Originally Posted by
noglider
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Lascauxcaveman, I'm pretty sure that hodgepodge was the original Trek spec. Weird, I know. I sold that model back then.
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Slightspeed, you won't regret putting the SunTour derailleur on. Simplex derailleurs are cool but not durable, and it's more trouble than it's worth it to fix yours. You could get another one like it, waiting for a long time and paying a lot, and it won't last as long as a SunTour. I just sold an old SunTour rear derailleur to a forum member, and it made me realize it's been in continuous service for about 35 years, and it is still working as well as new.
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noglider and @
Lascauxcaveman, I wouldn't argue with Tom's experience of the Treks he actually handled, and all those parts you have on your bike. It sounds quite plausible for Trek. You could just go the the Vintage Trek site, pull up the .pdf of the 1983 models and see what Trek said they were using as OEM back then for that model. I recall they have tons of serial numbers in those couple of years, so one problem they faced was to buy enough of the specified parts to actually assemble all those bicycles - also a problem for Schwinn and Raleigh. Equivalently, their engineers needed to verify that all the parts they wanted to use were actually available in guaranteed supply quantities.
Anyway, I don't see anything on that Trek that is not reasonable for that bike's style. In pure function I might go a different way. My 610 has become a mule (aka "test platform"), on which any wild-** thing might appear. I especially approve of the Huret drivetrain and Maillard hubs. I had one Helico on my 1984 610 and dumped the wheelset, but honestly I didn't try too hard to maintain it. But more power to you for having one that functions! Unfortunately replacing the freewheel implies a much bigger modification, depending how PC you want it to be.