Just about a bike: Specialized S-Works CX

Some of following information was originally posted to the Vintage, Retro, Classic forum at mtbr.com on 18 October 2024.

 

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I stumbled upon a 2000 Specialized S-Works CX whist scrolling through the otherwise-mostly-dreck on our local Craigslist the other day.  As pictured in the ad, and later on initial inspection, the bike appeared to me to be rather cobbled together (as bikes of this vintage so often are). Nevertheless it looked like it had really good bones (these frames were handbuilt in the USA), bright mostly-intact paint, and best of all, surprise! some really good shit in a box, too: turns out the seller still had the balance of the original XTR-M950 parts, the right-hand Ultegra integrated lever, everything, in fact, except for the stock rear wheel with its bespoke S-Works hub. Alas. 

Despite the bike's basic cobbled togetheredness, to my eye it also looked like it had significant resto/refurb potential. During our first salvo of correspondence the seller told me he'd mostly left it shelved in his garage for many years and now needed the space for other things now (a tale as old as time). The seller also told me he had inherited it from a neighbor some years ago and had converted it to 11 speed recently, but that he was willing to include the old parts in the deal if I was willing to return the newer 11-speed parts to him once I'd removed them from the bike. Done!

I sold a lot of new Specialized bikes back in the day. The frame sticker that's still on this bike is from the shop where I worked and from the time-period (the old, obsolete area code gives it away) when this bike was being sold as new. Did I sell it to the original buyer? Dunno. Maybe I did. Hard to recollect specific sales and customers nowadays, almost 25 years later. 

But I definitely remember this: back then I personally could never afford an S-Works bike of any flavor (BikePedia says MSRP in 2000 was $2499 (or about $4700 today, adjusted for inflation)). Always wanted one, though. Also, I have a soft spot for cyclocross bikes that I'm not at all ashamed to admit to. So, without any haggling, once I'd inspected the bike at our neutral rally-point (in this case, the hospital parking lot), I gave the buyer every penny he was asking in cash (which was $350, box of parts included, so: okay!)

Spent about 5 hours futzing with it that evening, and, like, another hour the next morning, getting 25 years of dirt and grime off, touching up the chipped paint (even fixed the damaged driveside E in Specialized, too, as best I could), cleaning and re-greasing all the places that needed new grease (which was all of them), stringing new cables, wrapping new tape, reinstalling all the right stuff, taking off all the wrong.

Came out pretty nice, if I do say so, as close as I could get it to its original showroom condition, with just a few gray hairs evident as proof of its vintage.

For now, I left the original Prolong saddle installed despite its tattered leather and faded Kevlar corners. Might not be pretty, but it's definitely rideable.  Couldn't conclusively determine if the fugly, unbranded silver-clamped single-bolt post was an original stock option. Did find some evidence online that the second-gen 2001 S-Works CXs were spec'd with Thomson Elite posts, so I installed one of them on this bike, too. Let's be honest, the Thomson Elite is sorta the Chris King headset of seatposts anyway.  Plus I'm no fan of one-bolt posts as a rule.  Finally, I also installed a set of matching (albeit anachronistic) LX 700c wheels that I had in back-stock and removed the mismatched pair that were on it. Mismatched wheelsets trigger my OCD, and the LXs are way more bomber, too, so they'll be good for "training."  You know me: always training.

Took it out for an extended shakedown of the grinder variety the very next day. And again the day after that. What a hoot! Light and fast and fun!

Because they were designed as mountain bike cranks, second-gen XTR FC M952 cranks have a built-in bolt-circle for a 74mm small chainring. Because I have always believed in the inherent efficacy and utility of small chainrings as a general rule, I went digging through my back-stock to locate such a part so I could upgrade this crankset accordingly.  Found a perfect, almost new, vintage stainless Specialized 28t ring at the bottom of one of the bins (the one labeled "chainrings" of course).  Since it had been a while, I watched a quick Park Tool Youtube video to remind myself how to correctly remove Octolink V1 cranks. Fortunately I had the correct CCP-44 crank remover tool gathering dust on my workbench (got it long ago because the Pugsley's SRAM Hussefelt cranks are also Octolink), so I was able to get the drive-side crank off and the new ring installed in just a few minutes.  Living on the talus slope of a giant shield volcano as we do around here, where all trails and all roads begin by going up, a small chainring is always a much appreciated upgrade and well worth the couple grams it adds to a bikes overall heft.

Because the frame had ample room (my calipers say there's about 41mm of clearance between the stays), I also installed a new set of Specialized Sawtooth 38mm tires and put them to the test on day-two's shakedown. Despite their rather roadish profile, they're surprisingly stable and grippy off road, even in the muck and mire, which was where I took them.

It would seem my Google-fu has failed me. Despite hours of searching, I've been able to locate very little information online about this pre-internets-era 2000 S-Works CX, just this bad scan from the 2000 Specialized retail sales catalog:

Best I can decipher, the text seems to confirm that almost all of the original equipment is still on the bike.  It appears to say:

Everything for the Cyclocross purist, straight out of Master Luca Bramati's handbook: featherweight M4 'cross frame, 49/36 chainings (take heart, there's a 26 in the box) and short-pull cantis mated to Ultegra STI levers. Details include S Works 5/10° stem , Ritchey Biomax bars, Revolution ProLong leather/Kevlar saddle with hollow manganese rails, and our Kevlar bead Cross Baldy Team tires.

Handbuilt USA-made fully manipulated M4 chassis / Custom Alloy thread-less cyclocross fork / S-Works STOUT wheelset with Mavic 32-spoke Open Pro CD rims, DT 15/16 spokes, red alloy nipples / Shimano XTR/Ultegra STI with Avid 15C 'cross cantilevers.