^ looking forward to this.
Those things are rad, Shakes.
Looking forward to seeing what you do with it too.
Okay this is my wet weather commuter, a 1993 Specialized Rockhopper Sport.
This is what is looked like in the catalogue:
I’ve had this bike for a while now, and it’s great. Early 1990’s steel MTB’s are so underrated I reckon, and nobody seems to want them so you can score them for almost nothing. I’ve been commuting on this and since it started raining more these days I thought it best to invest in some proper SKS fenders. I just mounted them this afternoon, and as you can see I guess I need to shorten the stays of the fenders a little on the rear. I know, it looks wrong, but the SKS instructions are shit house and I don’t have a big-arse set of pliers to snip them down. Any tips would be much appreciated. Oh the BB height is ideal and the seatpost setback is perfect… 
It runs full Shimano Exage 7-speed, with Exage rear hub and Suntour XC front hub. The BB is even a decent sealed unit which is nice.
I squirted some fish oil down the seat tube and it’s ready for Winter!
The SKS instructions are the definition of shithouse, but they’re great mudguards. I cut the end of the plastic doovers off so the stays can push right through meaning you can set the guard to whatever height you require. You’ll need an angle grinder to cut the stays down mate, those stays are made from super hard stainless steel. Bolt cutters might cut them otherwise but they’d have to be good quality. Had to do it to a tourer I once owned. I just bent my stays inwards at the end with 2 large sets of pliers on my current steed, looks neat enough.
You’ll probably find you’ll need more guard down lower on the front, which side of the fork crown is your mounting tab? I’d put it on the back if it’s not already.
Your fender line is atrocious H. Fix it or your membership card will be revoked.
ProTip: Remove the plastic bits altogether, snip off the end ~10mm and keep that for a cap on the trimmed stay. It’ll protect your knees etc.
ProTip 2: For trimming the stays, bolt cutters with the jaws adjusted nice and close is the easiest way, hacksaw is time consuming, pliers/sidecutters is possible, but not fun. Abrasive cutoff wheel in a dropsaw would be the best solution. Don’t use an angle grinder while they’re on the bike, you’ll probably slip and cut your guard. Clean up the cut with a file, then cap.
ProTip 3: If you can’t drop the front guard enough, fab up a dropped mount with a spare bit of rack stay / flat stock. This is a mandatory step for cross checks.
Oh, and how have you attached the front of the rear fender at the BB, it looks like it’s rotated backwards quite a bit.
Also… Paging Nikcee and his befendered BassoCX.
Thanks Blakey. Okay I snipped the suspect plastic clip on the rear, and it looks heaps better. I’ll do the front later. I put a bit on super glue on the top piece and bunged it back on top. I would have thought it best to cut the top off the plastic clip, but retain the base of it since it would help reduce vibration etc.
Am I on the right track here?
greetings fellow travellers…
this will be familiar to some…
it started life as my first CX bike bought after i beat kiwicyclist to it. i’d argue that the gazelle he ended up with was a better CX bike, but this thing has done CX races in different states, there will be dirts to outlying areas, overnight rides, gravel grinders, towed heavily loaded trailers and has spent the last few months as my antidote to the super-commuters, their rusty MTBs and the neglected road surfaces on sydney road.
On saturday ‘Professor 650B’ expertly fendered it and we replaced the coarse pepper grinder that the BB had become after 2.5 years of trails, power washing and general abuse. I consider it ready for winter… with its FOA and SB endorsements. i’m a fan of its blackness, and general understatement. its a tank and hauls ass across crap terrain.
Cat is unimpressed with bike
(not mine though)
You broke the rules man!
Update on CommuteCheck:
Taken the front rack off, put the Schwalbe Kojak 35s on. It’s got mini-V’s now, and a support rack for the saddle bag. Think that’s about it…
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now sporting Saint BB (for it’s goldness) SLX cranks which unexpectedly showed up with gold chainring bolts. XT RD, Salsa woodchippers, tiagra brifters and Avid bb7 roads. Have some velocity blunt SL’s eagerly awaiting bright orange paint.
Saint eh? So a REAL monster then…
Hey I saw these listed on ebay yesterday. Shutter Precision PD-8s (which happen to have been rebranded as Supernova Infinity (in a C-lock version) and soon by Exposure too). But much cheaper then the Supernovas. They’re bringing them out in Gold Ano soon, so could work nicely on your build.
I’m putting one on my X Check once I’ve got that income thing sorted. 
Joe Cosgrove is now fixing my Salsa, yay!!!
…on a by-note, he has no idea of his interweb presense.
New dropout?
To be honest, I am not sure. He said he could fix it and was quite busy. So I took him at his word and left him with it.
Amazing man, I had been warned he could talk, but the knowledge and variety of topics made me not want to leave.
We spoke about my frame for about 5 mins, then the next hour I listened to him talk about decals, frames and French bike standards.
Picked my frame up from Joe today. Graham (In The Pink) also picked up Blakey’s Frezoni ( beautiful ). Again listened to Joe talk for an hour. We didn’t even ask questions, just tried to soak it all up. A great experience.
This is in the garden.
Graham and Joe.
ooaaahhh !!!
I should have taken more pics, but I was a guest and didn’t want to impose.
Finally finished (well, mechanically at least) the super commuter. Long time coming.
Lots of parts from all over the place. Chopping and changing as it was built.
Still need to install racks and fenders. Thought I’d take it for a couple of short rides before doing anymore work on it.
Dyno front wheel has been built, just needs rim tape and some lights to drive.
Sorry about the crappy, iPhone, NDS pic. Will get some more sorted soon.
Happy I left heaps of steerer tube on this. Needs a slightly longer stem. HT is very short.
Also looks like there could be some issues with the rear fender and there aren’t any eyelets on the frame. Might have to be mounted to the rack.
Forks have fender eyelets but the disc brake looks to be obscuring this.
That looks pretty good, I was kinda keen on one of the Nakisi frames, good value and versatile but the super short headtube put me off if I wanted to run drops.
And aren’t there eyelets just up from the dropouts on the seat stays? though the guards and rack will have to share.
Good value for $300 a frameset
Yeah, there is a braze-on for a rear rack that the fender should be able to share.
As for running drops, I’ve got these that I’ll get around to putting on at some point, probably with bar end shifters.
