I just got a 1991 (I think that's the year) Specialized Hard Rock Cruz. I've decided to call her Cruz for short.

I actually got her 2 weeks ago, but it was the Thursday before I went backpacking last week. Tonight was my first chance to get acquainted with her. She was found as part of a police evidence bike sale by the city. The sales was supposed to be a couple weeks earlier, but they had to postpone due to weather. I work for the city, so I had already went out to the warehouse and looked at what bikes they had. I went there hoping to find an older steel mountain bike to make into a commuter bike. They had about 60 or 70 bikes, but once I found Cruz, I knew she was the one for me.

Here are a few pics of her. She's not real pretty right now. She has obviously been neglected a bit, but I can tell she has plenty of life left in her!

Here's a full body shot


Here is where she gets her name. You can also see the police evidence tag hanging from the seat.


Steel baby


Her drivetrain is pretty bad. I'll be replacing it.



There is quite a bit of rust, but nothing that looks terminal. The area around the head tube bearing races looks perfect. I'm going to be replacing the races themselves. The rest of the rust will get taken care of when I refinish the frame. Haven't decided on powder coat or paint yet, but I'm pretty sure I want to do matte black.




I think I got a deal on her.


I want to document her make-over in this thread, so consider these the "before" pictures. I know they aren't the greatest, but I'm planning to strip her down tonight and start prepping the frame this weekend. I to eager to get started to wait for daylight tomorrow, so I have to settle for pictures using a flash.

I was going to try and ride her to work at least once before I took her apart, but after a short test ride tonight, there is no way. The bottom bracket is loose, as is the rear hub. The front hub's bearings are shot. I already knew the brakes were sticking bad, so I have a set of V brakes coming in hopes I would be able to just swap those. Once the frame is redone, I will steal some parts from my current bike to get he up and running while I watch for deals on replacement parts. One of my goals is to rebuild Cruz for as little money as possible. I have the means to buy new parts, but there is an appeal to me in rebuilding her with recycled (ie used) parts. It is sort of an extension of the "green" part of bike commuting carried over to the bike itself. Of course the real reason is I'm saving up so I can buy a shiny new bike next year.

The main thing I was looking for to replace my current bike was a larger steel frame. I'm riding an aluminum Trek mtb right now that I've put on fenders, road tires, and one of those seat post racks with a trunk bag. Cruz also has the eyelets for a real rack that the Trek lacks. Once she is finished I can turn the Trek back into an off-road bike.

Anyway, here she is. I'm so excited to ride her, I hate that it will be at least a few weeks before I have time to get everything done on her!