I'm looking for some bike advice. Not the vroom vroom kind, but the push peddle kind. I know there is some hard core bikers on here. Here's my situation: I have a old (1995ish) specialized rock hopper. I had my manager, who's a huge bike guy, perform a tune up for me. He replaced cables, my brakes (which apparently i broke), but he found a interesting situation when he was looking at my rims. At some point in my biking I bent my back rim. He said it was oval in shape. :hsugh: He advised me that I'll need a new rim. He has a GT full suspension mountain bike that was his nephews that has been laying in his basement for some time. Here's the options he gave me: 1. Swap the rims, shifters, brakes, derailers, and front suspension off of the GT and onto my bike. He said the components of that bike are better then mine. or 2. Gives me the GT bike after he tunes it up. He said that the GT bike will weigh more then mine. He also said that around here a hardtail is just fine. He doesn't really care either way, but I'm just looking for advice from some bikers. I don't do much mountain biking, but I would like to get into it more. Theo Wirth is close to my house so that could be really fun. Otherwise most of my riding is on paved trails around the cities. Buying a new bike right now is not an option, so please don't say that. So, what would you do?
What kind of GT is it? Depending on the answer I might just take the complete bike if I were you, they made some kick ass bikes back in the day. Then you could convert your Rockhopper into a single speed commuter or just buy a few cheap replacements and you'd have two bikes
This is completely off topic, but this season has been the 'get off my ass and back on the bike' one for me. If anyone wants to do some road rides, I'm totally up for it.
Take the GT whole and give me your rockhopper! I need a different bike and work is too close to drive yet too far to walk.
Just take the whole GT. Get some pix/specs on the used GT. If it is an old-skool i-Drive those were OK bikes. If it is a POS from their bankruptcy/Walmart days run away. I'll find you a deal on a better bike.
I'd say swap the parts and possibly look in to a 1" suspension fork if the Specialized doesn't have one already. those rockhopper frames seem to last very very long from what i saw at Erik's. As long as there well taken care of it will last you quite some time.
Yup, it was their fault Richard Long got killed, and started the downward spiral. Business is business, it wasn't really their fault things went south for them. The older GT bikes were badass then and they're still a decent bike. I'll stick with my Zaskars until they break for my hardtails. My FS rig will be a Specialized.
I wish you were taller, then I'd sell you my specialized and buy a new bike. I'd take a lot of the GT advise. If it is an older GT, those were really really great bikes. I had several of them. **edit** I see that you may do some off-road type riding. but the majority will be paved trails. Full suspension is pretty hard to ride (IMO) on paved roads. so you may want to take that in consideration as well.
I will pretty much agree with Soupboy. A working bike that needs a tune tends not to have the kind of hiccups that develop when you build a frankenbike. Don't misunderstand me here: the parts swap onto the Rockhopper may be just what you need to do everything you want to do, but without knowing exactly what the GT is or what the parts that are involved are, we can't know how easy to swap it would be (especially since we are talking classics, here). Follow Soup's advice. Take the GT (plus this is easier for your manager and therefore more positive work karma) and get your ride on. Then you can sort out if the GT will do what you want it to do, inspire you to ride more, etc. If you find you prefer the hardtail, you'll have everything in-hand to know if a swap will work. Or you can get a wheel and prep the RockHopper for commuting only, singlespeed trails, cruising, pub crawls, etc. Summary: If the GT just needs a tune, do it, store the Specialized and look for the needed parts as time/money permits.
Given that we are discussing an older full suspension GT, this might be the case. Meaning specifically that there may be pedal-induced bobbing. But again, given that we don't know the model or vintage of the GT, we cannot be certain. Starting in 2003 and becoming common in 2004, many rear shocks were designed to nullify low frequency input such as pedaling thereby making many fs bikes ride much more like hardtails. I built my trailbike in late 2004/early 2005 with a 6inch travel Progressive 5th Element coil-over air shock. I commuted almost everyday for a year-and-a-half and still do when I can (read that: am not too lazy). I have zero bob on the road but can bomb pretty much anything on any trail up to and exceeding my ability/wuss-factor with complete impunity.
Full suspension is only hard to ride on pavement if you have an inefficient pedal stroke. Clipless pedals work wonders. Think circular instead of pushing down on the pedals and you won't pogo. The tire tread has more impact. If you are riding on pavement, get less knobby tires. Either way you'll be fine. Both old GT frames and Specialized frames are good. More important is which frame FITS YOU. So many people ignore bike fit and they suffer for it. Components are easy to swap. I've had good luck building frankenbikes with totally mismatched parts, so I wouldn't worry too much about that.
Did anyone see the (IMO) in my post? never the less, good luck Ryan, looking forward to riding with you this summer.
