Touring - One more new trek 520

Hi! I just got a new 2001 Trek 520, 21" for my bad 5'6" self, put XT on the front half of the drive train so that I can ride up the side of a house fully loaded, in a color other than rainforest green (choppy sea gray instead), all for under $1000 dollars. It is, of course, as sweet as everyone says, and I will tell more once I get all of my camping gear on it and wind down the steep northern arizona roads.

Hi Arijane,

I am looking at a Trek 520 as well -- what chainrings did you get for the front? Did you have to change the front derailleur and/or the Bottom Bracket?

Cheers!
Narayan

On our two 2002 model Trek 520s, I changed out the Shimano 105 front (wanting to get rid of those ridiculous high top gears in trade for more in the middle where I ride, and some lower gears for steep hills) for the Shimano XT, which comes in 22-32-44. This DOES require a different Bottom Bracket, the ES-70 BB (this year's model is labelled ES-71).

The change from 30-42-52 will require that the derailleur be lowered (since the rings are smaller) and readjusted in and out (because the XT cranks sit out further from the bike by about 5mm, changing the chainline a bit).

You'll also have to remove 4 links from your chain (shorten it two inches), again because the big ring is 8 teeth smaller (only half of which the chain wraps around, thus only 4 links get removed).

Same change here, and I think the derailleur is original -- but since that was part of the deal at the LBS, I lost a few details. Anyway, the 520 is quite forgiving on front derailleur issues because it uses bar-end shifters and those shift the front derailleur in friction mode.

P.S. Congratulations Arijane

I put an XT crankset and front derailleur on my bike, which I like for consistency's sake if nothing else. The bottom bracket was also changed. I thought that it was important to have a good BB and crankset, because those are parts of the bike that see a ton of use when you are touring. I was glad to make the change; I even feel like the gears on my road bike are too tall for the hilly country I ride around in, and certainly wouldn't want to try to ride them loaded without much lower gears.

I looked long and hard at the 520, but opted for the 4900 hardtail. Bike works great for the areas I like to tour in with minimal modification.:D I think that the bike is pretty fine as a touring machine and I've got something I can bang down fire roads when I have a mind to.

actually, i haven't used the trek as a touring bike yet, but i have taken it out the last several weekends and bombed down fire roads, as well as singletrack. i consider that bike to be a touring/cyclocross, and it has definitely had more use as the latter. the lack of cushion is a pain, but if you get down on the drops, it handles pretty darned well. i think that knobby tires would help as well, especially bigger ones to give a bit more cushion. the entire drive train is identical to a high end mountain bike's and the frame is built to be super tough. on that note, i am currently building up a rocky mountain hardtail, but i think my cyclocross days on the trek are far from over.

Ive used my touring bike and a non-sus MTB (Trek 850) for bombing down singletrack. The MTB has the advantage, but the touring bike can do it.