As Close As I Can Get to a Road Bike

[roccobike]

As some of you know, I can not ride with turned down handlebars due to a neck injury. However, I wanted something faster than a mountain bike for the street. I found a Trek 720 at a garage sale last September. I replaced the rusted chain, cleaned the cassette, tuned the Alivio deraileur, adjusted the brakes, lubed the hubs and headset then polished every part of the frame with auto wax to remove the oxidized paint. I purchased a set of cateye lights and added a cateye mity2 computer from another garage sale special. Total investment so far is $55 and many hours. I took it on its first serious ride as part of Stepham's Jan 1 ride. Here tis':

[oldcrank]

Very nice restoration work, indeed!

FWIW, you may (or may not) find that your arms will become less fatigued over time if you level your saddle just a bit.

[roccobike]

Very nice restoration work, indeed!

FWIW, you may (or may not) find that your arms will become less fatigued over time if you level your saddle just a bit.
Yes, Thanks. When I took it out today, the seat was not set correctly. When I adjusted, I overcompensated and the result was exactly as you stated, oldcrank, tired arms. I will adjust it before I ride again. Thanks.

[p8rider]

Nice looking bike. It appears you did a great job with just a small outlay!

[linux_author]

- great find! i also lucked out and found a nice Specialized Crossroads w/almost the same setup... had to replace the tires and clean up the frame and drivetrain, but otherwise i have a nice upright ride for $100!

- hope you get many good miles on yours (i'm up to almost 500 miles on mine!)

:-)

[roccobike]

- great find! i also lucked out and found a nice Specialized Crossroads w/almost the same setup... had to replace the tires and clean up the frame and drivetrain, but otherwise i have a nice upright ride for $100!

- hope you get many good miles on yours (i'm up to almost 500 miles on mine!)

:-)
linux, Do you have pictures? I'd like to see it.
My pictures don't show that the original tires are getting tired. If I continue to ride the Trek, I probably will join you and replace the tires with something more narrow than the 35C width on the bike now. Funny thing happened when I bought it. The owner let it go cheap because it had 2 flat tires. I put air in both, and they were fine. In four months I've only topped off the air twice.

[jppe]

Nice bike Rocco! Who says all bikes have to look the same!

[Nightshade]

Nice work , mate. Nice work.

Due to your neck injury allow me to suggest that IF, just IF, you still
can't get comfortable consider taking more weight OFF your arms & hands
by dumping the MTB bars replacing them with either North Roads Type or
Moustace bars from Nashbar. Both will get you "UP" more to allow your
sit bones to carry your weight.

The 'Moustach" bars that Nashbar sells has a bit of a drop unlike the Nitto
bars which allow them to be "flipped" over to put that rise just right for my
back. I added an adustable stem to allow finer adjustments 'till it's just
right for me. Those MTB just kill me in a very short time as my arms are
not rotated naturally so in short order the wrist start to numb then the
shoulders go. I really don't see why folks like'm so much.

Like I said.....Nice work , mate. :beer: :beer:

[stapfam]

I hate new bikes. They don't fit, parts need to wear in, or fail under warranty, all those final adjustments to make to get comfortable, and then you have to modify the damn thing for your particular riding style.

In your case, trying to make someone else's bike fit you, you have a few more trips out to get that final bit of comfort. Sounds as though the investment of yours has paid off though. Just a few more adjustments and you will be there. Incidentally- I still ride a mountain bike, and a couple of mods I made for my neck were to fit Riser bars and short bar ends. Riser bars bring your hands back towards you and up a bit higher. Degrees of rise and how far back come with various manufactures so plenty of choice. Then the bar ends- just to give you a slight variation of body position.

Well done on the Bike, and hope you can find that final bit of comfort before too long.

Edit-- Just looked at the pics and you already have riser bars, so perhaps a shorte/ higher stem would help.

[jcm]

What Tightwad said.

I have a Trek 830 ('88 MTB) that has morphed into a dang fine commuter/short touring thing. I also have a bad neck and drop bars are definitely out. I use North Road bars and they have literally saved this activity for me.

Also, I installed an adjustable stem to rock the bars back a little to shorten the cockpit and raise them up even more. Changed to a Specialized "comfort" saddle - more of a seat actually - female pattern at that. It's the kind you're not supposed to be able to ride for over a couple of miles :rolleyes:. My butt and neck are just fine after 30 or more miles non-stop.

So far I have opted to keep the old 18 speed set-up because I switched out the fatties for some 1.5 Armadillos. Quite a difference in pedal effort and is on average (by GPS) 1 to 2 mph faster.

BTW, that's a great looking bike!

[rule]

Sweet! Nice work rocco! ;)

[Digital Gee]

Rocco -- great lookin' bike!

Tightwad -- I ordered a North Roads handlebar for my Univega (which is supposed to be done tomorrow! *fingers crossed*). I like flatbars, love 'em in fact, but I think the North Roads will be cool.

[linux_author]

linux, Do you have pictures? I'd like to see it.

- replaced 700x38s w/700x35s, added fenders, rack - it's my shopping bike:

http://www.tux.org/~bball/biking/crossroads.jpg

[p8rider]

linux author, That's the second good looking bike on this thread. Nice job, are the fenders part of the standard package. It seems just the sort of bike I am looking for so my wife can ride with the children along with me. Good Job!