# Specialized Crossroads?



## Squidward (Dec 18, 2005)

I'm not sure if I should be posting this here or on MTBR.com's forums.

A neighbor was giving away an old Specialized Crossroads bike so I picked it up for my nephew to ride to work and school. After getting it road-worthy again, I have more questions than ever. 

There doesn't seem to be any information about older Crossroads bikes on The Web. I may have something unusual here as it came with fenders, rear rack, even a generator and what should have been a rear light and headlight, all from Specialized. The frame and fork are chrome-moly. The non-drive side seat stay has a welded on bracket for the generator mount and the frame is drilled and was routed for wiring to get power from the generator to the headlight. The rear fender is internally wired to carry power to the rear tail light. I've removed the generator and lights as well as the rack but left the fenders on because of the wet weather we've had lately.

The components on this bike are pretty much low-mid range. It has Exage components and the cantilever brakes left a lot to be desired. The 7-speed Grip-Shift shifter was broken so I replace them and the rubbery brake levers with some integrated brake and shift levers from my friend's old Diamondback mountain bike he was upgrading (Deore LX 7-speed parts). The saddle was falling apart and the tires were trashed from sitting out in the sun for what appears to be a year or two so I replaced these. The tires I chose to put on this bike are 700 X 25C Performance Bike cheapo tires. The saddle is an old Avocet that came off an old Bridgestone RB-1 I picked up last year and sold to the same nephew. Yes, I replaced the chain, too.

I took this bike for a 13 mile road ride the other day after a storm blew through because this is the only bike in the stable with fenders on it. Other than the saddle being a bit harder than I prefer and some minor drivetrain issues (I need to tighten down the drive-side crankset to try to get the chainline correct) it was a blast. Not as nimble nor as light as my road bike but it sure was smoother, better handling, and faster than any of my mountain bikes!

I'm thinking of trading one of my old Stumpies for this Crossroads and make a project bike out of it. The frame is straight but is rusty in spots. Most of the components are rusty but the bike, as a whole, works just fine. Maybe tear it down, strip the paint off of it, then bring it to a local body shop to have them spray some color on it. I would lop off the generator mount tab, too, while I was at it. I'd like to put it on a mild diet and drop its weight by a few lbs, too.

Anyone have a Crossroads out there or can provide any insight on what I have?


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## filtersweep (Feb 4, 2004)

That is a lot of work for a bike in the $300 range when new-- not saying you can't have fun fixing up a bike (on its own merits). It probably feels smoother because you have slick tires on it.



Squidward said:


> I'm not sure if I should be posting this here or on MTBR.com's forums.
> 
> A neighbor was giving away an old Specialized Crossroads bike so I picked it up for my nephew to ride to work and school. After getting it road-worthy again, I have more questions than ever.
> 
> ...


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## Squidward (Dec 18, 2005)

I never thought about it in terms of it being a $300 bike. I was thinking of doing a rattle-can paint job and fixing it up as inexpensively as possible. I'm hoping to replace the Bio-pace chainrings on my old Stumpie with round rings anyway so I was going to put the aluminum Bio-pace rings on the Crossroads to replace the steel rings that came with it. Not much but better than nothing.


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