[current pic coming soon when I get $ for film] SPECS: Fixed gear mountainbike
BARS: junk find steel flat mtb, clipped
GRIPS: oury mtb red
BRAKE LEVER: junk find black mtb
BRAKE: stock front cantilever
SEATPOST: junk find
SEAT: San Marco (swapping to Bontrager?)
BOTTLE CAGE: Profile plastic junk find
CRANKS: road vx off of old Bianchi
CHAINRING: Engagement 36t
COG: 16t Surly
RIMS: Surly dbls s/s rear w/ Mavic rim; Front off Trek 4500
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
___________
What is that?
26" do-it-all? Sport utility bike? Kick @ss konversion? Woodland assault vehicle? Understandable questions.
"What kinda bike is that?" asks one local as I park this thing in front of the Dunkin Donuts to grab a cup o' joe after emerging from the woods. "New bike?" asks a perplexed coworker. The questions are understandable. A mountainbike frame with no shifters, one gear, one brake, and fairly good coverage of mud splatter invites such questions. I could've been a wise@ss and told him it was a UFO that had strayed from the test facility at Area 51, or a prototype of the new Mars Rover which NASA had contracted me to test in exchange for a lifetime hookup to the Sci-Fi channel and therefore unlimited X-Files reruns featuring [lovelorn sigh!] Dana Scully. ;) Instead I told him it was the ultimate mountainbike bike. I guess that's as good as any answer.
This was a good find I got on 10/23/04. It began life as a Specialized Hardrock from the 1990s. An inquiry to the good folks at Oldroads.com [www.oldroads.com] on the Vintage Lightweights forum got me some hints, it seems the original specs of this bike put it at a probable 1997 manufacture.
Specialized was the first company to produce an affordable production mountain bike in the 1980's. The Hardrock is the basic model in Specialized's mountainbike line, the "entry-level" bike.
This particular one was in mint condition
The bike handles well, considering its age, no surprise as it looked as if it came outa a time capsule when I got it. The maroon paint was immaculate tho it now sports a few chips; the frame has dual water bottle mountings and the seatstays are drilled and fitted with mountings for a rack. The fork and rear dropouts both have dual eyelets, which would permit the mounting of both a rack and fenders. The old-style cantilever brakes still shine with the look of polished aluminum and the gears shift flawlessly; my removal of the "gripe-shift" was a success. The addition of clipless pedals and a real road seat comnbined with the new stem and old road bars have totally transformed the bike, from a "cruising around" steed to a bicycle suitable for off-road or on road use.
Most people shun rigid frames these days, and few makers still produce steel framed mountainbikes. Those who do use fugly oversize tubes, and while these are claimed to enhance the ride, they are.... well ....fugly. The Specialized is in many ways the last of an extinct breed. It's likely 1997 date of manufacture puts it at a time when even front suspension ["hardtails"] were being replaced in the industry by full suspension designs with ever more technogadgetry. A year or so later a mountain biking magazine referred to front-only suspension as "boring". But there is a simplicity to rigid, steel-framed mountainbikes that fat aluminum tubing and techno-shocks can't compare with. Which I why I chose this for my all around fixed gear mtb after first building my Trek 4500 mtb into a fix.
Sure, the bike isn't as easy on a rough trail. And you wouldn't do any serious, boulder-strewn technical rides on it. But then, there aren't many man-sized boulders 'round here.
It rides great, has no need of expensive servicng on the shocks because there are none, and can be ridden on the road as well as the dirt because without shocks there is no energy-sapping "bob" in the ride. The 36x16 gearing is a bit steep for offroad but a 18t cog should give the same chain tension and a better 2-1 gear ratio... so that might be in it's future. Still, the 36x16 makes it a true "all terrain bicycle" -- it can do dirt, pavement, grass, all with a bare basic functionality that shock equipped bikes can't without some compromise. Yeah, a road bike is faster. But this is adequate and once you hit the dirt it is pretty neat.
Prior to this it was built up as a fixed gear using 700c rims and cross tires, which was pictures on the awesome fixed gear gallery site (www.fixedgeargallery.com) When I took the fixed rear wheel for another project, it became a 26" wheeled dirt tourer, with drop bars, a single front chainring, and only the back gears. Then it lay dormant in my garage for a long time....
Now it replaces my old Centurion frame as my offroad fixed.
To a nonbeliever in rigid mtb frames, lemme as you: Yeah, riding over boulders would break it. But why ride over boulders? Back in the day rigid was enough; we focussed on the ride. Is the over-emphasis on the kit of today's offroad bikes and suspensions worth the shift of focus from the experience of riding to gadgetry? I admit I have lusted after such bikes. But ... if you can do without the artifices of suspension, shouldn't you do so? This is the same mentality that has made many including myself dabble in fixed gear road bikes -- less can give you more. It sounds like a cliche but it is true.
I have ridden rigid frame mtb's forever, and my favorite riverside trails [my swamp, I call it -- Patty says she thinks its funny and likens me to "Shrek"] are passable on a rigid frame, even with tree roots and ruts.
Any ride is probably easier on a $3,000 unobtainium dual suspension mountain bike.
But if you wanted easy, you wouldn't be bicycling in the first place, you'd be behind the wheel of a nice heated luxury SUV.
Bicycling ain't about easy, it is about fun. And that's what these ol' rigid frame bikes are; simple, cheap, untainted fun.
Back in January of '05, taking that hard fun to the next hardcore level, i converted the Specialized to a fixed gear offroader, running 39x18 with a bmx 1/8 inch chain and a halflink for chain tension. Front brake is a centrepull activated by a 'cross lever; 
After that, I thru the 26"ers back on, before stripping it down and converting it to it's current fixed gear mtb state.
Back...