You may remember Jill Kintner's competition from earlier in the year encouraging mountain bikers to express their creativity and take a much needed mental health break. She teamed up with Red Bull and Made Rad by Tony to offer the winner of her competition a custom, hand-painted frame of their design. Unfortunately, Red Bull can't market to kids so only adults over the age of 18 could enter. Thankfully Norco took up the reins and ran a separate competition alongside for kids with Red Bull's permission.
1,100 kids entered that competition and the winner picked by Jill was Sully Hicks from Pennsylvania. Sully designed a melon-themed bike after watching a Christmas-themed episode of the Goldbergs. In that episode, the family is watching Die Hard and Bruce Willis' famous line is replaced by 'Yippee Ki Yay, Melon Farmer', and so the Norco Melon Farmer was born.
Tony Bauman made Sully's vision come to life and apparently his love of riding and art has been elevated by the contest, which was the goal for Norco. Check out some more pictures and details of the bike below. The over-18s competition winner has also been decided and their bike will be unveiled soon.
Tony Bauman and Jill Kintner made Sully's dream a reality. Photos: Keely Shannon
Inspired by Sully's drawing, Tony gets to work.
The bike Sully won is a Norco Fluid FS Youth that was re-designed for 2020. It's a 24" aggressive trail bike designed for smaller riders with youth-tuned suspension components from Fox and Manitou, and a dropper that is optimized for riders below 90 pounds.
Putting pen to paper has been such a powerful tool for me over the years to develop ideas and have a creative outlet. I am really focused on being the best pro mountain bike athlete I can be, but sometimes I get just as passionate about art and design and use every opportunity I can to combine those two worlds. My favorite project was collaborating with Tony to create the Queen of Hearts bike for Crankworx last year though. It is such a beautiful bike, and the whole process kind of blew my mind to see and idea come to life like that! Tony has true talent, and his execution mixed with my concept was inspiring to be a part of.—Jill Kintner
