Repurposing 90s MTBs into ’round town basket bikes has been a huge repeating theme in our weekly Readers’ Rides series. This week’s build comes from Benny, with his Specialized StreetStomper. Check out words and photos by Benny below!
Hey, I’m Benny and this is my Specialized StreetStomper!
I laughed so hard when I read that line about Liam’s Rock COMBO.
I get something like that with this bike, too. It’s not a StumpJumper or RockHopper.
It’s a STREETSTOMPER! And it does. And I do. Stomp Streets that is. And some gravel roads, too, of course. I bought this bike off craigslist 4 or 5 years ago and immediately put fenders, a super tall and long Nitto stem and mustache bars on it for that sweet poor-man’s X-01 or whatever look.
I rode it that way up until this past summer when I wanted to see if I could make it even more comfy for longer and rougher rides. I started by putting some fatter Maxxis DTH 2.3” tires on it and swapping out the tall and long Nitto stem + mustache bars for a more upright adapter + stem combo feat. these wide-boi 52cm Cowchipper “gravel bars.”
Shimano flat/spd pedals and some parts bin levers (Gran Compes) and seat (Bianchi branded idk what) got my contact points feelin’ nice. Parts bin wheels (Shimano Acera-x), too.
All of my bikes from the last decade have featured stem shifters and I was keen on keeping that tradition alive so I bought some Sunrace downtube shifter units from my LBS and fixed them to the adapter stem with a cut-up yogurt container shim. The trick to making this work was the Origin 8 cable stops and now I’m shifting in style. Bring the stemmies back!
The stoppers are OG Dia Compe cantis and the go-eurs (the derailleurs) are both Shimano units (sis?). I love that they’re all silvery and full metal. The headset is stock and is silver, too. Cup and Cone BB.
The Sugino VP cranks are all time and they came on the bike!
Of course, the basket + rack is super nice for my commute and the frame bag holds onto my lock and tools and stuff. On longer weekend rides I put a 300oz bladder in there because I’m a huge fan of water. The front rack is actually a rear rack that I fit to the front end with a little help from a custom bracket I made, and the basket is just zip-tied on as per the rules.
That little quarter fender deal was an attempt at keeping the front derailleur and frame bag a little cleaner. With these tires it’s currently the only place I can fit a fender. I’d say it keeps things 25% cleaner than without it.
All in all, I feel like over the years the StreetStomper has always been my dream bike – able to be built in tune with my changing ideas and most importantly within a grad student budget!
We’d like to thank all of you who have submitted Readers Rides builds to be shared over here. The response has been incredible and we have so many to share over the next few months. Feel free to submit your bike, listing details, components, and other information. You can also include a portrait of yourself with your bike and your Instagram account! Please, shoot landscape-orientation photos, not portrait. Thanks!
