Hey Medic, Yea its 160mm travel but like I said, Has nice nice pedaling platform for the ups but it just rips on the downs. I'm having a hard time choosing which I want, The Sight or Range.... The sight weighs abit less and IMO looks abit better, but the Range is abit funner to ride... ah choices!! hahah Having ridden RS forks up until this year, and then FINALLY decided to make the move to a Marz 888 RC3 EVO V2 on the big bike, can't say I was sad when I mounted the 888 up to the bike... So freaking plushhhhhh!! I hear ya on the elka stuff, been riding Elka rear shocks for the past 4 seasons now, truly amazing stuff! Now only if they'd try making an Air version of the Stage 5!! hah I've been recently turned onto the X-Fusion bits from a close friend of mine, was definitely surprised when I took the Vector Air out of the box and mounted on the bike, feels really close to a coil shock but has this nice "support" in the mid-stroke. Really nice stuff overall. I wish I could've found a Large size in the 4xxxx when it was cleaing out, cuz with the Marz 4x RC3, the front end duties felt dialed and the whole build, with Gravity light crankset and sram drivetrain, avid brakes all mount on rather light and strong SRingle Equaliser 21 wheelset. The bike had the best spec around, IMO that large size but with something like a KS Supernatural dropper post would've been a fun little trailbike setup. Come to think of it, we did sell quite a few Empire SE to smaller 5'5 and under folk looking for a bombproof trailbike setup... Our bread and butter this season at the shop TBH was the most more aggressive side of things, ALOTTTTTT of BMX and 5+ dual suspension bikes (incl. 4xxxx and Empires). :beer:

Hey The-Medic, Having ridden the Sight 1 quite abit during the 2012 Product Launch. However I did like the Range quite abit... Travel and weight are abit more over the Sight but that isnt a necessarily disadvantage... Climbs almost as well but hauls abit more tail on the descents and is overall a funner(read: mini-dh feel without the mini-dh weight and shit pedaling) ride. I really wish Marzocchi would have a 20mm option in the 44 range! Im not entirely convinced on the 15mm stuff... A Vector Air would also be a sweet option for the rear end duties!.. Last thing I heard on the slopestyle project, is that it was essentially just a prototype. Allthough now seeing Hopkins on one too... I can only figure this might grow into a permanent offering. One thing though, back in 2010 and 2009 the 4x and Empire series didnt sell, they later(this past season) had to get rid of the bikes on closeouts. We were selling Empire 5 SE for around $1500 compared to their $3200 retail figure back in 2009. Keep your fingers crossed and annoy your local shop or rep... hah :beer:

Cant wait for this to come out on DVD. Palmer is a f**king badass!!!

Yea, I wrote that and then I realized I missed a couple people!! haha We were talking about it at the shop today. Norco has quite a few sick riders... Hopkins, Bryn, Jill, Ben Reid, Dan S., Dueck, Hoots, Geddes, Leach... List goes on! Heres to next season being one of the greats!

Available to buy, last time I checked Norco still had some in stock. Get in touch with your local Norco dealer, they¨will be able to hook ya up!