My beloved Surly LHT was stolen from me a little over a month ago. After a week or two riding metro to work, I borrowed a friend's rarely ridden early 2000s Nishiki Colorado while I began to consider my options. Didn't want anything suspension and had seen some good commuter/touring conversions of early-mid 1990s MTBs, and chanced across this 21" beauty on CL for cheap, now at home awaiting additional components and wheels (I'm even taking a stab at building up my own front wheel on this one) to get this ready to ride. Trek 830 Mountain Track.
I'm excited to get this built up the way I want it over time. If I like it enough, I may even (gasp) consider foregoing the purchase of another Surly LHT frame and just keep this guy. I'll probably swap out the straight handlebars for the trekking bars I have hanging around and eventually even go with a drop bar conversion with bar end shifters a la touring bikes. Even if I don't keep it forever, this will at least be a test bed and eventual donor bike for a new Surly LHT build. In any event, this bike will be loved and ridden A LOT. (I put between 3000 and 4000 miles a year on my bike commuting).
I haven't checked out the serial number to figure out the model year yet, but it seems hard to pin down an exact year for it... it doesn't seem to match up with any of the color schemes or photos I've come across on Vintage Trek. Anyone got any ideas?