abr303
Retro Guru
****Sorry, pic heavy content...***
I was very fortunate to be able to purchase this lovely '91 Stumpy at the start of this year having owned one back in the day. Luckily the original owner was fairly local to me and turns out he bought it new from the bike shop I use to work at (Steve's Cycles, Bangor, N. Wales) back in the early 90's and it was probably myself who'd unboxed, assembled and pdi'd it all those years back.....
It was in stunning original condition, paint and decals flawless given it's age and even though it had seen some use, credit had to go to the original owner as it was in amazing order. It had been stood for many years but stored sensibly. The DX components were all mint, particularly liking the black chainrings and canti's that you don't see so often these days. During the original owners ownership, anything that was replaced due to wear etc. was replaced like for like and that was the chain and cassette plus a lovely set of Ground Control tyres but these were done a few years back.
Here she is just after purchasing it in mid January......
Took it for a little spin to see how it was all running and with a few little niggles it was time to head home with a big grin on my face....
So I had a lovely base to work some magic and give the bike a sympathetic full strip down and overhaul to get everything back in tip top running order..... I took no time in stripping everything down to have a good look to see what was what......
Frame and tubes, cleaned , t-cut and waxed.....
B/B removed, stripped and cleaned ...... really impressed with the condition of all the components, no wear or pitting
Decided to fit a replacement headset as the original Tange one cleaned up well but the cups were a little corroded on the outside and had chanced upon a lovely NOS DX 1" threaded headset and thought it be a nice subtle upgrade....
The DX hubs were also stripped, cleaned and inspected and didn't disappoint..... some fresh Shimano grease applied, freehub lubed and after a bit of tinkering with the cone spanners, the axles were running buttery smooth. No pitting or wear whatsoever
The original saddle was in good order but had a become a bit 'rippled' and the foam gone lumpy in places under the covering and really fancied a Selle Italia Turbo as it's how I remember seeing them back in the day.... Voila....I eventually found one but it needed a bit of tlc so I treated and re-dyed the leather, resprayed the saddle rails and it came up really well....
Some of the other work ended up doing resulted in replacing the slightly pitted DX cranks in favour of a set of XT's I'd refurbed in the past and were needing a new home plus I saved a few grams on the weight front at the same time. Everything else was cleaned, polished and greased and I retained the original brake inner and outer cables plus the gear outers but the inners needed replacing. The mechs would nearly pass as new and cleaned up nicely. Trying to keep it as Specialized intended the only addition was a classic XT shark fin I’ve had for years and replaced the silver Blackburn bottle cage for an original period Specialized alloy bottle cage I’ll drop a full spec list soon and in the meantime, enjoy some more images
Fully set up and adjusted and having ridden it a few times now, it rides like a dream and find it such a lively well planted a balanced steed...just how I remember them, especially back in my XC racing days. This one is a real keeper for sure !!
mg]
I was very fortunate to be able to purchase this lovely '91 Stumpy at the start of this year having owned one back in the day. Luckily the original owner was fairly local to me and turns out he bought it new from the bike shop I use to work at (Steve's Cycles, Bangor, N. Wales) back in the early 90's and it was probably myself who'd unboxed, assembled and pdi'd it all those years back.....
It was in stunning original condition, paint and decals flawless given it's age and even though it had seen some use, credit had to go to the original owner as it was in amazing order. It had been stood for many years but stored sensibly. The DX components were all mint, particularly liking the black chainrings and canti's that you don't see so often these days. During the original owners ownership, anything that was replaced due to wear etc. was replaced like for like and that was the chain and cassette plus a lovely set of Ground Control tyres but these were done a few years back.
Here she is just after purchasing it in mid January......
Took it for a little spin to see how it was all running and with a few little niggles it was time to head home with a big grin on my face....
So I had a lovely base to work some magic and give the bike a sympathetic full strip down and overhaul to get everything back in tip top running order..... I took no time in stripping everything down to have a good look to see what was what......
Frame and tubes, cleaned , t-cut and waxed.....
B/B removed, stripped and cleaned ...... really impressed with the condition of all the components, no wear or pitting
Decided to fit a replacement headset as the original Tange one cleaned up well but the cups were a little corroded on the outside and had chanced upon a lovely NOS DX 1" threaded headset and thought it be a nice subtle upgrade....
The DX hubs were also stripped, cleaned and inspected and didn't disappoint..... some fresh Shimano grease applied, freehub lubed and after a bit of tinkering with the cone spanners, the axles were running buttery smooth. No pitting or wear whatsoever
The original saddle was in good order but had a become a bit 'rippled' and the foam gone lumpy in places under the covering and really fancied a Selle Italia Turbo as it's how I remember seeing them back in the day.... Voila....I eventually found one but it needed a bit of tlc so I treated and re-dyed the leather, resprayed the saddle rails and it came up really well....
Some of the other work ended up doing resulted in replacing the slightly pitted DX cranks in favour of a set of XT's I'd refurbed in the past and were needing a new home plus I saved a few grams on the weight front at the same time
. Everything else was cleaned, polished and greased and I retained the original brake inner and outer cables plus the gear outers but the inners needed replacing. The mechs would nearly pass as new and cleaned up nicely. Trying to keep it as Specialized intended the only addition was a classic XT shark fin I’ve had for years and replaced the silver Blackburn bottle cage for an original period Specialized alloy bottle cage I’ll drop a full spec list soon and in the meantime, enjoy some more images
Fully set up and adjusted and having ridden it a few times now, it rides like a dream and find it such a lively well planted a balanced steed...just how I remember them, especially back in my XC racing days. This one is a real keeper for sure !!
mg]
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