Repacker
Specialized Fan
Current Models: 89 Comp, 92 Comp, 94, 95, 96 // Departed: 84, 89, 92, 93 FS, 95 M2, 96 Red, 96 Blue, 97 Teal, 2008 M5
Not having written a forum thread I thought I’d add one for my ‘final’ Stumpjumper build along with the whole story of my first year on Retrobike.
I started my retrobike journey around June 2021 when I looked on eBay – just to look and not buy – for the 1996 Red Stumpjumper, steel and rigid, I had back in the day. This was a life changing bike at the time and I rode it for 12 years with almost all parts changed multiple times before upgrading to an M5 Stumpjumper. Here it is just before I parted with it in 2008, looking odd to my eye now as I had it resprayed during my ownership and the decals were not as per the original model, despite having been obtained from the manufacturer. Just before I placed that old red frame up for sale in 2008 I noticed that a scratch in the paint was actually a cracked weld I’d ridden on for years. The lifetime warranty on these steel frames got me a replacement M5 frame. I certainly got my money’s worth out of that original bike.
In 2021, on looking at eBay and this forum I discovered that retro bikes were a thing and got drawn into trying to recreate that original bike.
I found a local 96 Indigo Blue thinking it was a 1995, never having seen nor known a blue 96 existed. The one I found had some original parts, but had also been upgraded to the parts of a 1996 A1 FS including RockShox Quadra 21 front suspension.
I looked for what seemed like a long time for matching or acceptable rigid forks. I like the simplicity, plus wanted what was on my original rigid red bike. I also didn’t want the uncertainty, lack of performance or added maintenance of 25+ year old forks. The original fork search was to prove harder than the bikes in many ways, though not helped by a lack of patience on my part. One solution was to buy a rusty 1998 Nitanium Rockhopper just for the forks, which I fitted to my Stumpjumper and rode for a while before respraying the forks to match the blue Stumpjumper frame. The respraying was a worthwhile learning exercise, but astonishingly expensive in terms of paint & time, just to paint the forks.
(1996 Indigo Blue, now parted out/sold on)
At the same time as discovering retrobikes, I was tempted to buy an older Stumpjumper model and build it up from scratch, so bought a 1992 Pink Stumpjumper Comp frame and forks, and set about collecting the parts. I also got a barn find silver 1993 Stumpjumper FS which supplied some parts for the Pink 92, before the remaining parts were sold on. It was hard to strip this 93 bike down, a complete original, but in the end the frame was too big for me – plus the 1993 Suspension forks were never going to fit in with my rigid outlook on such old technology, pun intended.
(1993 FS, now parted out / sold on)
A 1997 Teal Stumpjumper appeared on GumTree retrofitted with some Bomber forks. Something made me message the seller to see if they still had the original rigid forks. Amazingly they both replied and still had the forks, and 3 days later they’d sent me the forks so I had more rigid Stumpjumper forks, albeit the wrong colour and being from 1997 were without the mudguard eyelets. A few weeks later I found myself driving to Coventry to collect the rest of that Teal Stumpjumper, as temptation could not be ignored to complete a Stumpjumper by re-uniting the forks and the frame and near original part set. All this then needed was a saddle, pedals, front mech and bars to be correct spec, and this was all funded by the sale of the upgrade parts fitted.
(1997 Teal, now parted out/sold on)
Similarly a 1995 Blue Stumpjumper appeared on eBay around this time and whilst I had my eye solely on the forks, on driving to Badminton to collect it, I realised that this bike was near original – the only thing missing were the original Umma Gumma tyres – so again I couldn’t break it down. So now yet another full bike.......... and still no spare original forks for my Blue 1996.
I then came across an original wheelset including tyres, skewers and cassette for a 1992 Stumpjumper, the purple one, close enough for the 1992 Pink so bought these. The incorrect detail for the wheel/bike match is that the 1992 Pink would have had silver XT hubs, the 1992 Purple Frame Wheels had silver DX hubs - close enough after 29 years though. However one thing leads to another and my first time using AuctionWatch on Retrobikes showed a wheel-less original Purple 1992 Stumpjumper which I obtained a few weeks later to go with my wheels. Lots of fettling and a few parts later, this is a full original and fantastic bike to ride. All this needed to be catalogue correct was a seat clamp, stem & front brake.
