vitaly66

I bought this frameset brand new from a bike shop in Oregon sometime in/around 1982.



It languished in a succession of storage units for years and years, never built it up, for reasons not simply explained.

Then sometime in/around 2006, back in Portland, I threw a mess of parts on it, to at least get it rideable. It was fast and fun, and from the few rides I managed to get in on it, I could tell the frame qualities were much better than I ever expected.

But after just a few short months, back it went into its time capsule, while my wife and I flew off to West Africa for yet another stint overseas.

Seven more years would pass. Long hard years, too, with bicycling virtually absent.

But, finally, just this week we were reunited once again. I was so eager to check it out!



Amazing, all I did was to put air in the tires.

And it is still fast and fun. Yes, I know some of these parts will make the purist gag (me too!), those ghetto bullhorn bars for example. But all this is easily fixable. First order of business will be the cockpit, new stem and bars to get the fit dialed in.

Oh my goodness, how time passes in this life. Did I really once ride on nothing but tires as skinny as these (700x25c)? And the downtube shifters now feel like such a looooong way down there... Maybe my arms have shrunk.

Anyway, just thought I would share my little blast from the past.

spacemanz

I like it a lot. I was just looking at an early 80s 710 online (too small), not long ago, & it's drool-worthy.

vitaly66

Thanks spacemanz. These may not be the fanciest frames in the universe, but the workmanship is solid.

AAZ

I agree. Thanks for sharing. Terrific bike.

vitaly66

In the 1982 line-up, Trek offered 3 frameset geometries in the Reynolds 531 double-butted 700 series:

* 710, pewter with blue panels, sport touring
* 720, pewter with taupe panels, loaded touring
* 730, pewter with red panels, "racing"

At the time I bought the 730 frameset, I already had the 710 and was using it as my main bike, ordinary daily commuting and weekend excursions. So I got the 730 with the intention of using it for the "go faster" stuff.

And I even planned to get a 720 at some point so I would have the complete matched set!

a77impala

Beautiful bike, I love the '80s lugged steel Treks.

The Golden Boy 

I love the 80s Treks. I have a few of them and my favorite bike is an 85 Trek. Many of us here are big fans of this era of Treks.

A few days ago, someone posted an interview with John Burke the CEO of Trek. I find it interesting that he said this:

"After graduating in 1984 with a business degree, I joined Trek as a sales representative... Trek was not doing well at the time, and I heard complaints about quality and customer service on my stops. It was the greatest education ever; you don’t find out a lot when things are going well or if you sit in an office all day. I learned the value of happy customers."

I don't know if the implication is that there were quality problems that were causing Trek to not do well, or Trek wasn't doing well and he was in sales so he got to hear people complain. I just find it interesting that bikes of a solidly reputable company, in their "golden years" were perhaps not as well received as we perceive them having been... (if that makes any sense)


Very cool bike and story Vitaly!

vitaly66

Starting around 1985, Trek began departing from its core technology in steel frames and moving production into aluminum. The wikipedia article says this about Trek in the mid-eighties:

"The introduction of bonded aluminum to Trek’s production line proved very problematic for a company that had built itself on hand-brazed steel frames. Manufacturing ground to a halt as Trek worked to figure out how to build bonded frames in a production environment."

So, yeah, I can imagine there were some big time quality control issues. Plus the fact that Trek was growing very quickly then, and expanding into other lines of business, including accessories and apparel.

I sort of lost interest in Trek after that.

But back in the early 80s, Trek was still cool.

The Golden Boy 

It wasn't until you mentioned it- but 1984/5 is when they started with the one piece headtube/lug thing and the stays with lugs on them and the 'through the chainstay' cable routing... I hadn't even thought of that.

Although they're the big company in the bike field, I still think they're cool- but IMO- the style of the bikes changed around 88. The new head badge, the bold downtube decal... Although I like the letters on the seat tube- I think the 1986/7 downtube decals were the best.

I was just looking at your bike- how big is your largest cog? If that's like a 30, you're going to want to keep that XC Pro derailleur. First, it's way cool. Second, it sits low enough to allow the the pulleys to sit directly underneath the large cog and not hit. I really wanted to use a Superbe Pro on mine, but it was a no go- it sits too high.

I like the way those Suntour XC derailleurs work- even in friction. My Voyageur has an XC Comp with ratcheting Sachs/Huret shifters- I think I like the feel better than the Shimano XT that I had on there.

