My old skool!

Bicycles for campers, rvers, or just riding around where ever you are

My old skool!

Postby squatch » Fri Aug 12, 2011 2:04 pm

There seems to be quite a few here that like bikes and old iron so I'll show off one of my steeds. This is mostly a cut and paste from another forum. I hope you enjoy the pics.

This is "Chubs" my '89 Specialized RockCombo. Dirt drop bar standard. I bought this new when working in a shop. Being an old roadie that loved dirt this was my dream bike at the time. A drop bar Mt bike. Still is after all these years in many ways. At the time they said there was only 3000 being made but these days the 'net reports only 500 were made. Who knows for sure. Most folks have never heard of one let alone seen one. Ned Overend actually raced on one of these for a while.

The story at the time was that a product manager at Specialized had a 30 mile fire road commute to work and designed this bike for that. It excels at that. Geometry is basically road bike with a long rear triangle.

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Originally it was equipped with a mix of Specialized house brand parts and Suntour XC6000 components. most long since worn out and replaced with mostly Suntour XC Pro grease guard componets,
Suntour Command drop bar shifters,
Mathauser brake pads,
Blackburn expedition rear rack + low rider front when needed,
Blackburn expedition bottle cages,
SR Low Fat pedals with Mt cages and Rhode Gear toe straps,
and a Brooks Conquest sprung saddle.
I have 2 identical sets of wheels that I built. 1 with 1.95 knobbies and one with 1.25 slicks.
2 sets of handle bars. 1 is the original Specialized Dirt Drop. The other is a Scott AT3LF.

Flat bars and knobbies.
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Drop bars and slicks.
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These little gizmos came from Bruce Gordon Cycles. They were made for His Rock+road bike. They allow you to have 2 sets of handle bars set up including cables so they can be changed in moments keeping the gears adjusted after the bar change. The brake cables bosses are slotted and that works the same.
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The gear cables just screw together.
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Having 2 sets of bars and 2 sets of wheels means I can make 4 different types of bike out of this one bike. The transition only takes a few minutes. Each configuration has it's own feel and rides very well.

Drop bars and knobbies. (off road touring)
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Showing the command shifters. They work awesome and predate STI by a while, lighter too.
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Drop bars and slicks. (road touring)
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Flat bars and slicks (road hybrid)
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Flat bars and knobbies (mountain bike)
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I have a full set of Panniers I made many years ago from Frostline kits and upgraded them with compression straps and HD mounting for off road use. The Cannondale seat and handlebar bag were purchased in the late '70s before Cannondale made bicycles! All have had a good bit of use.
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This bike has a blue bazillion miles on it. Many tours both on road and off. I've commuted on it. Done hard core mountain biking on it. When it was new I pulled my baby son in a bugger behind it while Mom rode behind and entertained him. He is about to graduate college now and I'm still riding this bike. It's special. When the Zombie apocalypse comes it will be loaded and on my truck. When the truck won't go any further I'll be on the bike!

Funny thing is I read reviews on the new Salsa Fargo and they say nothing like it has ever been made before. Only real difference is the wheel size! A Fargo will probably be my next bike.
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Postby stevem50 » Fri Aug 12, 2011 5:37 pm

very cool! long live retro... i had a cannondale m-800 back in the early 90's set up similar. even had a wrap around road bar that stretched you out pretty far.looked very much like modern areo-bars. now you got me daydreaming about building something like that from one of those nashbar aluminum frames...
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Postby mikeschn » Fri Aug 12, 2011 6:12 pm

That looks pretty sweet... a hardtail dropbar mountain bike! :thumbsup:

With the quick front end you've got yourself a nice 26" cyclocross bike. :thumbsup:

Mike...
The quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten, so build your teardrop with the best materials...
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Postby squatch » Fri Aug 12, 2011 7:31 pm

I actually used to race cyclo (psycho) cross many years ago. Not on this bike though.

My racing days are long since past. Knees have been gone for a few years now (bone on bone). Just putting off being bionic as long as I can.
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Postby Noob » Sun Aug 14, 2011 10:23 am

In one word : modular.

:thumbsup:
Bend the knees, watch the trees, 5$ please.
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Postby Fenlason » Sun Aug 14, 2011 6:34 pm

Actually there were other drop bar mountain bikes of that era.. true mountain bikes. I had [still have] a 1987 Bridgestone MB1 [There were 300 of these made] Charlie Cunningham also had Drop bar mountain bikes.

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glenn

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
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We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.
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Postby squatch » Mon Aug 15, 2011 1:17 am

I thought all MB-1s came stock with mustache bars. Learn something new everyday. I'm still a fan of Grants bikes. The Rivendell site is great. I knew a couple of custom builders building them and The Bruce Gordon Rock and Road was way ahead of it's time. It even had 700c wheels. If I recall he used a Swiss army tire or some such at the time. Early 29er.
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Postby Fenlason » Mon Aug 15, 2011 6:46 am

squatch wrote:I thought all MB-1s came stock with mustache bars. Learn something new everyday. I'm still a fan of Grants bikes. The Rivendell site is great. I knew a couple of custom builders building them and The Bruce Gordon Rock and Road was way ahead of it's time. It even had 700c wheels. If I recall he used a Swiss army tire or some such at the time. Early 29er.


I am not positive.. but the MB1 might have come with Dirt Drops for only that one year. Right after that they did go to a straight bar.

I was a big fan of Bridgestone bikes hmm I used to get the Rivendale Reader... but had not thought to look on-line at his stuff...

Bianchi also also had some early 700c mountain bikes. They called them Project bikes.. I had use of Project 7 [their best] for a while
glenn

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Kahlil Gibran

We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.
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Postby squatch » Mon Aug 15, 2011 3:33 pm

At one time I really lusted for a Bianchi Volpe when they 1st came out. I had a friend who had one. Sweet versatile machine. Now if they had only come in Celeste I'd probably still have it!
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Postby Fenlason » Tue Aug 16, 2011 7:25 pm

squatch wrote:At one time I really lusted for a Bianchi Volpe when they 1st came out. I had a friend who had one. Sweet versatile machine. Now if they had only come in Celeste I'd probably still have it!


At least some years did... :thinking: :D
glenn

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Kahlil Gibran

We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.
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Postby Ratkity » Tue Aug 16, 2011 9:03 pm

My Volpe is my commuter bike! Can't rem when I got it. I think I bought it while I was in TX doing a post-doc in 1996 methinks. It's dark green. Been a great workhorse of a bike.

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