By now I still hadn’t seen another Red 1996 for sale but had 6 other Stumpjumpers (Purple 92, Pink 92, Silver 93 FS, Blue 96, Blue 95, Teal 97). How did that happen so quickly? I was very proud of myself to resist a green 1994 that Once a hero was selling around this time. I had too many already (!) plus perhaps the green one for sale (love that colour) was too complete and already finished – much of the fun of fettling, collecting and sourcing the parts and building would have been missing.
Briefly under the delusion that it was time to stop and no more bikes were needed, or wanted, just 2 days later a Red 1996 appeared on eBay, for a mere £150 complete Buy It Now. I collected it a few weeks later on a trip to Coed Y Brenin and spent winter 2021/22 fettling after a few initial fun rides. I took a lot of parts off my 1996 Indigo Blue bike to build up the red to be original spec and complete. The blue frame has since been sold. The remaining spec correct parts needed were then just the saddle and tyres which have now been sourced.
These are all terrific bikes and I thoroughly enjoy riding them, they are robust and comfortable enough to ride all day, I did back to back 80 mile days in June on my 1996 one. I have almost all of the catalogue correct parts but store the delicate consumables instead of riding those, and always opt to take off gripshifts for thumb shifters too. Overall the bikes are preferable to my modern hard-tail. The extra riding skills needed and feel of the steel rigid bikes make the rides much more enjoyable and satisfying overall.
After the winter of fettling and some bikes and parts cleardowns, I also acquired a 1995 M2 Rigid which I have just managed to complete. This needed just saddle, tyres, brakes and chainset to be spec correct, but having the other Stumpjumpers meant I had many of the parts lying around.
I did find myself wondering what if anything could be next. The 6 or so bikes are different enough to have their own characteristics, and I have neither the room nor inclination to have all 40 years of Stumpjumpers. However when a 1984 Stumpjumper appeared a few months ago in York, I was lucky enough to acquire it and will slowly renovate that as much as I can. For now it feels like there is no need for any more.
And now to the “final” 1992 Pink Stumpjumper Comp which has just been completed.
I collected the parts for this over the period June to December 2021. There are a few discrepancies in the catalogues, indeed the English language US catalogue lists some differences to the German Catalogue, and the pictures are further different to what is spec’d too, which allows some licence in what a catalogue spec build can be.
I found the individual XT parts quite easily, though the Specialized cranks took longer. In the meantime I acquired XT 730 cranks and chainrings, which were never needed – eventually both a Specialized Flags and an "S" crankset appeared for sale. The catalogue pics show the Flags chainset, but all pics of original bikes I’ve seen have the Specialized “S” cranks. I went with the latter. The US catalogue lists the BX23 black rims, versus the X23 silver rims in the European catalogue, so again there is licence to use the BX rims I already have off my Purple 1992 and still be correct.
I fitted a new bottom bracket and headset, as like all my bikes this will be much ridden, and the original headset on the frame was quite well worn. The new cartridge bearing threaded headset, around £20, has been a great improvement.
Cabling and setting up the gears and brakes was an absolute joy and I got it “right first time”, in contrast to my 2021 Carbon Road bike which was being recabled alongside this. On that, I’m 4 weeks in and still haven’t fathomed it out, despite 6 internal cable swaps and multiple visits to YouTube. I hadn’t run thumbies before, but their simplicity make them very appealing. I have original XT thumbies and multiple DX sets, so have fitted DX ones for use as I can afford DX ones to get damaged, whilst keeping the XT ones for the catalogue spec.
I’ve set the bike up for pics with the DX hubs/ BX23 rims wheelset, the 1992 saddle, and pedals and toe clips, but it will be ridden with more expendable wheels, tyres and saddle.
