Reviving an Old Friend

[Bryguy17]

Two years ago, I decided I needed a bike to commute to school on. I went down to the bike shop with a $300 budget, and started looking at their lovely selection of hardtails. I ended up walking away the (then) proud new owner of a specialized hardrock sport. It was awesome. It had an oversprung suspension fork, plastic flat pedals, and it only weighed 37 pounds or so.

Later that year, I got into mountain biking. A friend of mine had me follow him all over the place whilst riding my trusty bargain steed. It was my bike, and I rode it wherever, no matter the challenge.

This last year, after learning to ride technical sections with tires at 50psi, racing a 35lb hardtail, and finding out that a 23" top tube doesn't fit my 6'6" stature, I decided it was time to invest in a new bike. With that, My trusty old hardtail was put to the side, only to be flogged around at the dirt jumps occasionally, or to be brought out to fruitlessly try and do manuals in my appt. parking lot.

Lately, though, I've found I really enjoy hardtail riding (my new bike is FS), and I wanted to have a passable hardtail in my stable. My biggest gripes with my bike as it sat were brakes and fork. The V-brakes were horribly weak, and would not even bite anymore. The fork was a coil fork, no oil, no dampening, nothing. Absorbed just about as much too.

So, I decided to go on a bit of an upgrade binge. New brakes, wheels, and fork were all added to the bike.

Wheels are supergo launches, and weigh roughly the same as the stock wheels, despite being 129341234x stronger, being disc, and best of all being chrome.

Brakes are formula Oro K24's because I loved them so much on a test ride I took, and I got a great deal on a complete set from that empty beer site.

Fork is a Marz 2006 66SL. Sure, its a bit overkill for a frame designed for a 100mm fork, but that's what travel adjust is for, right? After a few hours of tweaking, I finally got acceptable settings on the fork, giving me 140mm of travel with a nice ramp towards the end, as well as amazing plushness compared to the old fork.

The longer fork tweaks the geometry a bit, but I believe its for the better. The bottom bracket climbs about 10mm to 310mm (around 12.5"), the headtube slacks out to an easy-to-handle 69*, and everything else is roughly the same. The slacker angle helps slow down the twitchy XC geometry, and the bottom bracket stays low enough that I can still rail around corners quite well.

So basically, I ended up about a half pound lighter than my previous setup, yet have a stronger, shinier, stiffer, and more controllable bike.

The best part? with a few minutes of tweaking air settings, I can make the bike do any number of things. Longer travel, plusher settings for trail/AM/loop madness.
Shorter travel, plusher settings for DJing etc.
Shorter travel, high compression dampening, stiffer air for BMX type riding.

How does it ride, you ask? Amazingly. I spent tons of time on the bike, so I know how it used to feel, and it's definitely a change for the better. The slower steering/slacker angles help stability on faster descents, and the BB is still low enough to facilitate railage. As it sits with the 1x8 (yeah, , its quite a ride for thigns such as the loop. I get to hammer up hills in all the glory a 32t chainring can offer. Oh yeah, it climbs like a hardtail

Here's some pictures of the beast



Go ahead and laugh, I already know my brakes alone are worth more than the original complete bike

[mottmcfly]

Looks brand new to me.

[Bryguy17]

Originally Posted by mottmcfly

Looks brand new to me.

Yeah, even to me it does. I remember looking at it when I finally got it built, and was amazed how different it looked. Those rotors/wheels are awesomely shiny in the sun Never would've known it had 1000 miles and a few races (DH included) on it.

[EndoMaster]

Ahhhhh, Specialized Hardrock was my first real mountain bike as well. I miss that bike to this day, I gave it to a friend of mine in hopes of stirring the mountain biking embers within him but it didn't work.

I also upgraded mine but I did it as parts broke. Nice build on yours.

[ghixon]

Franken-Speshy! Looks ike a fun resurection project.

[Bryguy17]

Originally Posted by ghixon

Franken-Speshy! Looks ike a fun resurection project.

It really is/has been. It's probably one of the nicest hardrocks you'll see, but its not without out its own unique jankyness . Let's see, the bottom bracket bearings are shot, the spindle is probably bent or cracked (really needs fixing). The non-drive crank arm is twisted from a crash/excessive power from myself. The drive side does not sit evenly on the bottom bracket, and the chainring and/or spider is bent. I think the chainring is missing a tooth

All of those can be fixed with a decent crankset though. Gotta find me some old hollowtech II cranks and a 9spd drivetrain setup

Aside from collecting parts, it's been fun to put together too. I love wrenching on my bikes, and putting together new parts is always really fun. It took me almost 3 hours to get the fork set how I like it, and I enjoyed every minute of it. That also doesn't include the happiness that comes with having an excuse to get all of those tools I've always wanted/needed