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

Oh that’s a shame. Yeah they’d fit right in on this. They have the quill version as well as a-head

I'm just finding it hard to justify spending ~£70 on bar end shifters when the bike itself cost me half that.

You can get 7/8/9/10 speed bar ends for £5-30 really cheap on eBay. Are you sticking on 6-speed or whatever or going up to more gears? Guess it's screw on free-wheel is it?

You could go for friction shift too

edit: sweet bike obviously. I think it looked pretty awesome black/black/black but crap spray paint isn't going to last long. Silver/silver/silver will look great too I'm sure

^ you can probably get a 7/8 speed friction working up to 10 speed

I've done exactly that with an ancient Huret shifter, 9-speed was alright but a bit grindy, didn't particularly enjoy 10-speed - lots of jumping. But my chain really really needs replacing so that is probably a factor in poor performance. this is the same bike I switched to 8-speed on that I mentioned earlier

Gazelle Dutch bike bars...?

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something kind nice and artisanal about bar ends on friction.

@powleo what about down tube shifters?

I'm considering a similar revamp of my old specialized hard rock, thanks to friendly suggestions from fellow forum-dwellers I found some nice sweepy humpert bars available on ebay. The humpert lady towns in particular caught my attention.

something kind nice and artisanal about bar ends on friction

It's PITA, they'll get scratched every time you lean it against a wall and they won't fit unless you're running special bars or steel ones. Use the thumbies, thumbies are great.

these look pretty good! Something like this but with a little less rise would look perfect!

If the bike had downtube bosses instead of cable guides then I would have jumped on downtube shifters along time ago! Can't really bare the site of a downtube clamp.

yeah definitely leaning towards keeping the current shifters! Once I've done a full recable then they should be sweet!

Here's the bike with the new saddle, seatpost and guards installed. Guards still need adjusting, I used an old downtube shifter as a mount on the seatube, just need a longer bolt and more spacers to make the guard sit right.

Also need to drill out the rivets and attach flaps on the rear end of each guard and maybe one on the front end of the rear guard to fill the void? Will probably just cut up an old tyre for it, or maybe ass-saver material would be better?

Any suggestions for keeping the front end of the front guard down?

Wow, looks great! The deep colour looks lovely with the tanwall tyres. How are you finding the front rack? Looks reasonable for the price.

Yeah the rack is pretty decent! Seems sturdy enough! I think I need to get some sort of bag or crate for it to get the most out of it as its a little inconvenient for anything other than a lock atm!

I've got the exact same rack, it's rock solid.

Very nice!

These RockHoppers build into really, really nice commuters. I love it and I think that saddle supplements the bike really well. As none have said that I must: but these guards.. :P

Yeah I agree, they all have a cool vibe to them!

Guards will hopefully be sorted on saturday! or at least improved ha!

looks really good!

Something similar. My dads bike from 1987/88.

I built up as do it all bus, love it!

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So rad! What bars are you running???

These are Humpert bars, can't remember the model but plenty of rise and sweep to give me clearance when riding with the wee man.

A few more pictures herehttp://www.badbeaglephotography.com/blog/2017/8/7/miniadventure001

What an excellent adventure! Love the bike. Can I ask what grips they are and which baby seat?

Of course. They are Ergon cork grips and it's a Weeride seat. Gonna be repeating that trip again soon with the two kids.

Some cheapo slick tyres from ebay

Probably don't want to hear this but City Jets are £8 on Chainreaction. There is a postage charge of course (£3).

Are those tyres any good? Look pretty much the same.