2000 Specialized Hardrock

[jimo746]

I picked up this year 2000 Hardrock a while ago now, I have a 2000 Specialized M4 road bike and when i saw the Hardrock in the same paint scheme advertised locally I just had to get it!

Once I got it home though I could see that some of the components had seen better days, and the wheels were mismatched and not the original ones.

I decided to leave it for the time being and think whether I would keep it or not, as replacing the worn/rusty components would cost more than the £40 purchase price. :roll:

Then that same evening I saw another Hardrock, a year newer, advertised locally too! Best of all, it looked original, had the parts I needed, and was only £15
So the donor bike provided bars/stem, seatpost, chainset, and original wheels with decent Maxxis Monorail tyres.... result!!

The saddle and shifters are non-original,but they work fine so are staying for now...

 

[Paul R]

good matching pair

 

[jimo746]

Re:

Ermmmmm..... well that escalated quickly!

From budget beginnings I spotted some wheels with Mavic X138 rims and black Specialized hubs, I preferred the black instead of silver, no matter that they cost the same as I'd bought the bike for in the first place :facepalm:
From there I realised I could now "upgrade" from 7-speed to 8 or 9-speed

I already had an 11-40 9-speed cassette in my stash, so I found some LX v-brake levers and black V-brakes on Retrobike, meanwhile i ordered a budget "LTwoo" 9-speed mech and shifter from Aliexpress, along with some flat pedals.

As I was ditching the silver wheels I dug around and unbelievably found I had a black Specialized Riser bar tucked away, along with some Specialized lock on grips and an unbranded shorter stem.
The seatpost was an odd 30.4mm size, I had a few black 27.2 seat posts to hand, and lo and behold I found a 27.2 to 30.8 shim, close enough, and it fits like a glove
The cranks are FSA from my spares box, currently fitted with a 38T oval narrow-wide chainring.

Then I blew the budget out of the water with some Rockshox SID SL forks.... oh well... they're a huge improvement over the RS Jett forks it came with.

So yeah, this got well out of control, the only original part left is the frame, but at least it matches my Specialized road bike better now , ie retro frame with mote modern components.
I'm impressed with the LTwoo A5 mech and shifter, nice crisp shifts, the shifter is basically a sram copy, and the mech is the Ultra long Cage version and will shift up to a 50t cassette!
I've given it a test ride and all seems ok, so I'll probably give it a longer ride this weekend...

 

[jimo746]

Re:

Just over 20 miles on it today, and it rode like a bottom of the range bike
it's a heavy old thing,must be around 30lbs although I've not weighed it yet, having said that though it was right at home in the twisty singletrack through the woods.
I'm quite impressed with the V-brakes to be honest, I'd forgotten how well they can work after being used to discs for a while.
The 38T and 11-40T combo is just about right for mixed riding I think, I may try a smaller 34T chainring at some point as I can happily lose some top end speed on the tarmac in exchange for a few extra climbing gears.

 

[Paul R]

looks good with the sids i just cant get on with the modern stem, bar and gears on older bikes just doesnt look right.

 

[jimo746]

Re:

Yeah I know what you mean, I think I’m so used to riding modern bikes these days that the 120mm stem on the 19” frame felt far too long and low for me, the black risers just replaced the original silver risers although they are a bit wider, still a 25.4mm clamp though, you feel the bars flexing a bit when hauling on them!
To be fair there was nothing wrong with the 3x7 gears originally, I don’t think I’ve gained anything by switching to 1x9, it’s just “different”.

 

[Paul R]

Re:

You could try a 80/90mm stem with a 600ish bar and see how that feels i suppose. You can drive yourself mad with positioning lol

 

[rachel787]

Did you ever find out the weight of this?