I spotted this 90s Hard Rock Sport at Goodwill today.

it had flat tires and the chain was off the sprockets. I have been looking around for a Cromoly 90s hardtail with rigid fork for awhile.

i took a chance @ $50. Turns out both tubes hold air and the tires look good. I got the chain back on, relubed it and ran through all the gears. The shifters and derailleurs work perfect…brakes too.

From the looks of the bike I don’t think it had much use, and was probably kept indoors. The paint looks great. The pic was taken after I wiped it down.

We are moving to Utah in May, so this will be great. I don’t intend on serious mountain biking. I just wanted a decent bullet proof commuter.

That looks a lot like my wife’s ‘96 step-through so it may be the same vintage. I converted hers to 8 speed and trigger shift along the way but the rest of the running gear looks similar to yours. It has indeed been bulletproof.

Two from the Salvage pile

A friend of mine has a salvage agreement with a local college. He takes all of the bikes they collect from campus in the spring that are left behind and do not sell over the summer/fall. This is usually upward of 100 bikes (many flatbed trailers full), 90% of which are straight scrap. 10% of which are good for parts or resale (he deals mostly in hybrids and mountain bikes) and a few of which are road bikes that might be worth saving (he has no market for the road bikes, so I get first dibs).

Here are two of those that I gave up about $80 in total for (a good day's work, I think).

1984 Trek 620 - with pretty much original equipment except the swap of the simplex downtube shift levers for SunTour bar cons (a desirable and logical swap, I would say)- I will likely keep this one






2006 Cannondale Bent - with upgraded RD and FD, it needs a new left grip shift, not because it doesn't work, but because it turned to goo - I will likely tune up and sell this one

I usually look at the scrap metal pile at our local dump and today came away with this...
A BSA Tour of Britian Sports. Very rough looking but not bent, just dirty and has "patina"
Badly faded tubing sticker says Reynolds 531, matres saddle not original.
I might fit some wheels and get it rideable before seeing what to do. I swoon when seeing nice lugs....

Those are swoon-inducing lugs! I might want to strip it down to bare metal and get a closer look for deep rust or cracks since it looks to have been severely neglected and disrespected. I would first take many detailed photos of whatever is left of the decals so they could be recreated. The possibilities of two-color paint jobs with those lugs would be hard for me to resist if the frame is sound. Good luck!

Local online listing. Too small for me and it uses that weird SunTour rear derailleur that mounts to the underside of the chainstay.

Bought it for the almost complete Deore 9 speed components. Thought the wheels were better than they are. Maybe they’ll be ok…





Certainly worth the $40 I paid…

That is an unbelievable score!!

Free Scrap Metal Pile in front of the neighbors house

Most of a very rusty Univega Rover Sport. Grabbed mainly for the thumb shifters. Dragged it home put it on the stand and hit it with the Kroil

At the curb with a metal table. Bike is a Stolen brand, lol. Already have a bmx guy working a trade...

The local community free-cycle event yielded 4 bikes this morning. A 26" Huffy 15 spd organ donor that was crushed between a car and a garage wall, two Trek MT220s that need some serious life breathed into them, and a Bianchi 26" mountain bike that has possibilities. I grabbed the seatpost, grips, stem, and cable housings from the Huffy and will use those parts for the others.

$15 at a local auction, luckily nothing was stuck or broke.

Driving to look at a garden, wife exclaims - hey there was a free bike sign on the trailer we just passed. Reversed, parked, and this is what we found - wife has a great eye!


Early Nishiki Pro? Twin plate crown, Chrome lugs, Campagnolo bits.

Reynolds 753!

I did find a couple of interesting things. Vitus franken build, and a frame ‘Revolution’. The frame looks like a fun repaint, I already have primer.


The vitus picture is not playing friendly. It took a few tries.

Facebook marketplace curb alert 10 mins away, 87 Schwinn Prelude with metallic-ish ice pink paint. All original except for the seat, tires, bar tape etc. Rides great, all it needed was a good cleaning.

At the local scrapyard:

On top of the breakage pile, but it has some fairly nice parts so it may be just a parts bike and not a rebuild.
It looks like some Deore equipment so maybe a good catch. Smiles, MH

I scored a Giant Yukon SE 19", Trek Adventure 200 14.5", and Schwinn 24" mountain bike. The Trek will clean up well and shouldn't need many parts. The Boulder is a great 1x candidate. The Schwinn's fate has yet to be determined but looks likely an organ donor for the pair of Trek 220s I have in the garage.

I am not sure what this mongrel is that I brought home from the scrapyard. It has some of the looks of a GT, which would explain the equipment on this frame. Here are few pictures after it got home showing some of the parts. I would be interested in figuring out what I have gotten my hands on. I doubt a new thread is in order but lemme know what you think about this BSO. Smiles, MH

Interesting stem and bar set up. With a kinda pricey headset.

I guess these are Multi pull brake levers with indexed shift levers. Not sure which model they might be.

Deore XT derailleurs and pretty nice wheels.

These are Deore LX hubs with 3x lacing on the back and radial on the front. Makes me think it never spent much time off road.
There is enough here to rebuild it, but I am not sure about what I would do with it. Lemme know what I should do with this mongrel. Smiles, MH

The V-brake levers are LX as well, the same model was sold for BMX as the DX and painted red/black.

Probably a GT avalanche or some other mid tier model. I had an avalanche at one point, but am not super good at GT models. People over at retrobike would likely figure it out pretty fast.

I’d put a rigid fork on it and clean up that cockpit with a Nitto albatross or choco bar. Or just part it out lol.

Man, that baby deserves a full restore. Beautiful lugs!!

I agree, this looks like it would be a great project. H Lloyd has the decals and even a metal head badge BSA headbadge , BSA Tour of Britain decal

Organ donor? Those components looks like they are salvagable. Wheelset looks decent too. Any more pics of the entire bike? I see the telltale GT triple triangle...

For the Mongrel:

See if it has spark, empty the tank and add gas; oh, wrong thread.
Clean, lube and see if it can be resurrected without too much trouble and take it to your nearest coop. They always need these bikes.

I am, unfortunately, needing to move out of the acquisition phase of my life or I would be trying to find a vintage GT myself to restomod. I love the look of them. So it’s fun and a lot less expensive for me to say what I would do to this one if I were you. 😀

I’d try to figure out which model it is so I could buy or make replacement decals for it. Then I’d strip it and paint it a color I’ve been wishing I had on a bike. (Part of the fun of this for me is imagining a future owner thinking they have the year and model figured out but the color is all wrong.)

I’d try to clean, lube, polish and reuse the wheels, brakes, derailleurs, crankset, levers, shifters, cassette/freewheel, and pedals (if they are not gashed from crashes).

If the fork isn’t rebuildable, I’d try to find one that is at my local community bike shop or buy a new or used rebuildable replacement online. I could also see myself using a rigid fork if replacing and/or rebuilding the suspended one started looking like too big or expensive of a proposition.

I’d replace the things that rot or wear out: tires, tubes, chain, brake shoes, grips, cables, housings. I’d probably put on a set of Continental Double Fighters that I have hanging around.

I’d use a stem, modern MTB saddle, and wide-ish bar that make it a comfortable fit for me. (I’d probably try to make the slingshot stem I have in a bin work on it.)

I’m loving my—I mean your—new bike already! 😂

daywood ,
You just made a big mistake! This bicycle shaped object can be on it's way to you for all of those improvements, and saving me a bunch of work. Now I need to know where to send it...
It appears to be some variant of a Zaskar model and they came in bare aluminum frames.
Smiles, MH