Norco at 50: 5 classic bikes

When Norco opened in Burnaby, B.C., in 1964, founder Bert Lewis called the company Northern Cycle Industries. There was a problem with the name, though: it was too long to fit on the down and head tubes on the company’s frames. In 1968, the name became Norco. This year, the company that started off in a converted chicken coop celebrates 50 years of being part of the Canadian cycling landscape. It has sponsored teams from its Factory BMX team in 1980 to Symmetrics Pro Cycling in the mid-2000s, which has Svein Tuft, Christian Meier, Zach Bell and Geoff Kabush as alumni. Today, Norco supports development teams such as Jet Fuel, Team H&R Block and Premier Tech, as well as an enduro team, an international mountain bike team and its Factory Team, which comprises riders in almost every discipline of mountain biking. And, of course, there are the bikes Norco has made, which include full-suspension BMX bikes in 1973 to 27.5″ mountain bikes in 2013. Here are five highlights from the past 50 years.

“It has been an amazing journey. Fifty years ago, Norco started up with the idea of bringing quality bicycles into the lives of Canadians. Today, we still have that same philosophy of getting more people on bikes. In the early days, we were assembling 15 bikes per day in a small Burnaby, B.C., location. Now we are selling in 25 different countries and can truly see the validation of our efforts. Norco bicycles are unique. They feature proprietary technologies, world-class materials and a focus on engineering and design. But ultimately, we are still a Canadian company committed to getting more people to enjoy riding bikes around the world.” —Skip Swain, vice-president of sales and marketing and a Norco employee for roughly 35 years.