illdthedj

yah to each their own.
my rockhopper is what it is, a relatively cheapie beginning MTB bike for newbie trail riding, and a bit of nostalgic sentimentality from my days riding around on one as a kid.

the only thing XT on my bike is the crank, and i splurged on that mainly because i thought they looked badass lol
another thing older rigid rockhoppers have: aesthetics...i totally dig the cheesy early 90's "rockhopper" font lol...plus i just like the looks of older mountain bikes lol i dunno

craigcraigcraig

Totally, rockhopper has the best graphics of all mountain bikes besides klein (can't be beat).

Drummerboy1975

This is why I ride an old steel Rockhopper.

adriano 

https://www.pinkbike.com/v/243228

adriano 

that said, all my jawns are steel.

hailandkill

threw on a 130mm 10 degree thomson x2. feels goooood. still need to chop the steerer off

illdthedj

lol @ "swing a carbon frame into a concrete block" test

craigcraigcraig

lol right now I ride aluminum but prefer steel.

adriano 

it is a bit scary that you can hear fibers crackling at 900 pounds yet the frame looks fine.

Submison

talk to me about the sram derailleur/campy shifters. was zinn full of crap? or does this work fantastically?

cobrabyte

Here's another old Rockhopper, from 1984. It has full Shimano Doere XT 'Deerhead'. TIG welded made from nice double butted cro-mo steel. I have a set of WTB dirtdrop bars, aero brake levers, barcons and 26x1.5" gumwall tires I'll be adding soon, as well as a sprung Brooks flyer saddle. To me, the appeal of these old MTB is they make great commuters, and
You can ride them anywhere in the world. 26" is the world's most common tire size
There is less to go wrong, or tinker with
They're cheap (I got this one for $50)
Not all MTB is technical, some people tour on mountain bikes, across all kinds of trails and roads. Lots of old MTB are basically beefy 26" touring bikes.


1984 Specialized Rockhopper by (cobrabyte), on Flickr

cobrabyte

another one of my geared bikes; 1978 Holdsworth Professional (cross post from C&V)


1978 Holdsworth Professional by (cobrabyte), on Flickr

illdthedj

thats pretty awesome.
as a thank-you present to my father in law for the upcoming wedding and his daughters' hand i built him up a 25th anniversary Stumpjumper frame, a reissue of the very first stumpjumper...your rockhopper totally reminds me of it. although i was a little less period-correct with the components...(btw awesome on the full deerhead components)


for some reason i only have incomplete build pics on flickr right now of the 2 mtb bikes i built...but anywho i built him that stumpjumper up very similarly to your rockhopper.

hes older, and the old centurion road bike he had is way too agressive of a position for him to ride in (bad shoulder)...the stumpjumper i built is way more upright of a position. he just had a knee replacement, and apparently riding the stumpjumper a whole lot and enjoying it pain free!!

anywho...yah old steel frame MTB bikes are cool in my book

osiris419

My Allez Sport. All stock except for the Eggbeaters.
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homebrewk

Gotta love Tiagra!

tombc

craigcraigcraig: I didn't think there was anything I could even say to that. It was just ridiculous on so many levels. Here's a contribution though:



30lbs with a lock in the bag. Bottle is empty
Fancier wheels are probably in this thing's future, I'd like a dyno light. For now I'm gonna just try and log some miles.

The positioning is wack though, I can't get totally comfortable. Gonna raise the stem more I suppose, but it's frustrating that with a 9cm stem the reach still seems to far. Smaller frame would jack the seat and stem up even higher, and a larger frame would require a tiny stem. Gonna change the bars to something more traditional though too, maybe those ergo ones just don't work all that well without a race position.

craigcraigcraig

How so?

nice ride.

hairnet

Looks pretty cool. This looks like something fun to do if I build another roadie because I love the feel of Campy shifters

You mean Sora

homebrewk

oops. ///derp

tombc

You demonstrated ignorance of the way the bike industry works, that is most improvements being more selling features than necessities (why do bikes have splined bottom brackets? etc). You made it sound like you had no idea how a bike worked, like V brakes would be unable to stop you compared to disks, You implied that riding anything less than a brand new mountain bike is impossible to enjoy. You also ragged on the guy for riding a bike that he seemed to already own. And made it clear that the only point in mountain biking is to ride your bike to the extreme, which any sane person would know is not true.

You don't seem to be as stupid as I thought, but a clever man would have taken a mulligan. I'm over this though. Thanks for the compliment!

cobrabyte

Looks like you made some good componant choices on the Stumpjumper. That's an amazing gift. The Rockhopper was the 'poor mans' Stumpjumper I think 1984 was the first year for the Rockhopper. The Stumpjumper yours is based from came out in '81. Did you score some bullhorn bars for it? I've also got a Canadian made Renegade ATB that actually reminds me more of the Stumpjumper than my Rockhopper:

Renegade Porteur by (cobrabyte), on Flickr

cobrabyte

Maybe try a dirt drop stem that Nitto makes. It's made for just that thing, too long reach.

mazdaspeed

Yeah I'm sure that's why and it's not the fact that you can't afford a carbon s-works so you ride an old cheap MTB, right bro

mazdaspeed

There is no appeal if you want to actually use one as a mountain bike. Old mountain bikes make good winter / city beaters though.

northbend 

New fork, old bike. Rides real nice