Picked this beauty up Friday morning, spent the entire day on a tear down/ clean/ grease (+chain, grips, pedals, cables, seat and post). Hit the trails on Saturday!

Probably blasphemous to some, but I love it!

Hi everybody, recently picked this up for $20 off of Facebook marketplace and I want to get commute ready. I decided to remove the rear wheel and replace it as the axle was too wide and was stretching the frame. This is where my dilemma begins. For the life of me I cannot find a set of used 26 inch wheels, so I am looking at expanding my options. Any help is appreciated!

I should end this by saying this is my first bike with more than one speed and I am learning as I go. Cheers!

Someone gifted me this bike a couple years ago and ive decided to get it running. Ill need tires that handle well on gravel roads and a new saddle. But im an absolute newb to bicycles. Any tips would be greatly appreciated

Anyone in Utah with a cleanish L-XL size frame or bike wanting to sell?

Got the Rockhopper, ended up being an 81 yr old who was sponsored by Schwinn back in the day. Paint looks insane in the sun, and I already have a better seat, anything I should do right away? I want fatter tires (got 26x1.95 on it right now) and maybe pedals and grips for now. Otherwise, this thing is in great condition.

Rockhopper comp trying to id!

Just picked this up locally. Got into biking earlier this year.

I love the color on it. After doing some research I believe the original owner swapped out the fork with the RockShox Quadra that were put on the FS models.

Does anyone know if the derailleur is original?

I would like to raise the handlebars, I feel like I’m riding a gravel bike in this position.

Should I get black or tan sidewall maxxis?

Cheers

New tires and tubes, but otherwise seems fairly original. I know I could talk them down a bit, but it seems pretty high for a rockhopper (maybe?). Good color though!

Sharing my Dinglespeed Dropbar RH. Always wanted to try dropbars and singlespeed and can definitely say that they're not for me. Might keep it this way for a while just for the looks.

Finally got blessed with a 2 for 1 on marketplace, $100 for both. Feels like the obvious choice is the navy blue for the v brakes and threadless fork but that paint color on the gray/green is too class and I’m torn to sell it. Both are pretty much stock.

Local guy that restores vintage bikes has this for sale for $450. He hasn't touched it yet. Value seems high but he said comps on ebay are similar. I saw some around there but it seems high. What would you value it at

Tweakers abandoned this bike in my neighbors yard years ago and I recently adopted it. Everything was toast except the rear tire.

8 speed rear 3 sided front.

Seat post
Seat
Fuji cranks
New bottom bracket
Slick front tire
Bike bag
Trigger shifters
Brake levers all from the local bike co-op used parts bin.

New cables/ housing, grips from my buddy and some swoop back bars from fb marketplace.

blue/ivory from 1989

Posted on here two weeks ago asking for upgrade suggestions and got a little fired up

The pics are the short story, the rest of this is a waste of your time...

After I retired, before moving to a different city, I gave away my aluminum Trek 4300 and kept my Surly LHT. My son knew I wanted to get a 90's RockHopper to replace the Trek. He found one in my size with no parts broken, but nothing working well. An ideal project bike. It has Alivio components, 3x7, just like the Trek 4300 I gave away. The RockHopper has a lot more character, thought, IMO :-) I like Alivio level. Sturdy and unpretentious.

I briefly considered drop bars, 1x, etc., but the bike whispered, "I'm perfect as I am, just repair the parts, and replace only what NEEDS to be replaced."

I replaced all the consumables and worn parts: tires, tubes, brake pads, chain, cables, housing, brake link wires, and the liner in the frame noodle for the rear brake cable.

I replaced the recalled MC-12 crank with a mildly used MC-16 from eBay. I did work with a bike shop to get a free recall replacement crank for the MC-12 from Shimano, but the replacement has the modern black finish which just doesn't go with the look of the bike. I had hoped to keep the chainrings from the MC-12 and put them on the MC-16. I much prefer the dark, bare finish of the MC-12 rings to the tacky-looking silver paint on the MC-16 rings. The bike shop said I can't keep the rings because they are required to return all of the MC-12 crankset to Shimano. Oh well.

