1988 Specialized Rockhopper Fat Tyred Tourer (aka 650b is dead)

Just picked up this 1988 Specialized Rockhopper for a mere £35 from a friendly gentleman who's brother had owned it since new.

For a while now I've wanted a fat tyred, steel, 650b rando bike but this seems like a cheap and cheerful placeholder for the time being.

It's completely stock sans the stem, tyres and bodged rattle can action on the seatpost and wheelset, so that'll need reversing.

Full Shimano exage mountain groupset including sexy U brake and biopace rings (will these murder my knees?).

Here's the original catalogue page from retrobike

The plan is to wack some fat slicks in there, full guards, nicer longer stem, dirt drops with drop levers and bar end shifters. I'll keep the rest of the groupset as it seems to be in fairly good shape. Maybe a front rack further down the line?

Has anyone got any experience with some Schwalbe City Jet's in 1.95'?

They seem alright for the money, not yet prepared to splash out on a pair of compass tyres just yet.

Tempted to change the paint as it isn't lairy enough for an 80's bike, maybe some rattle can fades or a boring raw finish?

lower quality images:

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Some inspo:

@TomvanHalen 's tourer:

another '88 Spesh Hardrock (Comp version)

and radavist ultraromance trendy rusty thing

I have the city jets on my '90 kona and can't fault them, loads of miles, no punctures, powerslides for days if required.

+1 for Maxxis DTH

Dirt Drops, you say?
Shameless plug

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I'm an inspiring! Yay!

Get those WTB drops, perfection

What about marathon supremes for tyres? They come in 26x1.6" or 26x2.0" and schwalbe website says they'd roll better than the city jets.

buys bike, buys new bars for £10 more than paid for bike

joker.gif

3x the price and not tan wall bruh

dirt drops it is then!

thanks kind sir

for a moment there i was heckin bamboozled

Still a fair bit cheaper than Compass. But yeah, tan walls they are not.

No update as of yet but I should be stripping the bike down this week (dependant on my new workstand arriving).

That's awesome, i've had a few similar vintage Spesh's and they've all been great.

Plans look cool but i'd be tempted to keep it as is. Give it a good clean and service and spend your money on some nice bike packing gear that you can shift from bike to bike.

Saying that dibs stem if you split!

Update, update, update!

Here's a little update on the bike:
Some cheapo slick tyres from ebay and a metro rack

Still to do: Full recable and remove spray paint from rims and spokes, return them to silver!

Still undecided what to do with the bars/ stem. Any ideas?

I've also got a longer seat post on the way and a brown selle italia turbo to install

something like this?

(Re-post from functional bikes)
https://microcosm.app/out/iNfFh

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Nitto bullmoose from Planet X!

Yeah that was my initial thinking. I'm just finding it hard to justify spending ~£70 on bar end shifters when the bike itself cost me half that. I do have some very similar mudguards on order too!

It's a cool bike, it's old, it's pretty much all there but it isn't particularly special/ high end. I can see this turning into a fairly rad pub bike.

I'm tempted to just install a silver, more classic looking quill stem and some bars, either wider flat bars or something sweepy and relaxed, this way I can use the original brake levers and shifters!

Good shout! I've seen them down to £35 but they're back upto £60 this week so I might wait to pull the pin on them.