Thanks to everyone on the forum who has contributed advice and help during all of these acquisitions and projects. And thanks for reading this far!
Not having written a forum thread I thought I’d add one for my ‘final’ Stumpjumper build along with the whole story of my first year on Retrobike.
I started my retrobike journey around June 2021 when I looked on eBay – just to look and not buy – for the 1996 Red Stumpjumper, steel and rigid, I had back in the day. This was a life changing bike at the time and I rode it for 12 years with almost all parts changed multiple times before upgrading to an M5 Stumpjumper. Here it is just before I parted with it in 2008, looking odd to my eye now as I had it resprayed during my ownership and the decals were not as per the original model, despite having been obtained from the manufacturer. Just before I placed that old red frame up for sale in 2008 I noticed that a scratch in the paint was actually a cracked weld I’d ridden on for years. The lifetime warranty on these steel frames got me a replacement M5 frame. I certainly got my money’s worth out of that original bike.
In 2021, on looking at eBay and this forum I discovered that retro bikes were a thing and got drawn into trying to recreate that original bike.
I found a local 96 Indigo Blue thinking it was a 1995, never having seen nor known a blue 96 existed. The one I found had some original parts, but had also been upgraded to the parts of a 1996 A1 FS including RockShox Quadra 21 front suspension.
I looked for what seemed like a long time for matching or acceptable rigid forks. I like the simplicity, plus wanted what was on my original rigid red bike. I also didn’t want the uncertainty, lack of performance or added maintenance of 25+ year old forks. The original fork search was to prove harder than the bikes in many ways, though not helped by a lack of patience on my part. One solution was to buy a rusty 1998 Nitanium Rockhopper just for the forks, which I fitted to my Stumpjumper and rode for a while before respraying the forks to match the blue Stumpjumper frame. The respraying was a worthwhile learning exercise, but astonishingly expensive in terms of paint & time, just to paint the forks.
(1996 Indigo Blue, now parted out/sold on)
At the same time as discovering retrobikes, I was tempted to buy an older Stumpjumper model and build it up from scratch, so bought a 1992 Pink Stumpjumper Comp frame and forks, and set about collecting the parts. I also got a barn find silver 1993 Stumpjumper FS which supplied some parts for the Pink 92, before the remaining parts were sold on. It was hard to strip this 93 bike down, a complete original, but in the end the frame was too big for me – plus the 1993 Suspension forks were never going to fit in with my rigid outlook on such old technology, pun intended.
(1993 FS, now parted out / sold on)
A 1997 Teal Stumpjumper appeared on GumTree retrofitted with some Bomber forks. Something made me message the seller to see if they still had the original rigid forks. Amazingly they both replied and still had the forks, and 3 days later they’d sent me the forks so I had more rigid Stumpjumper forks, albeit the wrong colour and being from 1997 were without the mudguard eyelets. A few weeks later I found myself driving to Coventry to collect the rest of that Teal Stumpjumper, as temptation could not be ignored to complete a Stumpjumper by re-uniting the forks and the frame and near original part set. All this then needed was a saddle, pedals, front mech and bars to be correct spec, and this was all funded by the sale of the upgrade parts fitted.
(1997 Teal, now parted out/sold on)
Similarly a 1995 Blue Stumpjumper appeared on eBay around this time and whilst I had my eye solely on the forks, on driving to Badminton to collect it, I realised that this bike was near original – the only thing missing were the original Umma Gumma tyres – so again I couldn’t break it down. So now yet another full bike.......... and still no spare original forks for my Blue 1996.
I then came across an original wheelset including tyres, skewers and cassette for a 1992 Stumpjumper, the purple one, close enough for the 1992 Pink so bought these. The incorrect detail for the wheel/bike match is that the 1992 Pink would have had silver XT hubs, the 1992 Purple Frame Wheels had silver DX hubs - close enough after 29 years though. However one thing leads to another and my first time using AuctionWatch on Retrobikes showed a wheel-less original Purple 1992 Stumpjumper which I obtained a few weeks later to go with my wheels. Lots of fettling and a few parts later, this is a full original and fantastic bike to ride. All this needed to be catalogue correct was a seat clamp, stem & front brake.
