Serious Stoke

Do I use the word “stoke” too much?  Possibly.  Why the eff am I answering my own questions.  Moving on.  I can barely contain my excitement after getting my hands on something this week that was just a pipedream only weeks ago.  Since getting rid of my Specialized Camber Pro full-suspension this summer there has been a gaping hole in my biking repertoire.  I was hindered with two hardtail mountain bikes, each with minimal travel up front.  Then I broke one.  That leaves me with one hardtail mountain bike composed of this fancy new crabon fibre material, XC geometry and a 90mm travel fork.  Half of my riding destinations just got tossed out the window.  Sure, I can ride this bike in Moab, Fruita, local ball-busters, etc. but it’s not going to be fun, and something will break; either me or the bike.  What I needed was another trail monster; something that could get my juices running; a burly steed capable of going anywhere and eating up terrain like Hulk on speed.

Then an ad showed up on craigslist.  Something finally in my price range, and exactly what I was looking for.  I inquired, I pondered, I stopped pondering, I went and bought.  I present the Norco Shinobi.

Trail Ninja

 And why, again, do I “need” this bike?  Well, I can explain, but I’d rather let my friend Kenny do so.

That’s just it.  I don’t ride mountain bikes just to train all of the time.  I ride them for adventure, challenge, adrenaline, accomplishment, freedom, and so much more.  Nothing can send chills down your spine and leave you smiling ear to ear like a crushing descent down a mountain.  Drugs and sex actually come pretty close, but both require some extra level of commitment and follow up.  Plus, it's going to be way cooler than these guys:

Norco is a company well-versed in big-travel bikes that are designed to handle the gnarliest terrain that British Columbia has to offer.  If you’re a bike company based out of BC, you know how to build a stout, terrain gobbling bike.  The advent of long-travel full-suspension 29ers only started a few years back, and companies have taken some time to get the potion dialed.  When Norco released the Shinobi, their first attempt at the all-mountain 29er market, it was received with almost flawless reviews.  This is one reason I’m so stoked about the Shinobi.  I haven’t even ridden it yet but I have the utmost confidence in its abilities.  Another reason to be excited is the partial custom build.  Almost every crucial part of the bike has been upgraded with components much better than stock, some of which have seen very little use.  The wheels, cranks, seatpost, derailleurs (SRAM XO), and most importantly, Rockshox Monarch RC3 Plus shock, are all major upgrades.  It’s so ready to rock and roll, and so am I.  I’ve never ridden such a capable, diverse, and well-equipped machine, with this much suspension travel, dropper seatpost, and so on and so forth.

Everything about the purchase seemed so perfect, that something had to be wrong.  Upon further inspection, I noticed this:

One of the shock linkage bolts was hanging out, and it’s cohort on the other side missing.  Damn, where the hell am I going to find a Norco dealer?  Oh wait, I live in Boulder.  Anywhere else in the country you would be lucky to be within 100 miles of one.  For me it was a 2 mile bike ride.  And it just happened to be across the street from Avery Brewing.  I couldn’t pass up my own offer to try some of their newest offerings.  The chocolate mint stout was delicious, their newest IPA brewed with String Cheese front man Kyle Hollingsworth was interesting, and the Mephistopheles was… sorry, I’m digressing.  Right, back to bikes.

First ride on the newest creator of “stoke” is yet to come.  Boulder had been frigidly cold for the last couple of weeks, but has just changed for the better.  This is good, because staring at my new toy is starting to get both frustrating (think untouchable naked girl in your dream) and somewhat obsessive. Ride review to come.

Cow shit and 14ers.