Buying a second hand '97 Specialized Hardrock - need advice.

[peck]

So it's 3rd hand (atleast) and my friend picked it up of some guy for quick travelling inbetween my house and his house - I think he paid £10 for it.

He was talking to me about it, and I started to gain interest. At the moment my bike is some mountain bike Apollo. Don't laugh - please.

However, I've always liked old school / classic built products. That includes; cars, bikes, motobikes etc. Why? Because I can feel the passion and simplicity of the build when I ride and look at them. They're alot more pretty than all of these modern chucky stuff. e.g GT Chucker looks gastly.

So anyways, back onto topic. I've done this friend a few favours in the past and helped him with some simple welding for some woks at a local chinese takeaway and so I might be able to buy this bike off him for £10.

I'll update with a picture once I get my hands on one. I'm guessing it's a '97, and I'll post it on here for verification. It has a tiny spot of rust on the headtube but I'll give the bike a good do over, and make it spotless.

My question to you is, worth the tenner?

Thanks in advance,

Peck.

 

[djoptix]

If you're planning to build it up and sell it on I wouldn't bank on making much - the profit margin is bikes is minute.

If you're going to ride it, I would say it's worth £10 all day - if anything is dodgy on it, move parts over from your BSO, or get something from the helpful chaps on this forum.

 

[hamster]

As a bike to ride, you would be hard-pressed to beat it with anything costing less than £250 (and probably more than £300) new.

As said earlier, as a fixer-upper for profit then it's not got huge potential, but then none are!

 

[peck]

Yeah it's to ride. So from what you guys have just said, it's well worth it?
djoptix - I'm new to the forum, what's a BSO?

 

[JeRkY]

BSO = Bike Shaped Object the sort of thing sold by supermarkets or argos.

 

[peck]

Ahaa, thanks for that. But would anything from an Apollo actually be better than a Specialized? :?

 

[peck]

Also, I belive that Apollo is Halfords on bike brand.

 

[barry2017]

Believe me, "It's Halfords own brand" is no recommendation.

A bike called a Rockhopper could be anything from a bit better than a BSO to about £1000 worth. Whatever, it's worth a tenner.

So, let the dogs see the rabbit.

 

[peck]

No, my Apollo is the Bso they're talking about.
I'm buying a Hardrock '97 Specialized.

 

[djoptix]

I think means that the Hardrock model name was found on a very wide range of bikes, so it could be a base model or it could be pretty nice (and I think his writing "rockhopper" was a typo).

Here's someone else's Hardrock SS conversion:

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=63010