The frame was built 1979 by Tim Isaac under a contract to USCF to build frames for the 1980 US Olympic Cycling Team. This particular frame was a spare and spent some time on the road travelling with the team for training before the Olympics. Of course it never made it to Moscow because of the boycott protesting the USSR's involvement in Afghanistan. Hmm.

When I started at Trek in later 1980, Tim had recently been hired as the frame designer for Trek. The frame was sitting in a corner in Tim's office, somewhat beat-up and bare except for a Super Record headset and shifters. I pestered him about it and eventually he agreed to sell it to me. Around the same time, USCF returned the other team frames to Tim for repainting, so he threw it in with the rest of them and it got the paint job in the picture above.

I originally built it up the same way the other team bikes were built: all Super Record, sew-ups, etc. Since then some of the Campy stuff has migrated off. I no longer do well with 53/42 cranks, so it now sports a Zeus 2000 crank and BB with 48/36 chainrings. Derailluers, brakes, headset, seat post and hubs are still Campy but the shifters are Simplex Retrofriction. I have two sets of wheels for it: the original sew-ups and another clincher set with Record hubs and Campy Omega rims. Handlebars and stem are still old-logo Cinelli.

It's a fantastic ride, too!