Bikeaholic welcomes Norco to the fold!
Cheerio Hello!
Practice what you Preach. It’s a pretty good motto. We sell what we ride. We ride what we sell. We like what we sell. We align ourselves with brands that do the same. It helps keep us sane in the shop. It helps sales, as if we are stoked, it helps customers get the ‘Stoke’ and that turns organically into sales.
Kona has been doing that since they started. In 1988. They love it. And they continue to love it.
When Bikeaholic opened in 2014 the first bike we sold was a Kona. (It was a 111. What a bike!) Kona have been with us since our humble wee beginnings. We have had a great ride, helping the market swing back to loving Kona’s again after a few years in the doldrums has felt great. Getting our customers out on great bikes felt good too.
Unfortunately, due to factors out-with our control, Kona have changed their NZ supplier and now we can no longer sell their products. It made us sad. It made us angry. We had a looooong hard think. And we figured out its all good.
So, what do we do? Do we cry? Do we sit still? What do we do? Well, it was a pretty easy decision really. For the past two seasons we have been spotting and selling the occasional Norco. Nothing crazy, but we used them to fill in spots in our brands that are missing or out of stock. We had been noticing an increased interest in Norco. Things stirring. Things changing. Then they brought out the 2020 bikes and we sat up. They look very nice. A unique design philosophy that doesn't just see the front triangle of the bike grow with each size, but the riders' centre remain constant by size specific rear ends as well. In fact their all-mountain weapon the Sight and trail bike the Optic both won industry Design and Innovation awards in 2020 (see here and here). Their E Bike program pushes the envelope with 'piggy back batteries' allowing 1000whs and all day missions. Loam Wolf awarded the VLT Sight. E bike of the year from 20 models! (See here). Norcos kids bike program has always been revered, the latest kids Fluid models are class leading. Norcos team push design and detail that see some very interesting ideas, and some very interesting geometry. It turns out that the Norco supplier was changing in line with our existing supply model and we jumped on.
So it’s all good. We are working with the New NZ Supplier for Norco. Checking out next years models, forecasting and getting stoked! Look out for some epic deals on 2018 and 2019 Norco older models. Sorry you probably won’t find many 2020 bikes left as they were so popular they all sold out!
Norco have been designing and making bikes out of Canada since 1964 so they have a long two wheeled history. And they made this in 1974……. Full suspension? I mean, come on! Yes!
Now, in the current year, we are moving on to super bikes like the Aurum HSP. Wow there has been some progression. There are some things going on in this bike!!
So, we have already started on our journey with Norco. We think its going to be a bright future together and you will see us out there riding these machines. You will most probably hear us frothing on the merits of a degree of geometry here, a mm of geometry there. You might not understand us, but we get excited you know? Great bikes, a great heritage and a great team behind them.
Cheerio Kona! Hello Norco!
