Classic 1994 Specialized HardRock MTB/Trail Bike Rebuild

First off, I had no idea it had basically been a year since my last post. I’ve had some bike projects but apparently I haven’t been posting about them. Hopefully you follow me on Twitter and/or Instagram so you’ve seen my various exploits over there.

Anyway, a friend had this 1994 Specialized HardRock sitting in her garage or various storage places for the last 20+ years. She said it hadn’t probably been ridden since the late 90’s. If I wanted it, I could take it…so I did. Free bikes are the best bikes. Here’s what I got…

Classic mid-90’s MTB right there. The bar ends. The grips shifters. Quick release everything. Typical chromoly frame & fork, just like my Trek 820 was. I actually was amused that about 2 years after selling my Trek to someone who gave it the sexy rebuild treatment that I was now in possession of basically the same thing, ready to do the same thing. I did some searching around the internet and especially Instagram to get some inspiration for the direction I wanted to go with this rebuild. Needless to say I found some great stuff.

As usual I’ll take you through the tear down, the rebuild, and final pics will be at the end. I had a lot of fun with this one – probably the biggest rebuild I’ve done yet.

The first task was teardown; I knew I didn’t want to use hardly any of the existing parts. There’s nothing wrong with a 3×7 drivetrain or classic parts, but it wouldn’t be compatible with my vision. I wanted to upgrade to a 1×9 drivetrain – which of course means new wheels & hubs. Grip shifters were neat in the 90’s, but modern trigger shifters are just easier. Plus I wanted to rock a new wide handlebar with some shiny grips – and ditch the bar ends. Oh, and that classic MTB stem is just…ugly. I’ll say though, taking apart a bike is sometimes just as gratifying as putting one together.

But, that’s not to say the components weren’t nice enough to get a 2nd life with someone else’s project. I kept everything else and am selling or swapping with whoever needs them. Here’s a gallery below for a closer look at some of the classic parts:

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-Sakae XR100 Triple crankset
-Shimano Altus C50 front derailleur
-Shimano Alivio 7 speed rear derailleur
-7 Speed cassette 11-28t
-Shimano Cantilever brakes & levels
-Old ass tires & tubes
-Specialized branded grip shifts
-Standard aluminum MTB flat bar & bar ends

I considered reusing the bottom bracket, however it turned out to not be the correct size. It’s a standard 68mm threaded BB shell, but the classic cup & cone model had a 120mm asymmetric spindle that was the wrong length for the crank I had in mind. But the shell needed to be cleaned and prepped for a new properly sized BB, so out it all came. Pics below:

Aside from the seatpost and the saddle (which most people will switch to something they want anyway), the only other original parts are the headset, well, and the brake cantilevers. The headset was in almost new condition – I thought about getting a brand new 1″ threaded model but honestly this one was in such good shape it didn’t seem like a needed expense. It just needed to be cleaned, and regreased! Gallery with captions below – click to view full size….

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Most of the old parts polished up pretty well – which wasn’t a big surprised seeing as how it hadn’t been ridden a lot during its heyday, and then again not for the last 20 years. The handlebar had considerable scratches from being inserted into the stem, and some regular wear and tear. The stem also had some decent scratches – but since these particular components have modern counterparts (in general) that are far superior and desirable I don’t foresee a lot of need for them.

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I already sold the wheels, but everything else is still available if you’re interested! Just contact me.

Now it was time for the new stuff to start rolling in. Each time a package showed up I was more and more excited because I could slowly see the final product coming together in my head. I had seen a bunch of modern rebuilds of classic MTB frames on Instagram and they looked awesome. So, I knew that’s what I wanted to do – give this classic frame new life with new parts. I spent about a week doing some research online and checking out different brands, build ideas, and what would fit & work. I have some brands I really love so I made an effort to use them as much as I could. I also knew I couldn’t afford any Shimano or SRAM groupsets so I had to look elsewhere. In the end, I decided on a mix of Microshift, RaceFace, and Salsa components. Some I ordered on Amazon, some direct from the manufacturer, and the rest through my local bike shops. Remember to always support your local shops! Honestly, in today’s bike-shortage climate I was pleasantly surprised I was able to get my hands on everything so quickly. I think prices were a little higher than usual though.

Here’s how things looked as they began to roll in….