By the way- keep this up to date- I'll probably be paying attention if/when I decide to redo my Trek 730 (it was built as a 736).

JohnDThompson 

No, that's not true. Steel frame production was going on full-bore while the aluminum frame was being prototyped and manufacturing methods developed. The problem was that demand for the steel frames was outpacing our ability to build them. Tim Isaac worked on ways to speed the process of building the steel frames, particularly with the cast lugs, head tubes, and dropouts used on many of the mid-level frames. These parts obviated the need for mitering; the tubes were straight-cut and abutted a shoulder cast into the lug sockets, and the socketed dropouts eliminated a time-consuming finishing process where the stays joined the dropouts. Automated brazing equipment was also developed for use on the mid-level frames, including using electromagnetic induction to heat the parts. Some of these processes worked better than others, and the difficulty in meeting demand meant that some sloppy work passed through. But the OP's 730 frame would have suffered none of these issues; these were still hand-brazed and finished, at least up to the point when I left Trek in 1986.

vitaly66

Contrast painted headtube and badge (glued on), 1982 Trek 730:



I like the Trek "font" of this time period, and the austere simplicity of the styling. The seattube panel is just a big decal though, which is not quite so nice as the rest of the outfit. There are a few small wrinkles/bubbles in mine that have been there since new.

Ooooh, I've always lusted after the beautiful Superbe kit on the factory 736 build! Those components are like jewels.

A lot of the parts on this bike actually came off my 1982 715: SR crankset, quill stem, laprade seatpost; Gran Compe brakes/levers. That bike also had Suntour Cyclone Mk II derailleurs, and the front derailleur still survives on this one.

Somewhere along the way I picked up the Suntour XC Comp, long cage. The rear Cyclone I used to have on the 715 must have gone bust.

The wheelset I picked up sometime in the later 1990s, Shimano 600 "tri-color" hubs laced to Mavic rims. The rear hub is setup with 130mm spacing, while the frameset seems to be 126mm. No biggie, the wheel slides into position with just a little encouragement.

The cassette is a 7-speed HG Hyper Glide, 13-34. I would like to replace this at some point with an 8-speed cassette, and with a 12 tooth sprocket for the smallest cog. Any advice from anyone on if/how this can be done? Not worried about any indexed shifting, friction is fine by me. Just the issues of clearances and chain thickness.

Vonruden

Sweet Trek!

due ruote 

https://sheldonbrown.com/k7.html#transplant

Upgrading From 6-/7-speed (126 mm) to 8-/9-speed (130 or 135 mm)

A frequent reason for body transplantation is to convert a 6- or 7-speed Freehub to use 8-/9-/10-speed cassettes. This generally will increase the over-locknut dimension. As a result you will usually need to re-dishthe wheel after doing this upgrade.6- and 7-speed hubs generally use 126 mm spacing, while 8-/9-speed hubs use 130 mm (road) or 135 mm (MTB/hybrid).Some folks will tell you that you also need to install a longer axle when doing this, but that's not correct. Typical rear QR axles are 11 mm longer than the over-locknut dimension of the hub, so there's 5.5 mm of axle sticking out past the locknuts. That's way more than is actually needed. If you are converting a 126 mmOLD 7-speed Freehub (137 mm axle length) to 8 or more speeds, the OLD goes to 130 mm. That will leave you 3.5 mm of protrusion on each side, once you move the right cone over to even things out. That's plenty.In fact, no protrusion is truly necessary, but it's a convenience in wheel installation to have some protrusion. I once set up a bike with zero protrusion, where the axle was flush with the locknuts. (This was a fixed-gear with vertical dropouts, and I did it to give me a bit more chain tension adjustability.) I put a lot of hard miles on that bike; it never gave me a lick of trouble.If you do re-space your hub, you'll also need to re-dish your wheel, because the extra space will all be added on the right side by installing the wider Freehub body. You'll need to tighten spokes on the right, possibly also loosen some on the left, to move the rim 2 mm to the right so that it will once again be centered in the frame.In going to a wider hub spacing, you'll also need to deal with the frame spacing, but this is not as difficult as you might suppose. For details on this, see my article on Frame Spacing.

Very pretty Trek!

vitaly66

Yes "due ruote", I did read Sheldon on this topic. In my case, the rear hub/axle is already 130mm, so it shouldn't need re-spacing, so I'm not sure if his comments apply. The hub is a Shimano 600 from about 1996.