Speaking of Norco, I just posted an entry in the classic evaluation category section on the brand. Anyone familiar with a Norco Magnum ST?

markk900

I have a Magnum SE - not sure what the differnence are between the SE and the ST...



This photo was when I first got it for my wife - it's been cleaned up and adjusted since then but for some reason I have no more recent bike only photo.

Edit: found one:

mikemowbz

Yours is the same as the (very tall) one I had, though mine had more parts swapped out over time.

Identical frame and fork details, paint and gold decals, lug lining, and head badge.

Magnum SE is one of the nicer Norcos I've seen from back then. My only complaint was BB flex (in 62cm, though!)

I've seen Magnum SE, and Magnum GT ('touring'), but not the 'ST' @prairiepedaler mentions.

Internets seem to indicate (as the letters might lead us to believe) some kind of touring model?

Sport Tourer? Special Tourer? Speculating here.

On another note, T-mar is right to suggest that the OP's find could be seen to reside at the lower end of 'mid-level'...but it is still undoubtedly nicer than many of the lower-cost, basic models that populated the Norco lineup of the era. For Norco, at the time, it's undoubtedly 'mid'; relative to a spectrum including other makers who did cater to the higher end of the market (which Norco did not, from what I've seen), a fairly basic machine.

markk900

Mine is all Shimano 600 (arabesque) and related parts (KKT pedals) *except* the headset which is not labelled.

mikemowbz

I strongly suspect that mine was as well, when new, though only the shifters (possibly on A-type bosses?) and Arabesque crank remained when I acquired it. The rest was a (very well-selected) hodgepodge installed by the guy who refurbished the bike and sold it to me and/or changed out over time. Ran 20mm tires on old Wolber rims!

I rode that bike awful fast down Saint-Urbain from the Plateau to downtown Montréal most days back then.

Fun ride.

jefnvk

Cool find!

I did a charity ride in Ontario a few weeks ago, quite a few Norcos there. I had never seen the brand before, but have now tossed it in the pile with Miele to find one of these days!

Danbianchi881

Me too, I've never heard this brand before too until now. This bike is really light for a steel frame and it a part of this racing series. Good luck finding one of these.

jefnvk

I've driven myself across the border to buy bottles of booze and beer, one of these days when I get serious about finding one I'll get myself on Kijiji!

prairiepedaler

[QUOTE=mikemowbz;18985931]Yours is the same as the (very tall) one I had, though mine had more parts swapped out over time.

Identical frame and fork details, paint and gold decals, lug lining, and head badge.

Magnum SE is one of the nicer Norcos I've seen from back then. My only complaint was BB flex (in 62cm, though!)

I've seen Magnum SE, and Magnum GT ('touring'), but not the 'ST' @prairiepedaler mentions.

Internets seem to indicate (as the letters might lead us to believe) some kind of touring model?

Sport Tourer? Special Tourer? Speculating here.

/QUOTE]

Hi, I reckon that the ST designation might be a typo on the sellers part when he wrote the ad. It may be a GT after all. I have yet to make an appointment to see it but will do so. I don't think he'll move it at $300 in present condition.

markk900

[QUOTE=prairiepedaler;18987349]Maybe, maybe not - I have heard of the ST (I think that is what @randyjawa has on his site actually), so might not be a typo.

Don't know if $300 is a good price or not: I got mine at a school yard sale for $10 (there were two but I didn't think I could get away with bringing home both); but in my area $300 wouldn't be too bad of the bike is what you want.

Btw: Norco is still very much a going concern with decent mountain and trials bikes still for sale.

Camilo

I was in Victoria BC a few years ago and just by chance got to watch a criterium race in the downtown area one Sunday morning. I'm not sure, but I think these were pro and/or sponsored teams - because there was definitely a Norco team in full kit on Norco bikes.

Can't remember who won though. It was fun - they were using wrapped fiberglass insulation bales for padding on the corners, I'm not sure if that's common or not. Seemed like a good idea to me, and it seemed to absorb the energy of a couple of guys who hit it.

T-Mar

Norco had a number of different touring models during the early 1980s. The Magnum ST (Super Tour) was Norco's top end touring model, above the Magnum GT (Grand Touring). They both evolved respectively out of the very early 1980s Magnum SE (Special Edition) and Magnum Touring which were more sport touring machines by virtue of their sidepull calipers and double chainrings. The Magnum GT & ST were proper grand touring bicycles by virtue of their triple chainrings and cantilever brakes.

Bike Talk

Norco generally has a reputation here in Canada as an entry-level bike because chain stores stock the cheap models and therefore many bike stores don't want to be associated with the name. In addition to your lovely classic road bike, they did make a few high-end mountain bikes. I still very much enjoy this '04 Team XC with SRAM X9 gruppo.

mikemowbz

Very much a going concern. As I mentioned in my first post in this thread...I actually sell Norco bikes at work currently.

Big range of mountain bikes, and also full-on race bikes (Tactic), endurance road bikes (Valence), cyclocross (Threshold), 'adventure road' (Search), performance hybrids (Indie and VFR series), commuter/MTB crossover bikes (XFR series), comfort-oriented city bikes (City Glide, Yorkville, Rideau, Malahat...), and many other models.

Most volume is middle-of-the-road machines, but they do now offer quite high-end options in several categories.

They produce a wide range of product, and I've encountered folks who've picked up Norcos from dealers as far afield as the UK and Germany (though I suspect they still do the bulk of their business in this country).