Touring - 520

Yesterday i test drove the Trek 520, and i love it! well in the next few days ill be getting it. anyone have any probs with the 520?

I have almost 300 miles on my new 520, and so far no problems.

I think this is mostly because I knew what I wanted and the LBS was willing to make it so, at generally no cost to me.

I knew I wanted an MTB crank instead of the 105, I knew I wanted a certain saddle and pedals, and eventually I knew I needed a slightly different stem.

I think all of these things, in addition to the original quality of the bike, has helped make it a great bike for me. It is very comfortable on the 40-65 mile rides I've been on.

The only change I made to the stock bike that cost me was switching the rear rack. The rack Trek provides is OK, but I just liked the extra sturdiness of the Jannd Expedition rack. Since I decided to switch several weeks after the purchase and the LBS doesn't carry them, I bought one for $45 (includes shipping) from Performance online. The Trek rack would probably be fine for the type of light touring I have in mind.

Congratulations; it's a great all-purpose bike. However, if you plan to use it for touring, you should think about lowering the gearing.

No two people are alike, but a general concensus is that, for touring, you should either replace rings with 26-38-48 (26 is the smallest that fits on the 105 cranks), or replace the entire crankset with an LX or XT crankset, and the appropriate bottom bracket. One is usually able to negociate some kind of deal at the shop at the time of purchase.

well, humm i am a bit ify about the 48 tooth. i did a small 2 day tour with a mountain bike with full gear on the back, it had just deore components and i found that i keeped on maxing out the bigest gear, and also i like riding with low cadence. will see anywho. ohh yah ill be using the bike for transportation to school and i basicaly sprint with a full suspension MTB, so i think i might be able to go much faster with a 52 tooth.

An alternative approach would be to get a 12-34 rear cassette (and upgrade the rear der to be able to handle it). I also swapped my small crank ring out for a 28. Not much chage from a 30, but, the 28/34 combo makes an acceptable low gear.
My memory is a bit foggy as to what the 520 has for wheels these days, but being compulsive when it comes to wheels, I might upgrade those as well.

i think i am keeping the gear ratios and upgrade or not in a year. but with the wheels, i know they aren't the greatest. i don't know that much about wheels and hubs. i just know that the 520 has deore lx hubs, do i have a wide slection of upgrades? what would be a good strong and light wheel that would be suitable for touring?
thkx

joel

Hi,
here's the thing, prob the most common touring rim is the Mavic 519. It's a nice rim, but gawfawful heavy, and slooow. It's perfect for bicycling Cambodia or Siberia, but I feel it's more rim than I need. So I got the Mavic CXP 33, it's a couple ounces lighter; but it's tough. It does have a firmer ride to it.
Guess it all boils down to the kind of riding you plan on, and the max total weight. I have managed to knock the CXP33s out of true once in 500 miles.
I am a big guy. If I could do it over, I would prob get 32 spokes in front, and 36 spokes in the rear.
For hubs, for a few bucks more you can get Ultegra. Just so you know, your dealer will give you a credit for the wheels on the 520, but you will need some extra bucks for the upgrade.

Late,

Current 520s already have a 11-32 cassette, so changing it won't give you that much of a lower gear (especially if you need to buy the 11-34).

Regarding hubs, it comes with LX hubs. You might upgrade to XT hubs, mut most folks would consider that a waste of money. BTW, LX and XT hubs are "mountain" hubs, so you can't upgrade to Ultegra or 105 hubs unless you respace the rear hub to 135 mm.

Oh, BTW, Shimano "mountain" hubs have better seals than road hubs, so it's a nice feature to keep.

Hi,
all well and good, the wider spacing of a Mtn bike hub is a good thing, so staying with that works. I think I would still want to buid up a wheel around those hubs with a lightweight rim like Turbonium asked for. I suppose at this point we should ask Turbonium how much he weighs, and if he is going to camp.

