Specialized Hardrock Ultra Antipodean Adventurer

So I suppose this is how it started - a 100-mile overnighter along the Clutha River in New Zealand. I already have an Inbred 29er for bikepacking/XC duties but my partner had to borrow that rather lovely and otherwise barely-used Yeti ARC she's riding in the picture, so I've decided to build up a bike for her birthday (annoyingly the ARC got sold for a decent price, which I would've happily paid for it... but it's not the best bike for touring anyway... or is that just sour grapes).

Anyway, I was about to buy another Inbred, but I spotted this Specialized Hardrock Ultra at my local anarcho-hippy community bicycle workshop (everyone should have one of these, perfect for finding retro bits)... it's got a cromo fork and presumably a cromo frame under those stickers, and it's the right size, so I've gone for it - the best bit is that everything there is free, so long as you help someone else fix their bike/donate parts/donate beer. I suppose if she gets into mountain-biking, then this can get relegated to commuting duties, but for gentle XC and riverside/rail-trail/dirt road rides it'll be just the ticket.

So here it is, looking a bit shabby and covered in anarcho-hippy stickers, but the rust is entirely cosmetic. I noticed it has those weird 'used to be a horizontal dropout but marketing didn't like it so we filled a bit of it in' dropouts - so I took a hacksaw to the additional metal to turn them back into horizontals, foreseeing that it'll be a singlespeed at some point.


Does anyone know what year it is, what size seatpost it takes (looks like 26.8 but I didn't have a vernier gauge with me), and what the tyre clearance is like?

Re: Specialized Hardrock Antipodean Adventurer - what year?

It's a 1995 Specialized HardRock Sport GX and the seatpost is 26.6mm.

Re:

Hmm, googling that reveals some very similar (or perhaps identical) frames but with hi-ten forks - this one has an original Specialized sticker saying it's got a cromo fork... perhaps it's a model up, or possibly a non-original fork.

Anyway, here's a motley collection of scrounged parts - a Shimano Tourney RH crank arm, a non-matching Shimano forged LH crank arm, an unused biopace chainring (only one sadly... singlespeed it is, until she decides whether she likes the frame or not) and some ugly 25.4 riser bars. Now there's a media blaster at work and I've been playing around getting some half-decent results using large glass beads at low pressure - sort of halfway between satin and polished. So I think this is what I will be using from now on, unless I really want a mirror finish - it's much more fun than wire-wool!

(apologies for crap photo and ugly carpet)

Also in the post are:
Ritchey cromo quill stem
Ritchey bar ends, the handsome black ones
Deore V-brake set F&R
1" threaded headset, silver - these are astonishingly hard to find in NZ, despite working (one Saturday a fortnight as a favour, and also for the discount) at a mate's bike shop, I could only find two threaded headsets that weren't dogshit quality (one of the two was a Chris King... I got the other one)
Surly cassette sprocket
Charge Spoon, black
Various other boring bits

I have a set of 26" wheels - Shimano hubs but Araya single-wall rims. I'll rebuilt 'em with tubeless rims once they get trashed. Other than that, I just need tyres and a seatpost and then build the thing.

Re: Specialized Hardrock Ultra Antipodean Adventurer- what year?

So the frame's 'Offroad CRMO SFS Tubing'; the fork says 'DD (I presume this stands for 'Direct Drive' which is also stickered on the frame) Double-Butted CRMO'. Also it's an Ultra! What does that mean then?

Had a productive day today - handy having a friend who owns a bike shop.



Cleaned and polished the frame up and fitted everything bar the seatpost and tyres, all of which are on their way. I also picked up a WTB saddle for nothing, which was nice. The cabling is for cantis rather than Vs, so I drilled out the rear brake cable stop to make it into a cable guide - not a big deal on a cheap frame. The risers bars wouldn't fit through the Ritchey stem since it has a wide clamp, so I had to fit the flat bars seen here.

Also rebuilt the hubs and trued/tensioned the wheels up - a fun job. Rims are Araya single-wall, but Exage 36h hubs might be useful in the future (if we keep the frame, that is, otherwise discs all the way). 2.1 tyres fit nicely, could even go 2.2 on the front but I got a pair of 2.1 Maxxis Crossmarks on the cheap.

Singlespeed biopace is fun. I have done it on a commuter before, never something off-road. The chain tension does vary a bit but I couldn't derail the chain by hand so I think we're in business - if not I have a spare Surly Singleator for a belt-and-braces approach.

They always look a bit weird without tyres. I would prefer a black crankset, headset, and rims but beggars can't be choosers. The pedals are horrendous! Otherwise I'm pleased with the way it's progressing.