The Rockhopper.

This photo show the most current build of my 2003 Specialized Rockhopper hardtail. My kids are pictured, though being basted by a late evening sun in August, helped me build up this bike in the early part of 2011. The bike was built up of an worn down, messed up frameset with crap components on it. What lured me to this frame was the A1 aluminum frame, a 17" size, and an IS disc mount on the rear. I could have cared less for the missing wheels, chain, and scratched up frame at the time I bought it from a local pawn shop here in town.

The kids and I stripped everything down to the frame, I sanded the damaged area where the chain guard was missing, and then had the frame chemically stripped of all it's paint. Glistening aluminum! I then took the frame to a local powdercoat shop, had a two stage powdercoat job, silver metallic and clear coat. After a couple weeks the frame was ready for the build. I built it up with a lot of older parts from the Giant Trance X leftovers from it's build a couple weeks earlier. However, over this past riding season, I decided to build up the Rockhopper to mimic the Giant's geometry as close as possible. Many of the same components the Giant has currently are what the Rockhopper shares now. By building up both bikes this way it really helps with training intervals, be it on the mountain or on the local paved trail.

The bike has a ton of sentimental attachment due to the fact that my kids and I built it from scratch. It's been a fun, dependable bike. Photo taken August, 2011.