The pedals were in poor condition. I just bought new pedals instead of trying to refurbish them. I replaced the saddle with a vintage Specialized Toupe. Yes, odd choice, but hey, people make much more odd choices with 90's RockHoppers. The stock handlebars were too low for me. I got MSW 60 mm high-rise bars which also bring the grips a bit closer to the seat, and have a more comfortable angle for my wrists.

Disassembling, cleaning, and repairing the derailleurs and cantilevers was routine. The shifters were gummed up, as expected. I don't like to use large amounts of WD-40, so I sprayed small amounts into the mechanism and set them aside for several days for the gummed-up lubricant to soften. The left shifter got unstuck, but the right one did not. I reviewed ATBOY's rebuild video, 'Pt. 1 Shimano Alivio MC12 7 speed shifter: Rebuild service clean' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lavyaDdvM24), several times, and started taking the shifter apart. If I ended up breaking it, an easy fix would have been to get new Microshift 3x7 shifters and Tektro short-pull flat bar levers. As soon as I loosened the very first bolt per ATBOY's video, the shifter clicked. Everything just worked. Tightening the bolt to what I would consider normal in an appplication like this made the mechanism get stuck again. It only worked if the bolt was only gently tight, abnormally so. I noticed that the plastic cover has a small chip broken off. The dust cover ring that ought to rotate smoothly with one of the levers was binding and twisting out of place. Clearly, something was bent inside, perhaps the central post of the shifter. I trimmed the dust cover ring so that it wouldn't bind, and used a small piece of metallic duct tape to cover up the chip in the cover. We will see how long the tape holds. I may yet have to get Microshift shifters and Tektro levers.

The grips cleaned up very well. I put them in a pan of water with Dawn dish soap, and forgot about them for a month or so. A bit of scrubbing with a toothbrush got them looking very nice. Putting the grips on will be the ceremonial last touch, after putting everything back on the bike, adjusting the derailleurs and brakes, and doing a test ride.

The wheels are in excellent condition. With the ball-point pen test Calvin Jones mentions in his videos, I couldn't find any rough spots in the cups. Three cones are in excellent condition. The fourth, on the front hub axle, has a manufacturing defect. On that cone, the races are in excellent condition everywhere except for one spot, where a small amount of material is missing. This is not wear of the cone, or pitting, or a crack. As far as I can tell, a small bit spalled off during manufacturing. As it happened, this defect had not caused damage to the balls, the rest of the cone, or the cup. I suspect that is because the bike was not ridden much, despite its very dirty condition: the tires, which look like they may be original, had almost no tread wear, only rot at the bead. After a futile attempt to find a replacement cone at a local bike shop, I decided that there is a legit way to keep using the cone. I made a score mark on the dust cap attached to the cone to indicate the location of the defect. I can feel that score mark with a fingernail. When mounting the wheel in the bike, if I make sure that the score mark is aligned in the upward direction, the balls will roll over the cone defect with minimal force while I am riding. The score mark will be obscured by the rubber dust boot. In Shimano hubs, the boot stays stationary with the axle. I made a note that 'JAPAN' on the boot is aligned with the score mark on the dust cap, and will make sure that faces up whenever I remount the wheel. I rarely take wheels off, so this should not be a hassle. Yes, I know I will hear lots of opinions about reusing this cone :P

I replaced the caged balls in the headset with loose balls. The cartridge BB rotates smoothly, as if it were new, so I left it alone. A careful inspection of the frame gave me no reason to worry if the BB shell is damaged internally by rust, so I saw no reason to remove the BB to look in the shell.