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Here’s the spread laid out before I started putting things together. I snagged some Jagwire brake & shift cables with housing from my local shop, and a Profile Design threaded-to-threadless stem converter because I was planning on going with a modern cockpit but the fork & headset are a classic 1″ threaded.

Like most bike builds, the big parts go on pretty quickly. The hard part comes when you get to adjusting all the cables. I neglected to take a lot of photos of the assembly unfortunately, but I’ve got a few below. Like I said it all went together pretty easy. Remember, clicking images gives you full size if you’re interested in details…

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For anyone else looking to convert an older frame into a more modern machine, don’t be discouraged by the difference in threaded and threadless headsets. There are several adapters out there, but I prefer 2 specific ones: a Profile Design one that can be found for fairly cheap on Amazon, and the Innicycle which is a much higher end and more complete adapter because it includes headset cups as well. Everything is designed to work with the current 1″ threaded fork found on older frames.

You’ll notice above I went the less expensive route and used the simple adapter. The length of the adapter didn’t allow me to snug the clamp area right up to the headset locknut. I could have cut it down like I’ve done before, but I decided to leave this a taller stem in general since this is a MTB and aero doesn’t matter. It also makes it easier for different people to ride it. So, I had some spacers sitting in my parts bin to hide the exposed part of the adapter. It’s not a perfect transition from the old-style locknut to the spacers, but it’s pretty clean. Notice I also stuck in the cable hanger – this was necessary because the original stem had the hanger built in (in went right through it!!). So, I needed it for the brakes to work properly.

I didn’t get any pics of putting the grips, shifter, and cables on – but I guess it’s not a big deal since the final product shows that well enough.

Same goes for the wheels & tires. I upgraded the tires to 26×2.1″ and they look badass on the new set of Weinmann wheels. Remember, I needed a new wheelset because I was upgrading to a 9 speed hub. Didn’t go tubeless here, either.

I ran into some issues getting the rear derailleur properly cabled – it took a lot of fine tuning with the barrel adjusters and the limit screws, but I got there eventually.

I was very happy I had to the idea to outfit the bike with as many splashes of red as I could to match the decals on the frame. My original plan was to have all red cable housing, but my shop didn’t have any brake housing in red so I had to stick with black. However, I think it worked out for the best because the single splash of red for the shift housing gives it just the little bit of pop along with the chainring and the grips.

So, now finally here’s what you’ve all be waiting for: final build pics!! It came out pretty badass, and is definitely a breath of fresh air for this classic frame. She’s ready to go thousands of miles to come. I was given the frame for free, so all the cost was new components which totaled $685 (about $200 more than I was expecting). I’m currently trying to sell it for $750 – which may seem high but given the state of new bike availability, and what that amount will even get you in a new bike these days (lots of garbage), I think it’s a pretty fair price.

Check it out below! Click for full size!

Here’s the full breakdown of everything:

• Frame & fork: Chromoly
• Frame size: 18″
• Bars: Salsa Rustler
• Grips: RaceFace Grippler; red
• Stem: Salsa Guide; 15º, 100mm, 31.8 clamp
• Stem: Profile Design threaded to threadless adapter
• Brake levers: Shimano 105 (BL-R550) silver brake levers
• Rear Derailleur: MicroShift Advent 1×9 speed clutch
• Cassette: MicroShift 9 speed 11t-42t
• Shifter: MicroShift Advent 9 speed Trail trigger SL-M9195-R
• Crankset: Suntour XCM; 104 BCD Square Taper/JIS; 48mm chainline
• Chainring: RaceFace 1x NarrowWide 104 BCD, red
• Bottom Bracket: Shimano UN300 SqTpr JIS, 113 spindle
• Seatpost: Alloy, 26.6mm
• Wheels: Weinmann 519 / 26×1.5”
• Tires: Vottoria Mezcal II; 26×2.1”
• Tubes: Sunlite
• Chain: SRAM 9 speed
• Front Cable Hanger: Sunlite
• Brake & Shift cables + housing: Jagwire
• Front fork spacing: 100mm
• Rear spacing: 135mm

Hope you enjoyed reading about this classic as much as I enjoyed building it. As always thanks for taking the time to read through my seemingly unending drivel. I hope to post more frequently as well. I’ve got a new gravel bike from a new company I am a brand ambassador for that I’ve been trying out for about 7 months, and I picked up a gorgeous classic road frame (still has downtube friction shifters!) that has become my main road bike. I’ll get going on those posts soon.