bashermax 

I've read a few threads on here about folks hunting for 70's and 80's Trek head badges and having not much luck. About the only sources are VELOCALS vinyl decal or trying to find someone on ebay with a take-off from another bike (Meaning someone else will be looking to replace the one on that frame later) ... but I digress.

My approach was to use some 0.015" brass shim stock (local hardware store) that's thick enough to hold up but thin enough to work easily. I searched the web for images of badges and copied multiples and printed several in the 2" size range. I cut out the badge with shears and used a sharpie, a compass and Xacto knife to lay out the general design.

I have a jewelers saw and a few basic engraving tools (From a prior blackpowder rifle building project) and drilled out pilot holes where I was going to saw (Note this is a departure from the original badge... but wtf it's MY bike, right!?

After careful cutting and filing with jewelers files I then Engraved the TREK lettering. Just to let you know my engraving SUCKS, but I just wanted to have a little relief & roughness where the paint could sit flush with the surface. When it was all done I buffed it and then curved it using a dowel and a 3" piece of PVC pipe cut in half long-ways as a die. ( I did have to do a little hand bending to get it just right). I elected to glue in place with some E6000. Not "perfect" but not bad from about 2' away

The Golden Boy 

Nice!

See if you can put a blue background on the interior of the cutouts so it stands out more than the silver!

bashermax 

I thought about black, as the original head badge had. Of course the original was painted, not cut out so... I'll see what it looks like

The Golden Boy 

The contrasting head tube is a nice touch on the bike- IMO the paint scheme on the 86 bikes (and the decal colors) are just a touch "classier" than the 85. Occasionally you'll see an 86 Trek 620- with a contrasting head tube- officially, there wasn't an 86- so you'd get the old model in the new model year's paint scheme.

But having the contrasting headtube and a matching (the rest of the bike tubes) background behind the badge showing through the cutouts... I think that would look cool. Not that it doesn't look cool right now.

due ruote 

That looks quite good!

Here's one I sold a while back. It was from a wrecked frame, I swear. And yes, it went for more than I would have thought.

The lettering was raised; stamped from the back I guess. No idea how you would do that as a one-off with hand tools.

OldsCOOL

Sweet!!

bashermax 

I think that one is from the 70's. One of the first designs.

I thought about trying that, but didn't think I could control the medium as well. I think you'ld have to lay the brass onto a piece of latigo leather and then , working in reverse from the flip side, tool it. It would be easier to create a tool and die Press, whereby you could knock out dozens at one go, but unless you could sell them at $50 each I doubt it would be worth the set up trouble

Amesja

I didn't know that these were so sought after. I've passed up some pretty good deals on old Trek frames and whole bikes thinking they wouldn't be worth it, some with pretty iffy frames but salvageable components and such.

But if the headbadges could be harvested and resold for a bit of cash it would have made the difference in those deals.

In the future I'll keep this in mind. Good info, and nice hand-built headbadge there Bashermax. Maybe you could use some black foil behind the headbadge to get that OEM "look?" Perhaps even some heavy thick aluminum foil spray-painted black and then fastened inside using contact cement applied to the back of the badge?

Amesja

This has got me thinking. My '97 SingleTrack is headbadgeless. I should do something for it eventually.

The color scheme is a nice deep red with brass-gold decals and trim. The vintage Trek headbadge would really look nice on it. It's not vintage correct, but I'm not one to always be strict when it comes to mixing my vintages

Maybe I'll just pick up a VeloCals vinyl sticker headbadge for it the next time I make an order. It'd look pretty darn nice I think. Not as nice as a real brass DIY one like yours, but it'd jazz up the bike a bit...

It doesn't look too bad:

auchencrow

+1
Actually a 1976 - 1st year production. See history here.

auchencrow

I really like your cutouts Bashermax. Very nice approach.

auchencrow

Does anyone know what the Trek head badge logo represents? Is it supposed to be a stylized tree? Any significance?

kaliayev

My '78 TX700 has the brass head badge with the screws(76). Not sure how correct that link is at least for the early years.

Amesja

That's a good question. I wonder if anyone knows the answer to it.

For me it has always had an uncomfortable resemblance for me to the Spanish Phalanx from the Facist Falange movement of 1930's Spain that later showed up again in Italy's fascist movement under Mussolini.



I'd love for someone to shed light on the Trek logo so that I don't have to wonder this every time I see it.

bashermax 

Amesja... If you look at early American art (Revolutionary war- Civil War) you will see recurring themes of bundles of arrows, especially in the clutches of eagles etc... so don't get too bent out of shape about thinking Treks are linked to Neo-Facism!. The tree idea has some merit, since the lettering and style in the early days was ART NUOVEAU . I think it kind of reminds me of the view down the road thu a "fish-eye" lense.
"And the Road goes on FOREVER..." as we say down here in Allman Couintry

GordoTrek

i always thought it represented the open road...

gklinger

Here is the custom badge that Jen Green (headbadges.com) made for me. This was when new, since it's copper it's developing a nice patina. I had removed the original from my '78 TX-700 and it was stolen along with many other small parts and tools. I finally got around to building the frame back up and like others have found, locating a nice original is not that easy.



The Velocals decal is not accurate, but would work in a pinch. And I agree that the Trek headbadge history page is not correct, my original owner '78 had the one shown as one year '76, attached with screws.

bashermax 

Is it too much to ask how much something like that one cost? That is a thing of beauty. MUCH better than my feeble attempts

Amesja

When it comes to custom hand-made jobs by jewelers the price usually falls into the, "If you have to ask you can't afford it," range.

gklinger

Honestly, I'd rather not say, but I thought it was very reasonable. If you check her website she gives some price ranges. Her work is beautiful and it looks she can do most any design you may have in mind. And a quick turnaround too.

bashermax 

I did check out her site. Most items were in the $75-120 range. (What I normally have available to buy a WHOLE bike ) But this is a reasonable fee for a custom one off made by hand by a true artist/jeweler (Which requires NOT JUST the ability to think and draw artistically, but the skill and craftsmanship to execute the work in Metal) Maybe one day, when My ship comes in

DIMcyclist

Me too- it's an idea neatly represented in their succeeding logo designs.

The powdercoaters bent mine all to hell when they removed it; a small oversight on my part, but the old badge can't be reused without significant re-shaping... Ergo:



My $2 solution to the problem of a missing Trek headbadge: a scooter sticker for a Japanese pop-punk band.

I'd thought about maybe using an old Ben Franklin half-dollar, but the local transients would probably just run off with it.

bashermax 

In MY neighborhood, they'd pry it off a $300 bike just before they took the bike to the salvage yard for the $10 they'd get.

Amesja

In my neighborhood they'd do the same thing but would pull the stem off to smoke crack in it too, which they'd buy with the $10 they got from the scrapyard.

DIMcyclist

I guess it goes to show that value is in the eye of the beholder.