Once upon a time I had a Rockhopper… the frame cracked just inside the warranty period but just after they stopped making 26″ frames. So I ended up with a brand new complete Crave (that I had to pay a fair bit for to make up the difference!) and a big box of bits.

Last week I couldn’t resist the MSC Mercury frames in the sale at probikeshop – 100 euros, the right size for one of my kids and with the same BB and seat tube as my old Rockhopper

Arrived quickly in a non-squished box

No fancy colours here

Bit heavier than expected (on kitchen scales), but given the stuff I’m putting on it that’s not a big deal

Bought a new FSA headset to fit the tapered headtube

You should finish by tonight then 🙂
Will it be all ‘stealth’ black or will you splash some colour on?

Nearly everything ready to go – not many of the parts were original on the Rockhopper, as I’d replaced bits with bargains, including a Durin fork (in a bag as it had just come back from a warranty repair), MT55 wheels (cheapest tubeless wheels I could find when the ghetto-tubelessed OEM ones gave up) and a Kore carbon seatpost and I-beam saddle

What I don’t have yet, but is ordered, is a crown race. I waited to see what the headset would come with. It only came with a 1.5″ race and it appears to be 36 degrees so I’ve ordered a Hope adapter so I can fit the supplied race to the straight steerer forks.

Couldn’t resist doing the headset cups, Octalink bottom bracket, chainset (with 2×9 conversion) and the seatpost though

and no – it’s monochrome all the way (might have to replace the red chainring bolts and fork stickers…)

Moving on… received the Hope adaptor and managed to fit the crown race onto it and then both bits onto the fork with a combination of bits of wood, heat, plastic tubing and a large hammer.

HS136:

I’d forgotten how light the fork was (not resting on the table, promise!)

I haven’t weighed anything else. Most of it’s together now

After this photo I also chucked on the cable lockout and put the Kore seatpost back in. Need to set up the gears properly but there’s an unexpected problem to solve before it’s rideable.. the fork steerer is exactly the same length as the full stack of headtube, headset bits, stem and all the spacers I possess that aren’t on other bikes!

I either need to cut 2mm off the steerer, but I don’t have a useable hacksaw.. or buy a single 8mm spacer. Lunchtime ride to the shops tomorrow I think.

If one of your other bikes has a spacer above the stem you can use that.

APF

Didn’t want to start cannibalising other bikes so bought a cheap set of spacers from Decathlon (nearest bike shop to work)

All finished and ridden!

I think the air pressure in the fork might be a little high and the saddle might be a little hard, but we got all the way round Lac Salagou on the first outing with only one minor hiccup – one of the crank bolts fell out and vanished just before we got back to the carpark… oops. Glad that it went at 26km and not half way round.

Looks good mate 🙂

Looks nice. I like a no-nonsense hardtail 🙂

Agreed, that looks like a great wee bike. I have always had a thing for Magura kit as well, and those forks look ace.