It’s shaping to be a big year for Norco, as the Canadian bike brand campaigns with downhill mountain biking’s GOAT (Greg Minnaar), as its UCI racing team lead. Norco’s product team has been busy in the off-season, too. And one of the projects is a trail e-bike with two suspension travel options. 

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More daring on the downhills than downcountry, but not quite a kneepads-on-each-ride enduro bike. All versions of the Fluid VLT feature a carbon front triangle linked to an alloy rear. 

Norco selected Bosch’s Performance Line SX mid-drive motor to provide pedal assistance for the Fluid VLT range. It draws power from a 400Wh Bosch battery pack to provide intuitive pedal assist with minimal torque lag. 

2024 norco fluid vlt button.jpg, by Liam Mercer

Riders can pair their devices to the Norco x Bosch Flow app to set up the motor and pedal assistance characters precisely to their needs and riding conditions. A useful feature of the Norco x Bosch Flow app is its security layering. Riders can digitally lock their Fluid VLT via the app (the mid-drive motor ‘locks’), and an alarm will trigger when someone tries to tamper or move the bike. 

The Fluid VLT 130 range links a 140mm fork with 130mm of rear-suspension travel, which sets it at a 65-degree head angle, with a reference reach number of 477mm, on a size ‘3’. Norco uses a numbered sizing convention, with the Fluid VLT available in sizes 1 to 5. 

Full trail-bike option

Riders needing more trail-taming ability can opt for the Fluid VLT 140, which adds 10mm of front and rear suspension travel. The 140 is slacker, with a 64.5-degree head angle, and trims reach by 4.5mm across the size spectrum, compared to a Fluid VLT 130mm. 

All versions of Norco’s latest e-bike roll a mullet wheel size combination, with 2.6in wide tyre clearance available in the rear. Tyre selection throughout the Fluit VLT range includes Continental’s Kryptotal 29 x 2.4in up front, with Xynotal 27.5 x 2.4in tyres at the rear. Considering the available clearance and tyre specification size, there’s ample room for mud clearance, as expected from a Canadian brand where the product team has frequent experience riding in muddy conditions. 

2024 norco fluid vlt black.jpg, by Liam Mercer

True to their purpose as dedicated trail bikes, all Fluid VLT builds have wide 800mm handlebars, clamped into place with 40mm stems. There’s a tiny difference in the handlebar geometry between the 130 and most 140 series Fluid VLTs. 

Handlebars on the shorter travel bike are carbon, having 20mm of rise. Of the four 140s, three build options have 25mm ride alloy handlebars, while the premium C1 140 build is specced with the same 800mm One Up carbon handlebar found on the C1 130. 

Weights? The Fluit VLT 130 is lightest, at a claimed 18kg, with the burlier 140-series builds between 19.2kg- to 20kg, depending on specification, according to Norco.

Prices start at £6,000 for the Fluid VLT C3 140 and go up to £10,000 for the Fluid VLT C1 140

• www.norco.com

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