Hi everyone,
I normally amble around the Classic & Vintage section due in large part to my introduction and continuation of "grown up bikes" by way of now-vintage bikes (primarily of the '80s decade). I've had several modern bikes--all road/race in category--aluminum, carbon, a mix, mostly rim brake, one disc. One of the great things that came about in '80s offerings were touring bikes of various stripes. As a tall guy (6'5") and one who loves working on bikes, restoring them, and discovering their ride characteristics, I've been a continuous student of vintage catalogs and geometries.
This leads me to the Trek FX in general. Over a year ago, I acquired a 1985 Trek 620 touring bike--super long chain stays, incredible tire clearance, canti brakes, shifter and bottle cage mounts, etc. Canti brakes are fine, but since learning, volunteering, and fixing all sorts of 26" mountain bikes, hybrid bikes, etc (as part of volunteering at a non-profit bike shop), V-brakes offer incredible power. I ended up having my 620 modified to accommodate mini-Vs (to work with modern brake/shift levers that we see on road bikes) and that has bore fruit. But that was not without inspiration from the FX in general. I forget how I came upon it, but knowing touring bike geometries, the FX had many similarities--frame angles, chain stay length, canti/V-brake mounting, a stack/reach scenario that matched my 25.5"/65cm 620 (and other similarly-sized vintage road and touring bikes). It basically became a tightly and quickly orbiting thought that should I come across a used FX in the XXL / 25" size, and hopefully in an aluminum or carbon fork, that I'd scoop it up. Essentially I was hoping it would be the modern incarnation (or ethos) of the touring bikes of the past.
Enter my coming across a very local (same neighborhood) seller of a tall black FX 7.3. Looked alright from the very average photos, so we met up and I briefly rode the thing (after running back to my place to get a pump as the seller didn't pump up the tires, which were at 20 PSI at best..). Steered great, shifted perfectly, awesome. It was dusk and I didn't get a good idea of the black paint, save for an iPhone flashlight on the bike when I was pumping up the tires. A lovely and very fine metallic. Anyway, I paid the man and I became the very happy owner of a hybrid--my first ever--with the intention of seeing my theory of it making a capable drop bar touring/all-around bike. I had seen drop bar conversion on a few FX's and other hybrids before (on the internet), but wanted to make my own and one that really looked like it was a road/touring bike to begin with.
Firstly, some as-bought photos! Beautiful "Black Titanite" color!
These have always been handsomely-proportioned bikes to me. And they certainly ride and steer as good as they look.
You can start to see the very fine metallic in the paint and the decals. Love it.
We have to get a weight for the frame, fork, and headset. It would be only proper! As-bought (and photo'd), the bike weighed 25.85 lb. Not "light" by road bike standards, but on par for a touring bike, and certainly not unduly heavy. Felt light enough for my ~200 lb self to carry around. The frameset, in direct comparison to the 620, weighed 2,940g in contrast to the as-modernized 620's 3,679g, or to put it more plainly, the FX frameset weighed a whopping 1.6 lbs less! This is not surprising in some ways considering the 20 years advancement in technology in addition to the difference in material. As I had built my 620 to be the 'one bike to rule them all', it was fitted with some really nice Shimano components (second hand Dura-Ace), deservedly so. I had built it to 22 lbs even, which for a huge steel touring bike, is ridiculous, but that's what I specialize in a bit.
One of the really special things about this FX frameset is the fact that it had two ~1mm diameter paint chips. Paint was otherwise MINT. I cleaned it and gave it a good waxing (Meguiar's). Paint is butter smooth.
Detail appreciation Number I forget: the decals are not only metallic, but minimal in size and fuss yet still attractive. Previous years of FX were more extroverted, but these 2014s were really nice.
