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    Specialized Hardrock StepTrough ’93

    Hi Guys!

    Im currently in the midst of building up a Specialized HardRock for my wife.

    So far it was quite painful since i had to buy the crown race for the chris king headset twice. I didn't know that specialized had a 27mm diameter on the fork (japanese standard i guess?) instead of the usual 26,4mm for 1" headsets.

    When i mounted the crown race i therefore stretched it and it wouldn't fit. I had to grind down 3mm on all sides of the fork so the replacement would fit.

    Just telling you guys in case someone else is stupid enough to mount a king headset in an old specialized.

    Anyways. I would love to hear some suggestions for the remaining parts needed. I will switch the rear wheel out as well in order to make a better suited 1x setup.

    So far i got all the parts on sale or had them as spares.

    by jonnymauser

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    19 Comments

    2. Crankset on

      i’ll never get used to how much money y’all will spend on a $30 frame

    3. Sad_Classroom4509 on

      Hell yeah, always love seeing a good stepthrough, so underrated 🔥🔥

    5. fppf on

      “Oh, damn that’s a nice build. So minimal.

      “Maybe… Coaster brakes?

      “Oh, sick a no-chain bike. Wait. 

      “No chain? No pedals. No brakes.

      “Hey, man. Come back when this thing is a bike.”

    6. justokayatbikes on

      Nice build. I want to build a step through for my wife too. A matching eno rear hub would be nice for single speed duties.

    7. Shirkaday on

      So is the headset a Gripnut or 2Nut? Which means the headtube wants an EC30 / ISO headset with 30.2mm diameter cups?

      I just had the opposite of this happen to me with a 1993 StumpJumper M2 and a fork that was not original to the frame.

      I wasn’t thinking it all the way through regarding tolerances for interference fit, and based on my measurement I thought a “regular” (meaning readily available modern EC30) 1″ headset would fit. I tried to press it in, but it said no.

      I was dangerously close to buying a reamer and reaming it out myself so the EC30 headset would fit.

      Did some more measurements and research, and turns out the **headtube** is for a **JIS** headset – **EC29** / 30mm diameter cups, and that comes with a 27mm crown race, but the ***fork*** (from a different StumpJumper M2 of the same year even!) took a 26.4. I know this because when I tried putting a 27.0 race on it from an EC30 headset I had on hand as well as one pulled from a RockHopper Expert of about the same year was super loose. 26.4 went on just fine.

      I don’t have King money so I went with an alloy Tange Levin LV-1500 NJS. Kinda funny that it’s NJS going on an MTB, but IMO it’s one of the nicer looking headsets out there that has a JIS option.

      Just wild that these bikes had different standards and once I discovered my headtube is JIS, and it had me wondering how people put Chris King headsets in these frames since to my knowledge they never made a JIS 1″ threaded headset.

      There is still a chance down the road that I will actually ream out the headtube if I find a King for cheap, but I’d pay a shop to do it. The headtube walls are a full 5mm thick all the way down and the material removed would be pretty marginal, like 0.2mm.

    8. billyspeers on

      Yeah I also learned that one the hard way. Looks great though! Inspired. I never finished mine

    9. Mick_Limerick on

      Wonder if they ever made a big frame step thru. I’d totally build out a 20” step thru frame

    13. Economy-Library5872 on

      Would love to have found one in that color. He’s the one I built up for the wife. Tires seem to make the biggest / easiest improvement. I could help myself so I added carbon seat post and bars to add a little comfort and reduce weight. I swapped in a nicer wheelset that came off another bike and switched to thumby Shimano shifters and the associated derailleurs. Highly recommend thumbys!

      https://preview.redd.it/3239lblak5zg1.jpeg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f17e50802908a24d85ee8243f5920b6586fcea9e

    17. k2theablam on

      That stem is a thing of beauty. I looked it up on the bay and oh boy you spared no expense! beautiful color frame as well.

    19. FluffyEar1332 on

      aint no way, i see this as soon as im done tearing down a hardrock ultra to put a new headset on that has a 26.4 race🥲

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