milofilo

Thanks everyone for your help on this! I think I am going to try and suit it up for light touring. I am coming from ultralight backpacking so I don't need it to carry that much weight and shouldn't need too many gears. My main issue is learning about bike mechanics... It's a bit overwhelming. I've been biking my whole life and can do basic fixes but have never done an overhaul project like this! Anyone have favorite resources?

cpach

Hey Milo, great score! The frame is easily worth the price of the bike you bought, and that front wheel is indeed resalable. Older Trek 520s command a reasonable price as well designed, American built touring bikes. One big bonus of touring bikes is that you can run wider tires that can open up options to tour off paved surfaces. That said, it's likely that you'll need to do a moderate amount of work to put that bike into a good riding condition. The easiest way to do so without spending very much is to go to a bicycle cooperative if there's one available in your area. You mention there's a community shop in your post--I'd honesty not spend any money ordering online before heading there, I would be very surprised if you couldn't find a functional, conventionally spoked 700c clincher wheel used there easily.

If the community shop/coop can't provide much guidance, it'll probably require a moderate amount of research on the internet to do it on your own. Sheldonbrown.com is a fantastic resource, and for specific tasks Repair Help Articles | Park Tool is pretty great. This forum is also a great resource.

For touring and utility use I'd advise against buying a low spoke count wheel like the Ksyrium. They're decent wheels but the wheel will go more drastically out of true if a spoke brakes, and the spokes are annoying to order replacements for. For that bike I'd recommend a more conventional 32 or 36 spoke wheel. Nearly any 700c front wheel will do--for touring use you may want a wheel with a somewhat wider rim (say over 17mm internal width). For tires, if you're not carrying much (say, less than 20lbs loaded, and you being of a relatively slim build) 28mm tires would work fine, but there are very few disadvantages to wider tires (weight, potentially less supple construction in available models) and lots of advantages to wider tires (smoother ride, lower rolling resistance with similar tire construction, better performance on rough and non-paved surfaces, can support heavy loads without risk of pinch flat). 32-38mm would be pretty common for touring, even with light loads

I am amazed at the drop bar integrated shifters mounted on that flat bar! I was genuinely unaware that that was possible--and it looks like it'd work really poorly. The good news is that most cyclists like integrated shifters, and they're often a somewhat expensive upgrade for older bikes. Unless you're against drop bars, I'd try to pick up a set of drop bars and remount those levers. While you're at it, you should try to find out the amount of reach you need and get a stem that matched with your new handlebars provides the appropriate fit. This would be easiest at a bicycle cooperative, but many good bike shops will also have a variety of threaded stems and could help you out with fitting for a fee. You may have an easier time (particularly at brick and mortar shops) by buying a threadless converter like this one https://www.amazon.com/Profile-Design.../dp/B0028N14GQ, which will let you use modern threadless stems and oversized handlebars, at the risk of looking a little uglier and maybe being a little heavier.

The age of this bike and the general frickin' WEIRDNESS of how it's currently kludged together would make me want to go over it particularly thoroughly and do a more or less complete overhaul.

Bike Gremlin

Tyre dimensions

Metaluna

Yeah I did a double take on that one too. I've seen them mounted sideways on flat bars, trekking bars, etc., but never like that. I guess it depends on your definition of "possible". If you define possible as "stays on the bars and doesn't fall off, is barely usable and kind of dangerous", then it's not hard to imagine how you'd do it. Just rotate the mounting clamp 90 degrees and torque it down, possibly using a longer fixing bolt. Depending on the shape of the cavity behind the lever, you might be able to get enough of the lever body to contact the bar so it stays in place through friction -- at least for a while until your first emergency stop anyway. If you zoom in on the OP's picture you can see the rotated mounting clamp on the left lever and some kind of white material stuffed between the bars and lever body -- maybe a shim to stabilize it.

bike_galpal

thank you for using the word "basic" instead of "stupid"