2008 Norco Fluid LT 2 Mountain Bike - Bike Gear

By raise of hands, who here has seen "The Collective"? Wow -- almost everybody! Well, then you know who Ryan Leech is. The sick trials guy from Portland who biked on that handrail with the hanging chain? Yep. And he does all that nutty stuff on a Norco bike. But homeboy doesn't just do trials all the time -- he also has to have a bike for just plain riding. Cross-country, all-mountain, whatever -- and that's when he pulls out the Norco Fluid LT 2. And since I'm a mere mortal, aspiring to someday not be such a hack, I think I'll give myself all the help I can get and just pick up a Fluid LT as my main mountain bike this year. The Fluid LT is Norco's perfect all-around ride. The LT stands for "Long Travel" and last year the Fluid LT had a maximum of 5 inches of suspension travel on the front fork and rear shock. This year they beefed it up to 6.5 inches front and rear, which is going to make it all that more plush, as well as able to handle the bigger hits. Now, if you are used to a big hit bike then the Fluid probably won't satisfy you. It's squarely focused on being the one-bike-solution for someone who likes the uphill climb but doesn't want to feel like they are on an XC bike. That's just right for me, because even though I wear the tight shorts when I'm on a mountain bike it doesn't mean I wish I were on a hard tail -- it just means that I lean more toward the sleek cross-country racer side of things than the full-armor downhill side. And the Norco Fluid LT 2 can give you the soft ride on the way down, even though it's friendly to the XC-inclined. Here are a couple of the specs: Marzocchi 55 ATA fork (120-160 mm travel) Alloy steer tube TST 2-Fox DHX Air 3.0 rear shock Shimano XT hubs Mavic 719 cross country rims DT Swiss Competition spokes Truvativ Stylo GXP cranks (all aluminum rings and external bearings) Avid Juicy 5 hydraulic disk brakes with 7" rotos Horst Link 4 bar linkage (reduces chain tugging when suspension flexes) Crank Bros Smarty clipless pedal Freewheel: SRAM PG-950, 9 speed, 11-34 Front changer: Shimano XT, 31.8mm Rear changer: SRAM X-9 9 speed, long cage Shifters: SRAM X-7 trigger, 9 speed For more details to find out if the Norco Fluid LT 2 mountain bike is right for you (and come on -- how could it not be??) click here.