Recent content by FSXStumpy

Right. So, some photos (shot at night, in fog, on my back deck... Not the best, but not bad...) As received, haven't done anything but look at it yet. Pretty damned clean TBH. Any thoughts on precise model/year would be appreciated. Same with thoughts on a replacement ND...

Heh. It's the first one to actually come my way like this.... Was given to a local bike share program (which fixes'em up for low income families), but with this bike's issues (cracked crank, fork in need of maintenance), it's not well suited to the program. It found a better home, with hope...

I have no idea what model it is, the only decal on the machine is the head badge (scull/crossbones/D-C). It's an aluminum hard tail with moderately oversized tubing, a machined headtube, machined dropouts - Quite pretty in its way... The only other mark on it is a serial #, perhaps 5 digits...

Hmmmm Interesting... Not very familiar with this brand. A friend recently gave me an interesting XC race bike. A Cove (Vancouver based builder, still exists) hardtail, looks like about 18" frame, tricked out with XT/XTR mix, Avid SD 1.9 levers, Red RaceFace forged cranks (broken non-drive...

I built this one on the weekend.... From an old hot water baseboard system's expansion tank (originally 12" x 36", now 12" x 22") and some scraps around the house. Gonna carry it out to the log cabin I'm building in the woods a few km from home... A destination for winter hiking. Took 2 days...

Wait for a truing stand??? Blasphemy! You've presumably got the frame and fork they're destined for, and a few zip ties will make'em good working truing stands, like this: Have at'em! Wheelbuilding's fun and rewarding. J

Me, the answer's in the screenname. I like Specialized's air/oil FSX fork. To me, its only drawback is the lack of a negative spring, and the relatively frequent need to replace the 2 orings on each leg. Cheap, but somewhat time consuming. I've found them to be durable (22 years old now...)...

My first decent mountain bike was a '94 Hardrock FS, and it did well filling my need for a useable bike on a budget. Did my first group rides, commuted year 'round, my first lift serviced DH day on it. Pretty sure it's still in my childhood home's basement. My now wife bought a '97 Hardrock...

Re: 25 years.............. What's new? I was about to step up to more capable bikes, after bashing around for about 6 years on my Raleigh Bighorn thru Jr. high and High school. I'd ridden it to death, broken every part on it (except the front axle) in its time, warrantied the frame 1x and the...

Don't aim for the topmost groupsets and bits... Aim 1 or 2 levels below - The top spec kit is often ultra-lightweight, sacrificing everything for raceday. A level below, XT rather than XTR, for instance, gives you all the function of the top kit with just a bit more meat for durability. Then...

Last year on my '95 Stumpy M2: 3 freehub bodies - Broke the inner body at the main bearing race threads on all three. I should jump less. Wore thru the Mavic 238's. Rebuilt with Sun 0degree's and new spokes. Otherwise, my wife bent her front axle and her Judy J1 lowers on her '97 Hardrock...

That's too bad to hear of this in the UK. On the Canadian East Coast, XC races are seeing very good turn-outs. Race fees are inexpensive. Our local race was held on a wet and rainy day. We had 15 under-15 racers, and 40 adult racers. My 9 year old daughter raced her first race, and finished...

The Hardrock, Rockhopper and Stumpjumpers were the meat and potatoes of Specialized's offerings in the '90's. Hardrocks were offered as entry level mountain bikes, typically with low end components, cro-mo frames. Serviceable, but generally nothing special. Aluminum alloy frames were added to...

Good tip. I swipe a skim of grease on skewers each time the hub is serviced. Learned the hard way many moons ago. J

With the dust wiper, it's possible that the rubber has shrunken a touch and it doesn't fit as well as it should. A few ways to address that: 1: First, be sure the recess it presses into is very clean, oil free. Press it in. Then, use a hypo or similar to put a bit of shock oil under the...