Originally Posted by
droptop
found an 84 trek 560 in my grandparents old barn while cleaning it out. it used to be my uncle's until he parked it 20 years ago. reynolds 501 tubing (precursor to 531) and decent components. i cleaned the frame to bare metal (was rusted pretty bad), decided it was salvageable, repainted it with a metallic flake black paint, and before i went any further, decided to leave it geared and put on a modern 105 group. it is now my race bike, and it feels great. still riding a conversion, but might just be brazing my own track frame this summer.
Minor correction: 531 tubing was introduced in the 1930s; 501 tubing was introduced in the 1980s. 531 is a Manganese-Molybdenum alloy, drawn into seamless tubes; 501 is a Chromium-Molybdenum alloy formed from rolled sheet, welded and drawn to the proper diameters. 531 was Reynolds' top of the line tubing for decades, until they introduced the heat treated version as 753. 753 tubing was never widely used because of its difficult nature and price. 501 tubing was introduced to compete with other second-tier tubing such as Columbus Alelle, Tange Mangalloy, and TrueTemper.
Good for you to restore that 560; it should be a great bike for you.