Norco Threshold C Rival 1

Norco's Threshold C is a strong offering if you're looking for a ready-to-race cyclo-cross bike with a bit of versatility. It's a capable off-roader and you can pretty much roll it out of the box and onto the start line. It doesn't quite have the poise of a fully-focused race bike but it's a good all-rounder, with the tyres and gearing range being the only provisos.

Norco claims a sub-1kg weight for the Threshold C frame and our 58cm test bike tips the scales at 8.97kg, which is more or less what you'd expect given the build. There's a matching carbon fork and the bike uses thru-axles front and rear: 15x100mm at the front and 142x12mm at the rear, both well supported in third-party wheelsets.

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Norco says the ARC Race Stays are designed with "optimized stiffness-to-compliance ratio to maximize racer comfort without any compromise to pedaling efficiency or power transfer" and the Threshold C uses Norco's proprietary Gizmo cable routing system, which it claims eliminates rattle and keeps water and muck out of the frame.

SRAM Rival 1 takes care of shifting and (hydraulic disc) braking. We've reviewed the groupset separately (read the review here) and Dave Arthur was impressed with the performance, especially as a race groupset. The Norco comes set up with a 42-tooth chainring and an 11-32 cassette, giving it a low gear of 35.4 inches and a range of 290%; that's fine for racing but limiting in other circumstances. More on that in a bit.

Wheels are A-Class rims and hubs and they're tubeless-ready. They're not set up tubeless, coming shod with wire-bead Clement Crusade PDX 700x33 rubber. You can't run them ghetto tubeless by whipping out the inner tube and lobbing some sealant in. We tried, and they don't seal.

Riding: well set up for racing

I took the Threshold C and raced it in full stock build, and it was absolutely fine. Normally I race 'cross on tubeless tyres because that allows you a bit more licence with tyre pressure without the danger of a pinch flat, but on a fast, flat, dry course the Clement tyres were a good choice. As soon as things start to get muddy they struggle, though, and for general riding round the muddy lanes and byways of Bath I swapped out the tyres for tubeless Bontrager CX3s. The rims needed a couple of wraps of insulating tape to seal, but other than that they were easy to set up.

The Threshold's tube lengths and angles are really very similar to the Specialized Crux Elite X1 that we recently tested. And like that bike, the Norco feels more stable than it does nimble at times. Through really tight race corners it tends to run a bit wide, but once you're out in straighter sections you can really wind it up, with great response when you stamp on the pedals.

Riding a stiff carbon-framed bike with small tyres over rough ground isn't ever going to translate into a smooth ride, but the Norco isn't as edgy as some 'cross bikes I've tried, and the 27.2mm diameter seatpost works with the tyres and seatstays to take the sting out of the back end. At the front, you get a good deal more feedback, with a stiff bar and average tape not helping.

One of the main benefits of the X1 drivetrain is that in the mud there's less to get muddy. The front mech is a magnet for mud, grass and detritus in a boggy CX race and the single chainring is a much better option than a double; the thick-thin chainring and clutch mech mean there's no chain slap and no dropped chains either. The Norco backs that up with decent mud clearance around the wheels. The fork is especially generous, but there's plenty of room at the bottom bracket too.

General riding

For more general riding, the main sticking point of the X1 setup, as specced here, is the gear range. An 11-32 cassette gives a 290% range, which is a lot less than a compact double with an 11-28 at the back (424%). That means you'll lose gears at one end, or the other, or in this case, both.

The 42x11 gear is big enough for nearly anything you're likely to do on knobbly tyres, although if you swapped to road rubber you might find yourself spinning it out a bit. The 42x32 low gear is fine for most road use but can be limiting off-road on the steep stuff. You can stand up and grind up a road climb, but on a slippery off-road ascent that's sometimes not an option. I'd have preferred to see the Norco specced with an 11-36 cassette for a bit more range – it wouldn't materially affect race performance and general use would be improved.

>> Which cyclo-cross bike should you buy? Find out here

I have some minor doubts about the stiffness of the fork. It's possible to make the front disc rotor rub in a tight turn, when you're loading up the front of the bike, suggesting that it's twisting a bit. It didn't noticeably affect the handling of the bike; tolerances are tight down there and even a millimetre of deflection could cause some rub. While we're on the subject of tolerances, one that is much too tight is the gap between the disc rotor and the fork leg. There's barely a gap there at all, and if you got a stone stuck in your rotor you'd be gouging lines in your fork leg.

Braking was strong and predictable, as we've come to expect from hydraulic discs. The Norco uses a 140mm rotor at the rear and a 160mm at the front. Smaller rotors don't have as much heat capacity or surface area as bigger ones, but I never cooked either of the brakes, even when I was deliberately trying to. It's possible to make one or the other fade a bit by dragging the brake on a long descent, but not both. The front hose runs externally down the fork leg, which makes it a lot easier to fit and fettle but it's less sightly. The rear hose runs through the frame. I managed to eke some rattle out of the various internal cables in spite of Norco's claims to the contrary, but it wasn't anything too annoying.

The Threshold C has mudguard mounts; I didn't use them in testing and if I'm honest I doubt many people will. If you want a multi-purpose bike and racing isn't too big in your plans then you're better served elsewhere. The Threshold C is more aimed at racing, and as such it represents a very strong proposition.

Compare it with the Specialized Crux Elite and you're getting a bike that's a similar spec and weight for £500 less. It's maybe not quite as refined, but it's still a very good race platform. If you turn up on the start line with this – albeit maybe with a change of tyres – then you're basically out of excuses.

Verdict

Very well-specced race machine that's a good value privateer package