Building a bike around a bag: 92′ Specialized Hardrock + Outer shell Rack bag

Long story short, my dumbass bought a big ass bag from Outer Shell, and tried to run it on my drop bar bike, realized I hated having such a large platform on what would eventually become my randonneuring/all road machine, and became a very expensive paperweight that sat in my parts bin after using it for longer than the return period.

My answer? Build a sick ass rad wagon to use the bag on, and blast even more money at the problem. I picked up a more or less NOS 1992 Specialized Hardrock Ultra from Cycleup Cafe in Lewisburg PA the day before riding UnPaved Pennsylvania. Upon stripping the frame, I learned that the interior was more or less pristine with no rust in (which is a big plus)

Decided that I’d just go all out with what I thought would be nice parts for the build. That combined with a visit to Japan and raiding the inventories of Humhumhug in Kyoto, and Circles/Blue lug Yoyogi park, I landed on this build out.

Stuff already in my parts bin

* Velo Orange Porteur Rack

* King Iris cages

* Brooks B17

* Supacaz Grips

* Handpainted Crane RItten Bell

* Blue Lug 42t Multi-speed cranks (downgrading to a 38t, 42 feels a little too overgeared)

Parts that I kept from the original bike

* Shimano Bottom bracket (these fuckers never die)

* Delta Seatpost (im never finding a half decent 26.6 setback seatpost)

Big ticket items

* Velocity Cliffhangers (velocity messed up and left OOS wheels on their garage sale website so they offered to honor their garage sale pricing on a new set of handbuilt wheels)

* Paul Love Levers

* NOS Chris King 2Nut (marketplace find, some dude just had it brand new)

* Rivendell Bullmoose bars

* Deore m5100 11 speed drivetrain with an 11-51 cassette

* Dia-compe MX-2 Lowpro BMX brakes

* MKS BM-10 Footjaws in red

* Riv Dual kickstand

* Tan walled Super Yummys

* Walt 139 Basket (10 dollar swap special from a friend) (also not pictured)

Small finishing touches

* Heart shaped cable cherry things from TRNK components

* A pink cable cherry for the rear derailleur

* Safety Avocado

* Gold Wolf tooth Cage bolts

* Ultradynamico tubeless valves

* Some random simsolutions decals for fun

* Runwell Punk bolts in brass (made for Humhumhug)

Overall I really love how the bike rides, and It’s just plain fun to putter about on it over my rando, road or gravel bikes if I don’t wanna go fast. I will probably swap the clips for straps since if I stamp down on the unclipped side they get caught in the grass and ground.