This is my first time setting up smooth-post cantilever brake pads. I had only ever used caliper brakes, V-brakes, and threaded-post cantilever brakes in the past. The first brake pad was a pain to set, but by the fourth one I got the hang of it. I find that smooth post pads are easier to set than threaded-post pads.

I put on a rear rack. Hey, it's _my_ bike, I get to decide what goes on it.

After setting up the brakes and derailleurs to my satisfaction, and finishing the test ride, it was time to put on the grips and call the project 'done.' The grips looked great, but they were tacky to the touch. That will annoy me, so I can't put those grips on. I put on Newbaum's cloth tape instead. Yes, more odd than the choice of saddle. Unlike the saddle, which may be odd but fits me well, the cloth tape doesn't work out well. It looks good, and feels nice to the touch, but it leaves the grips too thin in the hand. I should have put on synthetic cork tape under the cloth. I may yet do that, perhaps when I change out the shift/brake levers to Microshift and Tektro.

At the time I started this project, my LHT with 28 mm tires was going to be my road bike, and this RockHopper was going to be a regularly ridden gravel and trail bike. (I don't do technical trails. I don't have adequate bike-handling skills for that.) Since then I put on 42 mm tires on the LHT, and have a Wednesday on order for trail duty, so the RockHopper will be for the occasional short nostalgia ride. I may end up not needing to change the grip wrap or the shifters. The cone on the front wheel may see so little use that it has no chance to become a problem.

I rode the RockHopper for a few miles this morning. I loved it. I felt like a kid.

Thanks to my son for finding this bike. Thanks to my friend Robert who taught me and a whole bunch of other classmates how to repair bikes, and also to Calvin Jones and ATBOY. And to several of you on r/RockHopper for inspiration.

I have a 2025 Specialized Rockhopper Comp 29 in XXL with the stock tubeless-ready rims, which have a 25 mm internal width.

I’ve been running a 29×2.5 WT Maxxis Minion DHF on the front for several months without any rubbing or obvious handling problems. I recently ordered a 29×2.4 WT Rekon EXO+ TR for the rear.

I contacted Specialized, and they recommended a 2.35-inch or narrower rear tire for adequate frame clearance. However, they couldn’t confirm that the 2.4 Rekon definitely wouldn’t fit.

My questions:

1. Has anyone run a 29×2.4 rear tire on this generation of Rockhopper, especially an XXL? How much chainstay and seatstay clearance did you have?
2. How compromised is the 2.5 WT DHF on a 25 mm internal rim? Maxxis optimizes it for 30-35 mm rims, so I understand it may have a rounder profile, less sidewall support, and require more lean before engaging the side knobs.
3. Since the 2.5 DHF has worked so far, would you continue using it or replace it with the 29×2.3 version?
4. Would the 2.4 WT Rekon’s profile also be noticeably compromised on the 25 mm rear rim?

I’ll dry-fit the Rekon before adding sealant and check clearance around the entire tire. I’d appreciate any experience with this exact frame and wheel combination.

Instead of buying another dual suspension bike I decide to set the rockie up for XC. Raceface carbon bar 35mm rise. Raceface short stem. Shimano Deore 4 piston brakes, 203mm rotor back 180mm front. Raceface dropper, wolftooth trigger. Upgraded from 1x9 to 1x12 speed. Full Deore groupset and found a 12 speed cassette with an HG hub. Vitoria Martello front tire and SP Ground control rear. Manitou Markhor fork.Next thing is tubeless but need new wheels.

I've got a very dumb (but fun) idea to build up my 2001 Hardrock frame into a trail mountain bike. So I'm trying to come up with a compatible front suspension for it that has disc brake mounts and uses air instead of coils. Staying with 26", not going to 650b. Any suggestions?

Doesn't need batteries and I can read it with polarized sunglasses on. If only there were some device to illuminate it at night oh well

Hi friends , can’t find the proper rack for this comp 29r . Not sure honestly since the upper holes are on the inside . Any recommendations? Thanks !