There are some other 520 threads in this forum, from last year. There are a lot of suggested modifications.

I myself got a mtb front set; long, hard climbs with a full load can be taken easily, if that's what you want to do. And who spins out the top end??

Unless you're doing a lot of offroad riding with your 520, the mtb hubs are overkill, I think. You might upgrade the rims, though. I got Mavic Touring instead of the stock rims. LBS built up the wheels with the stock hubs.

Originally posted by Merriwether

Unless you're doing a lot of offroad riding with your 520, the mtb hubs are overkill, I think. You might upgrade the rims, though. I got Mavic Touring instead of the stock rims. LBS built up the wheels with the stock hubs.


Concerning the hubs: According to the Shimano website, the LX hubs, front and rear, weigh a total of 644 grams (218+426). If you got 105s instead, they would weigh 618 (207+411). Savings = 26 grams. 105s seem to cost more than LXs.

Concerning the rims: If you are talking about Mavic T520 Silver rims, my performance catalog lists them as weighing 565 grams per rim. My 520 came with Bontrager Fairlane rims. The Bontrager website list the Fairlane as 560 grams.

The stock wheelset is heavy, but seems appropriate for the intended use of the bike. Considering the number of times I run over/into things due to traffic/inattentiveness, I kinda like the strength of the wheels. The Bontrager tires, on the other hand, don't look real sturdy, but do come with Kevlar belting. I got a puncture last week just to the outer edge of the tread, beyond the belt. When these wear out I'll probably get Continental Top Tourers.

Some online reviewers of the 520 said they had problems with the Bontrager rims at about 5,000 miles. Cracks.

Replacing the Farlanes with the Mavic T520 solved this problem, they said. No cracking, other problems, well out past 5,000 miles.

So, I thought I would be on the safe side, and change out right away.

It wasn't a weight question.

The lighter hubs might be a help; I was only saying they probably aren't something you'll need to change.

Originally posted by Merriwether
Some online reviewers of the 520 said they had problems with the Bontrager rims at about 5,000 miles. Cracks.

Replacing the Farlanes with the Mavic T520 solved this problem, they said. No cracking, other problems, well out past 5,000 miles.

So, I thought I would be on the safe side, and change out right away.

It wasn't a weight question.

The lighter hubs might be a help; I was only saying they probably aren't something you'll need to change.


No problem. I look at the reviews myself. Trouble is you never know what people are doing to their bikes before the component fails. And sometimes you do and wonder. I recall reading reviews of the LX crank and people complained it couldn't even hold up on 15ft jump! I guess I'll find out in a few thousand miles if my Bontrager rims will fail.

With the hubs, though, would it be better to stick with MTB hubs, at least for the rear, considering that the Trek 520 is already designed to hold the wider MTB hubs? Someday I might get a set of lighter wheels and I'll have to decide between road and mtb hubs at that time.

I wonder: there might have been a batch of troublesome rims, or maybe there was a problem with wheels not being properly built.

Anyway, my Trek arrived with true wheels... that didn't stay true for 2 weeks -- especially the rear wheel. After reading around, I decided to retighten the spokes drastically.

Now, more than 14000 km later, both wheels are still true and none of the rims are cracked. And we have quite a few potholes in our streets!

Regards,

I am currently doing a several months long tour on a Trek 520. I bought a 2001 with a threaded headset, replaced the stem, which was short and long, for one that was tall and short, like the number 7. I put an XT crankset and derailler on it, and an Avocet O2 saddle. I also put extra padding on the bars.

I have taken my loaded touring bike (arkel panniers, grand touring) on single track, back country passes, and also places where no trail existed.

Going down long steep hills in Colorado, the bike is totally stable as long as I balance the load in the front panniers.

The bike and the rest of my gear has had the snot beaten out of it, and all of it is beautifully holding up (except the mesh on the front panniers- that's all torn up).

I personally would buy the 520 again, and recommend it to anyone wanted to do serious loaded touring.:beer: