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VPS Writeup – February 2000

For some time now, I’ve been a dedicated hardtail man. From a no-name Atlas, a Rocky Mountain, a GT, several Norco steel hardtails – I’ve ridden and raced on hardtails. I’ve always resisted the call of the full squish. Then my girlfriend Sharon went to the bike shop – fresh off selling her car with cash in hand and promptly fell in love with a Norco VPS – 3. You should’ve seen the look on her little face and the grin.

Oh heck, I’ll let you see it yourself.

Actually, this is Sharon in the Woodlot in Maple Ridge. I could kinda keep up with her there. However, the first ride I did with her on Ned’s Atomic Dustbin she left me in the dust – she was sssoooo fast!!!!

There’s only one cure for getting spanked by your delicate girlfriend on a bike – and that’s to buy a better bike!

So I did. It’d been coming anyway. Bob at the shop, Karl and Pete at Norco – all of them had been pushing me slowly and surely to the deep, black stygian depths of full squish dark side. And I dove right in. Boy did I ever. My first ride on my brand spanking new VPS – 2 was on Cypress in West Vancouver on a beautiful sunny winters day.

We did the Coiler – S e x Boy – Stupid Grouse combination. These are fun trails. Not many stunts or vertical moves on them but they are steep as are all trails in the North Shore. The first bit of Coiler was really snowed under and I got to see why disc brakes are the choice of Shore riders! Wow – they stop any time, anywhere. – even in the steep wet slick rooty stuff – they let you style!

I found the dualie to be very forgiving – I could find lines and flow down sections of trails that had always had to stop and start and hop around on to make lines. The disc brakes were the revelation – even more than the forgiveness of having 5" of travel front and rear. I could control my speed and set up for stuff with absolute confidence. Wow, and all along I thought it was just rider skill – when actually it was the bike!

This ride was the harbinger of what a lot of Shore rides would be this summer – more duallies than there were hardtails. There’s definitely been a trend to longer and longer travel in Shore bikes in the last few years – the suspension manufacturers must just love us. Even the hardtails have long travel.

Here’s one such long travel hardtail - the lone rider is Ken – here on a Brodie Holeshot on Collette’s Crack on S e x Boy.

Ken has since broken the Holeshot (just riding along – yah right!) and now has a full squishy – a Brodie Libido. So this is a special moment for Ken – though he doesn't know – for his poor old Holeshot is destined for aluminum heaven.

We are more likely to see are full face gonzos like Chris on a Norco VPS – 1 full-on downhill machine. What’s that thing like to climb Chris?

Here's Sharon on a VPS – 3 on S e x Boy.

Regular family of Norco VPS’s. The only one missing from the product line on this ride was the VPS – 4. Do we have good taste in bikes or what!

Cypress was a good start but strangely, unsatisfying. All the good air was up on Coiler and had been under snow. I hadn’t tested the VPS – 2 or Porky as I affectionately named my little pig of a bike - in the air. I knew it could descend well and climbed like a little pig.

Mission – site of the Bear Mountain Downhill seemed like a nice place to see how Porky could fly. But first, I had to get the little pig up the hill. Wow, is it ever a pain to climb! I tried climbing Porky up some murderous grinds and then to make myself feel worse I went and traded off and climbed Eugene’s 50 pound full on DH rig. Ahhhh my knees! I guess heavy bikes and slack geometries are all relative because my VPS felt like a steep-angled lightweight climbing machine after taking a turn on Eugene's Mountain Cycle downhill rig going up!

Before getting a chance to strut my stuff on Porky, I first got a chance to egg on two of my buddies on to certain destruction. Actually, they both rode it out just fine much to my bitter disappointment. Here’s Brian on an older but still just fine Norco VPS – 1 lining up a section. This bike is now FOR SALE!! Lightly ridden – only on Sundays! Contact Brian directly for details!

The next rider is Chris – another interesting holdout. For almost as long as myself, Chris had been a dedicated hardtail man. Then all the friends in his riding group went out and bought dual suspension bikes. Well, Chris shows he is a lemming in more ways than one as here he is in beeyoootiful Steed Cycles colours astride a Santa Cruz Bullitt – preparing for the very same drop.

Then I saw it, like a vision of beautous wonder for the attention-deprived, like an oasis of green in a desert of water-starved, windswept waste. A gorgeous set of cedar-cut ramps ending in … nothingness!!

Brian was standing to the side – getting in my way – muttering some waffle about having to set up for this "big drop"! Horseshit! It didn’t look much more than 5 feet and I ruthlessly elbowed him out of the way – this one is mine!

It was

so

smooth

I couldn’t believe how easy it was! Totally cheating! Man, dropping air on a dualie is wussing – you might as well ride off a kerb – these things let you make so many mistakes and keep going. If I had landed this flat on my hardtail – I’d have a two piece sternum!

It was so much fun I went and did it again with Eugene standing below the take-off point. Terrible technique – got to learn the balance point for this bike still!

and then we got to take a picture of Eugene riding the same drop. Watch carefully, this is T – 30 minutes before Eugene ragdolls himself off a 7 foot drop RIGHT ON HIS HEAD!!! I will let him or someone else describe that as it was way too painful for me to watch. Man, those crazy downhillers – they’ll do anything for attention.

Another thing I hadn’t had the chance to do till now is to see how Porky performed on skinny stuff. Well Porky rides just fine on pecker poles thank you very much!

Here’s Eugene on a his Mountain Cycle riding a little skinny teeter totter with the landing point down a fairly steep hill. Crazy!

Other pics