1986 Specialized Stumpjumper

I just finished building up my '86 Stumpy that Mark found last month.

I installed an old Brooks Conquest saddle and drilled holes in the sides so I can lace it up to keep the leather off the rails. I think it needs the full Grant Petersen treatment to bring it back to life since the leather is torn around the front rivets.

The crankset, rear derailer, front brake, and brake levers are both '93 Deore LX off my old Yokota Yosemite that I bought when I was 13 years old. The shifters and front derailer are early 90s XT.

I did some serious metal grinding to shave off enough of the LX brakes to fit the XT thumbshifters. I'm also rocking old Onza barends. I haven't followed what's happened in mountain biking in the last 15 years, but I hear that barends aren't cool anymore. That's crazy because barends are great, so fashion be damned, I'm going with what works.

The clearance is pretty tight with the undermount break. I wonder why they didn't just go with cantis in the back.

Sweet original Saturae rims.

And a sweet original Stumpjumper stem.

The bottom bracket is a little longer than it needs to be, but it works.

Also, my buddy Quentin in Santa Cruz just had his new custom made bike stolen. Please keep an eye out for it--it's super unique. Quentin makes rad trailers that are great for everything, including touring on dirt. I'll write about mine soon which I've been doing everything with, including hauling my Stumpy home. He's also super sweet, rides bikes more than anyone, and is super generous about sharing his crazy dirt touring routes. Let's get his bike back.

Share the flyer

1984 Bianchi Grizzly

I just found this old Bianchi Grizzly, that I'm guessing is an '84. Compared to my '84 ridgerunner this frame is lower quality and has lower end parts. I can't find any database for Bianchi's serial numbers, but the parts and the lugged build, and since the serial starts with LS4... I'm guessing it's 84.

oh, and she's huge... I love how they used to make mountain bike frames so big!

Looks like the same fork as the Ridgerunner. Definitely the same fork crown. Yeah I know the cable is inside the yolk, I just got it like that, soon to change. Oh, yeah and it's got those nice super long Dia Cope brakes, love those.
Oh man, so much head tube!Check that bend in the bars, similar to the ones that came on the 86 stumpy sport.
But the stem is something else. Kinda like stumpy "golf club", kinda bmx, kinda like a snake head.
The head lugs are properly spoon shaped on the underside.
The seat stays are sloppy and the brazing and mitering was done poorly.
Shimano Unisift model. I've never seen this style before with the small steel clamp and the angular cable stop. Unishift seems like a bad name for a multi-speed shifter...



Very similar again to the Diamondback. It's got a lot of room for a fat tire. Unfortunate crimping from a kickstand, I hate those things!

A closer look at that crazy bend.
Clunky braze-ons, kinda like a Miyata no?
Biopace, ugg. Tourney GS cranks are cool though. At first I assumed that the Biopace might have been an add on from a later date, but a little research shows that Shimano was making Biopace as early as 1983. Suntour bear trap pedals.

Port costa

Some of the dirt owls rode out to Port Costa this weekend. It was mostly a road ride but we all have fat tire road bikes so we found some dirt on the return trip.

This guy from the Warehouse bar

weirdo terracing
The big picture. This part of California is amazing this time of year.

MudQuest

The aftermath:

Little ideas

A couple of pics from last weekend. We did that classic bonehead thing where we ride till the tires get so jammed up with mud that they don't spin anymore and then carry the bike the rest of the way down. Awesome. It was actually pretty fun regardless. I found these two really useful books this weekend. Stay hard!

nahbs

I don't really care all that much about the NAHBS that was held this weekend in Sacramento, but as a bike nerd I'm still kinda interested. I just did some quickie searches to see if anything interesting was presented. I was stoked to see this bike from Gallus. It's a vintage style mtb except it runs 650b wheels. It looks pretty ripping!

Stumpjumpers, the stump jump, EL DIABLO, green gnarl, lug life

Finally made it out to camp Diablo this weekend. Left me blissy all day today.


That little flat looking launch ramp in the horizon is Mt Tam.
Pro level lighting solutions

The view looking east from the top.


Dirt all the way down

Not a stump or a jump here, but close.Just shredding every thing he sees...

Then some pics from last weekend. Wildcat Canyon jiggle fest. There are cows in this section and they have pock marked every inch of the field. Zooming down was an insane full-bodyquake.
Stumpy brothers
Nate's '85. We obviously have very similar taste.And here we have the newest addition to the clan. Nick's 1986 Stumpy that I just got from a very nice guy who upgraded to a Rivendell Hunquapillar. I'm slowly learning the slight differences in Stumpy years. In '85 they had cantis in the rear, but in '86 they used the undermount brake with a roller cam. Other slight changes are the decal on the downtube no longer says "specialized" and the drive side chainstay is no longer chromed. This bike has an engraved Stumpjumper stem, but I'm not too sure that it is original to the bike.




And on a totally different note, I've been wondering what do you do with old tires? I mean, I know I could just throw them out, but it seems like as soon as I do I'll meet someone who restores old mtbs and wants them. I also know that old dry gumwalls are really no good to ride but for whatever reason I can't toss them. I wish you could still get a gumwall knobby 26" tire but they don't seem to exist any more. (nerds let me know if I'm wrong on this one) I was shooting around looking for info on Mitsuboshi tires and I found This site that is kinda on topic and at least has an interesting tire story if you disregard the Umma Gumma bit. Here are some examples from my stash:

This was only made for the '84 Trek 890, I think...

A nice one for an old Mt Whitney

I like how this one seems to have two names.

Not a tire but a neat detail. This cable housing came off my 1984 Ridgerunner and has the date stamp to prove it.

Guessing here but looks to be an '85 Miyata Terra Runner.

My stumpy has given me a new found love for the lugged sloping fork crown.




I saw this recently... stoked me out!