Stump Jumper?

[Mark Harmes]

Anybody have a specialized stump jumper? Am considering buying one , but price is pretty steep at $999.00.

[Hunter333]

Dont have one but thanks for the reminder of my dhildhood winters! Riding down the hills on my homemade jumper, mpst people not having a clue what it was. Good luck on your search, $999 is a lot of money!

[Mark Harmes]

I know it's a big chunk of change, but i have heard the quaility is real good on these bikes. I borrowed a bike last year for the 2 miles bike ride on the dyke out to our waterfowling area and this year want to get my own. Obviuosly i could get a cheaper one, but am also interested in using it for the trails and going up north and stuff. Just seems to me that on stuff like this you usuually get what you pay for, samr thing with better quality bows, and hunting gear, etc.

[Mags]

My wife has a Specialized.....I believe it's a "cross" type bike. If you check the specs on the various leading manufacturers, I think you'll find that Specialized offers a lot of bike for the money.

[Ron L]

Only Specialized experience I have is the M2, a quick spin on a M4 and 2 road bikes.

Which model is this and which component group is on this model? I've always bought bikes looking at the frame first because components usually get replaced or upgraded a fairly quick rate. The Specialized I've ridden have been well deisgned as far as geometry is concerned. I currently own another bike that has too-steep of a head angle and it feels twitchy, I've never experienced that on a Specialized. I know of a guy who's a bit heavier than me who's broken a frame, but I've heard that for just about any brand that's sold.

[gregm]

Which Stumpjumper are you looking at? I have a 2002 Stumjumper FSR Pro (top line SJ, but no longer made due to the EPIC, it was too close in price and ride and "S" didn't want it to compete with the Epic, so they canned the "Pro" and now the "Comp" is the best SJ you can get) It ran me close to $2,000 last summer. However its a totally awesome bike. I was previously on a Specialized model from 1993, so it lasted me close 9 years. If my new SJ lasts me that long, its worth it.

It all depends on how hard you plan on riding. The frames are very similar in the Specialized "families" (SJ, Hardrock, Epic, etc..), the components are what determines the final cost of the bike. The FSR Pro (mine) has the top line components (XTR, Rock Shox SID, etc...) which really helps smooth out the long rides and helps to reduce the weight. I will compete in few Off-Road Triathons (X-TERRA Events) and Off-road adventure races each year, so I looked for the very small performance edges in components that help with the overall performance. If you're mainly riding shorter rides (<2hrs) and not hitting the real crazy stuff, the medium range components will work just fine. In fact, some of the heavier components (e.g. Fox Forx) which are considered lower quality than the SID's because they are more stout and "heavier" are actually more durable.

As for brand, I've owned Specialized for 15 years and have only bought three bikes during that time. I sold my first one when the front shocks came out because I wanted to upgrade from a fully rigid bike. I just bought a new bike because I wanted to upgrade to a full-suspension bike. I still have the front suspension/hard tail from '93 I use for city riding (my "urban assult" bike) In all cases the bikes were in perfect working order after anywhere from 5-9 YEARS of hard riding. In that same time, friends who didn't ride near as hard as I did, went through several bikes that were manufactured by the other big brands.

But what would you expect from the guys who invented the Mountain Bike????

[shaguardriver]

Specialized makes great bikes before you get set on plunking down good money on may bike throw a leg over them and ride them even in the parking lot.

Different manufactures use different geometry for the frames. Hence a Giant has a short top tube (great for short arms and small torso) Where Specialized and KONA have longer top tubes (Better for long arms and torsos).

Make sure you ride the bikes and get someone to help fit the bike to you! Get a sales person with more than 6 months under their belt to sell you the bike.

Take a look at the Kona lineup I have had the same Kona AA frame since 91. It has out lasted 3 suspension forks (2 taco-ed on the trail and one i got tired of rebuilding) 3 wheel sets and several handle bars. I am now back to a ridged fork since all I do now is pull a burley.

Buy the best frame you can get, parts can and will be replaced but if you have a bad frame it is all going to be bad. Also buy more bike than you think you need. Selling the starter bike is a losing battle selling a mid range bike is a little better.

Also to the weight factor light is good, but too light is not that great. Too light and you sacrifice strength.

Happy shopping and I hope my rant helps.
Tau_Ruub@yahoo.com

[Chuck]

I bought a specialized hard rock 12 years ago and rode the snot out of it for the first 8 years. Last year I started to trail ride it again and it just fell apart. I paid 250 for last years model 12 years ago.

Last year I bought a specialized hard rock for 250 again! that was last years model. The bike is so cool, all alluminum frame and front fork shock which Im still not sure if I like or not (it makes the bike alot more squirly on rough trails but after you get used to it, its not to bad). Its so much easier to pull up over a downed tree in the trail now!!

I also did the exact same thing with this one I did with my other and thats rip the rear derailer off in the first 2 weeks of use. Sucks being 8 miles from the truck on a trail with a busted rear derailer. But this bike they improved it so the derailer didnt brake just the carrier so it was 15 bucks to fix it instead of alot more.

You cant go wrong with a specialized no matter which one you buy. Great bikes in any price rang. If your gonna ride trails hard dont get a crap bike becouse you wont ride it much.

I put over 1 000 miles on the specialized bike last year and only problem was the rear derailer which was my fault anywase. This was all hard trail riding not road riding. When I took it into the bike shop for its 1 month check up they said, "wow this bike has been rode hard" :) Mud and guts riding only for me!!