Guest bike breakdown - Chie's Rock Hopper

Craig picked up a sweet Specialized Rock Hopper on Craigslist for Chie. It needed a little love, and some control upgrades, but was in pretty great shape for an older bike. Some things he looked for was an aluminum frame, a 1 - 1/8" headset, a serviceable fork and xs frame. This bike was a great find for a great price

Stock set up:

Specialized Rock Hopper aluminum frame

Rock Shox fork

Full XT 8 speed group

Mods:

wider carbon bar with a little rise

shorter stem with more rise

Ergon grips

WTB saddle

All ready to go!

Here are the parts we replaced:

Original Stem and Handlebar

The stem was a long one even by a normal size bike standards, and on an extra small frame, it was the cause of some bizarre and borderline unsafe handling issues. It's a third the length of the handlebars! Bike companies now days outfit smaller frames with accordingly small components, often called women specific design (WSD). This bike was likely built just prior to this change in the industry.

The other thing is the handlebars, which were oddly narrow and flat. So we replaced them with something a little wider to give more control, and with about an 1 - 1/2" rise. Paired with a much shorter stem with a 2" rise, this resulted in high and easy to reach controls. Great for beginners and vets alike.

The bike in action!

Got a bike? Next time we're together let me grab some pics of it and get a parts rundown and we'll show it off!