By now I still hadn’t seen another Red 1996 for sale but had 6 other Stumpjumpers (Purple 92, Pink 92, Silver 93 FS, Blue 96, Blue 95, Teal 97). How did that happen so quickly? I was very proud of myself to resist a green 1994 that Once a hero was selling around this time. I had too many already (!) plus perhaps the green one for sale (love that colour) was too complete and already finished – much of the fun of fettling, collecting and sourcing the parts and building would have been missing.
Briefly under the delusion that it was time to stop and no more bikes were needed, or wanted, just 2 days later a Red 1996 appeared on eBay, for a mere £150 complete Buy It Now. I collected it a few weeks later on a trip to Coed Y Brenin and spent winter 2021/22 fettling after a few initial fun rides. I took a lot of parts off my 1996 Indigo Blue bike to build up the red to be original spec and complete. The blue frame has since been sold. The remaining spec correct parts needed were then just the saddle and tyres which have now been sourced.
These are all terrific bikes and I thoroughly enjoy riding them, they are robust and comfortable enough to ride all day, I did back to back 80 mile days in June on my 1996 one. I have almost all of the catalogue correct parts but store the delicate consumables instead of riding those, and always opt to take off gripshifts for thumb shifters too. Overall the bikes are preferable to my modern hard-tail. The extra riding skills needed and feel of the steel rigid bikes make the rides much more enjoyable and satisfying overall.
After the winter of fettling and some bikes and parts cleardowns, I also acquired a 1995 M2 Rigid which I have just managed to complete. This needed just saddle, tyres, brakes and chainset to be spec correct, but having the other Stumpjumpers meant I had many of the parts lying around.
I did find myself wondering what if anything could be next. The 6 or so bikes are different enough to have their own characteristics, and I have neither the room nor inclination to have all 40 years of Stumpjumpers. However when a 1984 Stumpjumper appeared a few months ago in York, I was lucky enough to acquire it and will slowly renovate that as much as I can. For now it feels like there is no need for any more.
And now to the “final” 1992 Pink Stumpjumper Comp which has just been completed.
I collected the parts for this over the period June to December 2021. There are a few discrepancies in the catalogues, indeed the English language US catalogue lists some differences to the German Catalogue, and the pictures are further different to what is spec’d too, which allows some licence in what a catalogue spec build can be.
I found the individual XT parts quite easily, though the Specialized cranks took longer. In the meantime I acquired XT 730 cranks and chainrings, which were never needed – eventually both a Specialized Flags and an "S" crankset appeared for sale. The catalogue pics show the Flags chainset, but all pics of original bikes I’ve seen have the Specialized “S” cranks. I went with the latter. The US catalogue lists the BX23 black rims, versus the X23 silver rims in the European catalogue, so again there is licence to use the BX rims I already have off my Purple 1992 and still be correct.
I fitted a new bottom bracket and headset, as like all my bikes this will be much ridden, and the original headset on the frame was quite well worn. The new cartridge bearing threaded headset, around £20, has been a great improvement.
Cabling and setting up the gears and brakes was an absolute joy and I got it “right first time”, in contrast to my 2021 Carbon Road bike which was being recabled alongside this. On that, I’m 4 weeks in and still haven’t fathomed it out, despite 6 internal cable swaps and multiple visits to YouTube. I hadn’t run thumbies before, but their simplicity make them very appealing. I have original XT thumbies and multiple DX sets, so have fitted DX ones for use as I can afford DX ones to get damaged, whilst keeping the XT ones for the catalogue spec.
I’ve set the bike up for pics with the DX hubs/ BX23 rims wheelset, the 1992 saddle, and pedals and toe clips, but it will be ridden with more expendable wheels, tyres and saddle.
Thanks to everyone on the forum who has contributed advice and help during all of these acquisitions and projects. And thanks for reading this far!
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