Advice please: Bring 10yr old bike into 2008!

[Justin Fox]

Hi all,

I recently found an old 1997 Specialized Hardrock under the house and it's currently being serviced to be road worthy again.

I've been doing a lot of research on here (loving the forums and this community btw). Despite a few people letting me know it's a classic, I'm not particularly precious about keeping it as it is and I'm toying with the idea of modifying this old bike for the fun of it.

It'll be used primarily for fitness, mainly on the road rather than off but I'd be tempted to do a little off roading in it too. Nothing nuts, no massive airs, drops, or anything like that at all.

What I'd ultimately like to do is:
- A strip and respray
- Front shocks and disc brake upgrade for front only

I'm happy with the gear on it. I actually like the grip shift and it's still working great.

Now, a few technical questions then. Can I simply buy a 2nd hand front disc wheel, 2nd hand front shocks and disc set-up or am I dreaming and it's a LOT harder than this?

I assume there are going to be some major issues perhaps around the stem as I can already see that I am using an old school one piece stem and it seems all of you are now using 2 piece stems, so I assume a different system.

The technical specifications of my bicycle are:
Frame & Fork
Frame Construction TIG-welded
Frame Tubing Material Chromoly main triangle/hi-tensile steel rear stays
Fork Brand & Model SBC Top Gun
Fork Material Triple-clamp
Rear Shock Not applicable

Components
Component Group Unspecified
Brakeset Shimano brakes, aluminum levers
Shift Levers Grip Shift MRX-170
Front Derailleur Shimano AceraX top-swing, bottom-pull/clamp-on 31.8 mm
Rear Derailleur Shimano Alivio
Crankset SBC Strongarm Sport, 24/34/42 teeth
Pedals Resin
Bottom Bracket Shimano
BB Shell Width 68mm English
Rear Cogs 7-speed, 11 - 28 teeth
Chain 1/2 x 3/32"
Seatpost Aluminum micro-adjust, 30.4 mm diameter
Saddle SBC Softlite Super
Handlebar SBC aluminum
Handlebar Extensions Not included
Handlebar Stem SBC Fast Fit
Headset 1 1/8" threadless

Wheels
Hubs Front: SBC aluminum quick release, Rear: Shimano cassette, Q/R
Rims Weinmann 519, 36-hole
Tires 26 x 1.95" Specialized Hardrock'R
Spoke Brand Stainless steel, 2.0mm straight gauge
Spoke Nipples Brass nipples

Any help would really be appreciated!!!

 

[Rik]

Spend as little on it as possible.
This is coming from someone that has way too much interest in retro bikes, it'd be OK to throw $75-$150 at it to get working smoothly but any more is a waste.

 

[Plow King]

You sure that's been sitting under your house? That thing looks like its in insane condition...

Judging by the picture... It looks like all you need is a new chain, new cassette and some new tyres and tubes. Looks like you're good to go.

 

[hidesy]

yes thats rite it is that simple, regarding putting new forks a and a disc brake on.. al you need to do is buy:
fork
disc specific front wheel
front disk brake
stem and handle bar

witch you could all get from the for sale section on farkin from around 300ish depending on the spec.

to change the front end you will have to ditch the old stem because the more modern forks wont work with that stem

hope it helps

 

[exvitermini]

I'd harzard a guess that it has a 1 inch steerer tube,where most forks these days are 1 1/8.(meaning your not going to be able to swap any half decent suspension fork onto it)

I'm with rik , keep it factory looking as much as possible and look after it! or sell/give it to someone that will

 

[AngoXC]

Rik is right mate. The bike is just a little out of date to bring into 2008.

It would pretty much be money wasted if you were to make this your main bike...its better left as like an 'on the side' restoration project'...even then, you wouldnt spend too much on getting it up to speed (new chain, cassette, tyres etc...not much else)...

If you did want to go ahead with the idea, the biggest issue I see is the headtube. The older 1" headtube on your bike restricts you to older forks of that era with the appropriate dia. headtube. These forks by todays standards are nothing flash but you could get lucky.

Just my $0.02 but I think your money is better spent on say a new bike.

 

[Ty]

Personally i'd try to keep it correct to the period as possible but still with some good parts.

set of orignal z.1 bombers, some Parrallel style V'brakes and a low rise riser bar just to make the old NORBA geo a bit more trail friendly.

and then I reckon some modern tyres (probably the biggest improvment in technology besides suspension since 1997) and then replace parts as they break or wear out.

just another note* gripshift of that era tends to get sloppy, so the switch to triggers may be worth it as they are pretty cheap 2nd hand compared to gripshift

edit, sorry i didn't see the 1 inch threaded steerer, though your spec list suggest it's diferent. the fork might be a bit of a issue.

 

[AngoXC]

I believe Marzocchi still make one of the MX series forks in a 1" threaded from.
Other then that, you would be restricted to Maniou Machs, RockShox Judy/Quandra and very very old Marzocchis (think DH-3)...

I did however see somewhere a guy had converted the first SID ('98?) to use a pure damper/Motion Control unit thus bringing them up to Team Spec...that used a 1" steerer...

