Custom-painted rig that soaked up the big hits of Red Bull Hardline Tasmania
Words Will Soffe Pics Dan Griffiths, Graeme Murray/Red Bull Content Pool
If there’s one thing the inaugural Red Bull Hardline Tasmania will be remembered for, it’ll be the way a full women’s field took on a gnarly Hardline track for the first time ever, in practice, with two of the riders – Canadian phenom Gracey Hemstreet and expat Scot Louise Ferguson – going on to put down a race run, too.
Hemstreet won the Rider of the Week award for her massive sends over the Maydena track's 75ft gaps and huge drops. Not only was she the first female to complete a full lap of a Hardline course, but she also bagged the women’s win, by over a minute, after Ferguson had two crashes. And this prototype Norco downhill bike is the machine the Red Bull athlete did it on.
Under the skin
The alloy frame features some clever tech, designed to get Gracey and her teammates – including new Norco signing Greg Minnaar – down the hill fast. It features a ‘high virtual pivot’ suspension design, with a lower link between the chainstays and mainframe, a pivot on the seatstays and a shock-actuating mini linkage. This gives the Norco the bump-swallowing rearward axle path of a high-pivot bike, while allowing the engineers more control over the leverage rate and anti-squat/rise figures. An oversize idler pulley maximises pedalling efficiency (1), while CNC-relieved seatstays provide maximum stiffness and traction.
Hemstreet uses Fox suspension front and rear – here, an air-sprung 40 fork and coil-sprung DHX2 shock. Interestingly, she used a Springdex coil in Tasmania – a spring that’s progressively wound, to help resist bottom-out, and can be fitted with spacers to adjust the spring rate. Text on the spring reads ‘440’ which is likely the weight in pounds as it was set up for Hardline.
Bits and bobs
Gracey had a pretty bling build for the event, including gold-coloured TRP DH-R EVO brakes with four-piston callipers and large rotors. The seven-speed EVO 7 DH rear mech and shifter were also from Tektro’s Racing Products division (2), although, under the grip tape, it didn’t look like she was running the matching cranks. Her bar, seat and seatpost were from Deity, and she used Crankbrothers Mallet clipless pedals.
This prototype has a ‘mullet’ wheel set-up, with a 29in hoop up front and a smaller 650b at the rear. Hemstreet runs
