I’m new to gravel riding and looking for a good beginner bike. A shop 3 hours away from me has a deal on a Norco Search XR A1.
Is this a deal worth driving a total of 6 hours for?
by lichenonwater
I’m new to gravel riding and looking for a good beginner bike. A shop 3 hours away from me has a deal on a Norco Search XR A1.
Is this a deal worth driving a total of 6 hours for?
by lichenonwater
3 Comments
As long as you’re not driving an 18 wheeler to pick it up, sure.
Depends on your market. It’s a good deal, but not a *really* deal. The MSRP is really old and these sell for like 1350.00 now. Also the specs on these vary, but if this is the Tiagra calipers/FD, GRX rear derailleur, and mechanical brake spec, it’s even less of a good deal. Norco is kind of a tough brand to nail down specs on because their website says they are not available outside of Canada, yet many bike shops in the US carry the full line.
Like my bikeshop. Which is why I know so much about them. Also I bought the [Search SR S2](https://imgur.com/a/m5VMsQW) which I highly recommend if you want a steel bike. I replaced a lot of parts on this and got the weight way down. It’s probably my favorite bike at the moment. So TL;DR, Norco makes good bikes. The Search is an awesome gravel bike, that spec isn’t great for 1k, but you can do much worse and probably not a lot better until you get to around 1500.00
I would recommend getting a bike from a more local shop. A lot of times they give you perks for buying a bike with them and being a regular customer with service and gear.