Gear Change, DH to singletrack

I have been given an amazing gift, a free 4 day riding trip to the Chilcotins this August. We'll be staying at a ranch and riding lots of epic singletrack. While I would love to have a lightweight zippy trail bike to enjoy this opportunity, I'm too poor to buy a new ride. So I've got to try to figure out some budget friendly gear swaps to convert my old clunker of a bike.

I've got an 04 Norco Shore with a Super T fork. The wheels are nothing special but they do have heavy DH tires on them. I figure I can get the biggest bang for my buck by putting on a single crown air fork, some light weight rims, and lighter tires. I don't know if there's an air shock that would fit the frame's stock Vanilla RC, but if I could find one that's another couple pounds for the better.

So I'm looking for suggestions on the fork, rims, tires, and if anyone knows an air shock that fits, that'd be cool too. Preferably stuff that can be found used for reasonable prices.

Your rear hub is 150x12 is it not? if so it is going to be hard to a light wheel set. Most light wheel sets are going to be 135x10 for the rear, a 20mm front wheel that is light will be easy to find. I think that fork you have weights in at 8 pounds for 7" travel. You could switch to a newer 7" fork that weights in at 7 pounds saving you a pound.

How much are you looking to spend over all?

Would it not be better to just borrow / hire a hardtail for a few days? The trails I've ridden in the Chilcotins don't warrant rear suspension. The guide who was there was riding a singlespeed hardtail. I was sort of guiding / helping out and I loved riding my Dialled 853 Prince Albert there.

you could find a hardtail for around 12-1500 bucks in the buy and sale, it would probably be cheaper than swaping out fork wheels tires and shock.

don't bother with a hardtail it really isn't worth spending 1500bux on a bike you will probably not use again(if not go for it).

I'd invest in new wheelsets, fork, gear
seek hope pro2 12x150hub, they're ridiculously light. paired up with mavic 721, or syncros ds28(even ds23(stay away from ds25)). kevlar beaded 2.35 tire, you're set to go. and you get a pike(u-turn) or a lyric(u-turn) or even fox 36.
Try to get front gear if possible, with dual ring chainguide.
few lb's don't make a difference when you have proper gear for the riding.
It should be cheaper than a new hardtail.

By the time you drop a bunch of coin on wheels fork and tires you could have a good used bike off ebay or Pinkbike. Buy now it's the off season, prices are down. Also the Gear Swap is a good option for less expensive options.

just buy a second hand bike and sell it when you are done, you will have a lot more fun.

If I was you I'd outfit your bike so it can do everything. Throw the monster away and get a 6" single crown fork. Get rid of the heavy dh tires and do what jkwon said get 235 nevegals w/kevlar beads, nice and light, i wouldnt be surprised if just the tires saved you a pound and a half. Maybe get some new rim hoops, say single track. Strong, pretty light, cheap.

i'll throw my vote in for getting a hard tail. spending that kind of money to make your shore "all mountain" seems like a waste to me. Hell, you might even discover that xc is fun. And besides 2 bikes [HTML_REMOVED] 1 bike.

You'd be surprised what a difference a set of tires can make.
Swapping out your tires for some lighter duty ones along with setting your Shore to the shorter travel position and dialing up the compression in your Super T would be the most cost effective solution to your issue.

wow … you can really tell from this post who has rideen the chilco and who has no idea what it is …

walleater nailed it … go back up and re-read what he wrote.

a shore (no matter what build) is WAY over kill for the chilcotins …

whatever …

i'll throw my vote in for getting a hard tail. spending that kind of money to make your shore "all mountain" seems like a waste to me. Hell, you might even discover that xc is fun. And besides 2 bikes [HTML_REMOVED] 1 bike.

I second this motion….with the money you would spend lightening up the Shore you can easily find a more than capable XC rig.

Once you have a bike like this,you'll be surprised how often you will opt to ride it over the Shore.

Thanks TheGiggler. If anything even my hardtail which weighs about 33lb (2004 Z1FRs and the like on it) was OTT. Manus was ripping everyones legs off on his singlespeed. That's not to say that the trails aren't awesome…if you are missing the loam, you'll love the place.

or get an all mountain frames, if you don't mind norco, six frames(07,06) go for 399-499(that's not sale either).