With so many cyclocross bikes being built (or marketed, anyway) to handle everything from gravel to adventure, while still being ready come race day, it’s refreshing to see something purpose built. It’s also a very nice excuse to add one more bike to the quiver if you’re really into ‘cross.
The Norco Threshold SL is such a purebred, designed to be wicked fast and quite capable, taking cues from its North Shore hucking brethren in order to blast through the roughest of courses. The frame comes in two flavors, standard “C” with mid-modulus carbon, and the lighter, stiffer “SL” with high modulus fibers on both the frame and fork. I tested the SL CX1, their top model for the 2015/16 season, which should carry over mostly the same for 2016/17 save the likely spec and color changes. Which might actually be a shame, because few bikes garnered as many compliments from spectators and fellow racers than this one, and the spec is mostly superb.
The frame will carry over unchanged for another season, which is fantastic. Because it’s fast. Very fast. And very stiff without beating you up. But, it’s not without its quirks…