East Ridge Runner

I know this "winter" weather won't last, but this last weekend was really killer. I got a chance to try out the '85 Stumpy that I happened to find recently. I can't believe that it works so well. The components are all original and in great shape. I was most impressed with the Suntour XC "high normal" front der. which is so smart. My other old timey mtb will shift into the small ring up front about half of the time because the spring is losing it's juice. With the reverse movement on the XC I can at least get it to drop into an easier gear when I need it, which I do more frequently than using the big ring.
More later on the stumpy...

Stumpy stuff

In an previous post I mentioned that I bought an old stumpy. Right after I got it I went travelling and didn't have much time to work on it. Now that I've been back for a little while, and since I have found a good buddy that fits the bike, I decided to fix it up a little bit. The bottom bracket was making a horrible sound, so I knew I needed to get in there and replace the bearings. Unfortunately the old specialized cranks use a 15mm crank bolt, which I had only ever encountered with campy cranks. Now, I don't work on many campy parts, so I don't often have to fool with 15mm bolts and thus i don't have the right tool. So I just had to cave and take it in to have the bolts pulled at my favorite shop Pioneer. Anyway, I lucked out and the spindle and cups were in good shape. Here they are all packed up:


Also, in a previous post I measured one of these spindles to find the length, but hadn't removed it from the bike to do so. I was a little worried that my ancient calipers might not be accurate, but lo and behold, stamped on the spindle is 120. These are nice spindles too, they're hollow so they are amazingly light.
Here's a shot of the bottom bracket lug from the drive side. Normally hard to see, so I figured I'd get a shot of it.

I also, did some more research and decided that the bike is an 1985 Stumpjumper, not the the SPORT or the TEAM. The SPORT model is the cheaper little brother the the just Stumpjumper model, and the TEAM model was pink in '85 and had Tange Prestige tubes. So it's the second nicest bike Specialized made that year.