New Downhill/freeride bike built... ('05 Norco Shore)

While the fam was away up in Seattle, I kept busy with projects in the evenings... One of them was to build out a new downhill/freeride bike to replace my "aging" '04 Kona Stinky (which I'm selling for $900 to a local or $1,000 to anyone else - see my ad on pinkbike.com). I'd bought a used '05 Norco Shore frame/shock last week from Thom at Santiam Bicycle, and then a full-suspension '03 Norco Team Shore bike from another local rider... Swapped most of the stuff over with help from friends at the shop, ran out of time so had the master "bike surgeon" Ben at Santiam take care of finishing it up for me on Saturday. He even did a bit of fabrication to get a chain guide to fit on there.

So, now I have an '05 Norco Shore with a FOX DHX 5 rear/Marzocchi 888 front shock. It's an 8" travel full-suspension beast that's gonna let me progress further - hit some bigger stuff ("safely") at Blackrock (Falls City), Post Canyon (Hood River), and Whistler (BC). It's gonna be an AWESOME year! My main goal for 2006 is to fly the Granny's Kitchen road gap (which I attempted twice on my Kona but wrecked badly both times) and make it up to Whistler twice.

Here's more pics of my new bike...

(drive train view) Blackspire C4 bash guard...



(front view) Marzocchi 888 front shock... (8 inches of travel baby!)