 

[Justin Fox]

Cheers guys for the feedback,

The specs I gathered from the web do suggest that it has a 1 1/8 steerer, could be wrong though.

The feedback has given me more to chew on though for sure, cheers! Really looking forward to trying new tyres now!

 

[stabbsy]

hmm, just looking but i could be wrong i always thought that a quill stem was used with a 1 inch steerer, so that could bring some hassle in the fork and stem department, but these things pop up often enough on here and on the trusty ebay, you just have to know what you are looking for.

 

[DJR]

Sounds a lot like my project to bring my 1995 Shogun Trail Breaker with very similar spec up to scratch as a commuter. It had similar spec, Acera-X stuff, v-brakes etc and i ended up doing the following to it, a lot of it was upgrades to another bike that i bought (cracked frame!) which ended up going on this, but it seems to work well. I wouldn't bother with disc brakes, if your rims are cactus retrue them with a spoke wrench or get some new ones and then get some v-brakes, the Avid SD7's are awesome and that means no need to get new hubs and shell out for disc brakes straight away.

- new v-brakes (Avid single digit 7's from ebay - goboseller) $70
- new front fork (rst coil/mcu basic steel fork) - $30 ebay brand new
- stripped back frame and resprayed in sand (off white) $15 worth of paint (supakoat)
- swapped in new stem, headset (aheadset threadless 1 1/8"), riser bar (azonic 25.4mm), grips (lockons), brake levers and shifters (deore lx) from other bike $0
- new wellgo sealed platform pedals $30 ebay
- new square taper alivio 9sp crank (stripped pedal thread on old acera-x crank) $70 TBSM
- swapped in rear wheel inc 9sp cassette from other bike (velocity psycho, heavy but i case kerb hops all the time) $0
- swapped in Deore rear derailleur from other bike $0
- new sram x-7 front shifter (old deore lx one was cactus) $40 torpedo7
- new seat (wtb shadow V) $25 ebay
- new 9sp chain $30

So the only things on the bike now that are original are the frame, seatpost, front wheel, reflectors (!) and BB. Worked out quite well, and i seem to get "nice looking bike" a bit even though i think it's a piece of crap

total about $200 or so i guess, money well spent over buying a kmart bike as a commuter i reckon, it works quite well and i reckon if i put a decent xc fork on it as long as it had v-brake mounts and QR dropouts i could actually take it off road, but that's another story (already have a trail/AM bike so no need)

BTW, i had a threaded quill headset on mine, which went into the fork, i just got rid of it and put the aheadset in no problems with a new fork and stem

 

[Cooch]

'94 Stumpjumper conversion

Here you go! Check this out:

http://forums.farkin.net/showthread.php?t=104313

I did what you want to do

 

[Justin Fox]

DJR / Cooch

Thanks so much for taking the time to post.

Massive load of inspiration I was looking for.

In similar veins I've poured a LOT of cash into old Japanese cars. I've put over $60k into my 93 R32 GT-R and it's all been so worth it to me.

I look at this as more of a fun/modification/challenge than anything else. Looking forward to getting the ball rolling

 

[xc_machine]

I recently found an old 1997 Specialized Hardrock under the house and it's currently being serviced to be road worthy again.

Was it in an enclosed, moisture free preservation safe? It's in immaculate condition (looks it anyway).. I'd leave it stock as possible and ride as is.

Have fun mate!

 

[Woodsie]

For road use and occasional light dirt use I wouldn't bother with a suspension fork. It looks like they are steel forks on there already, which should give plenty enough give for road use.

Other than replacing old worn out stuff the only upgrade really worth it would probably be to ditch the old cantilever brakes and put some good V-brakes on it. A decent disk brake will probably cost more than the rest of the bike is worth.

If you are really wanting to spend some money on the bike, and you want to use it for fitness, then the path I would take would be to make it single speed or fixie. Better for fitness, simpler riding experience and less shit to wear out or break.

 

[Justin Fox]

Moisture free? No I wouldn't say so! It was literally under the house!!! The picture might be a little deceiving... it does have a few rusty spots on it here and there.

I have thought about making it a single speed. I'm a little stumped as to exactly how I go abouts doing that though.

All in all I'd love to go as far as Cooch did with his one.

 

[Woodsie]

With something like this http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=2300 though because the bike has vertical dropouts, not horizontal probably one of these http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=10009

There is a way of calculating a suitable gear ratio so that you don't need the tensioner. There is info on how to do it here http://eehouse.org/fixin/index.php.
You can also look into BMX half link chains to give you more options.

You will also obviously need to ditch the granny and outer chainring and just run a single chainring on the front.

Oh, probably worth reading this too http://sheldonbrown.com/singlespeed.html

 

[Justin Fox]

Woodsie - cheers for that, will put aside the time to read up.

If anything maybe I'd like to half ass it and just get rid of the front gears and leave the back derailleur.

 

[Woodsie]

If anything maybe I'd like to half ass it and just get rid of the front gears and leave the back derailleur.

Thought you wanted to get fit you lightweight??? (joking )

 

[AngoXC]

Just keep an eye out on your local bike shops 'Bargain Bin'...one can find all sorts of treasures in there!