Originally Posted by
atufft
I've been told my old steel made in America 531 Double Butted Trek is worth as much as 4x what I paid for it circa 1982. Serial number on bottom bracket and overall bike. Brakes, cranks, seat, and front hub are original. 22.5" frame with 120mm wide drop-outs (unfortunately cold set to accommodate 7 speed freewheel hub). I want to restore but need help finding original rear hub, pedals, handlebars, etc.
Bottom bracket info:
D
H319103
Help decode and decide what vintage parts to buy...
Might need to check the stamped numbers again - could any more of those numbers actually be letters?
H should mean the frame is a 710, and 3 should mean it's 22.5". 7xx were traditionally double-butted 531 at least main tubes, and I think there was some variation in what they made the rear triangles and fork blades out of, at least across model years. My assumption is always that the frame I am looking at is what the tubing sticker says it is - it's the simplest assumption if there's no particular reason to think otherwise.
But the site thinks there may be other letters in that number, unless it's an exception, and I didn't read that section.