hey all,

that flipper of the 1986 trek 400 was me. LOL, i can assure you there were no shenanigans involved. i picked up the bike not really knowing the condition (as the auction very poorly described the bike), hoping to be a fixer for myself. i'm fairly new to bike mechanics and have been building a personal collection for a couple of years now. i had never ridden a trek before, and i thought i might be able to fit the 25.5" treks. it turns out that the 24" trek frames fit me much better, and i have since gotten a nice 24" trek that fits me nicely.

i was pleasantly surprised at the condition of the trek when it arrived (other than the fact that the seller didn't know what he was doing, destroyed the original bar tape and packed the bike horribly, leading to the huge paint gouge). the bike was obviously much nicer than what had been advertised. if you'll look at the start price of my auction, i would have been perfectly happy turning it around for very small profit, mostly to cover the time and energy spent touching up the paint gouge, replacing the bar tape, and giving the bike a tune-up. i can't help that i also happen to be good at researching and describing my auctions, and make no apologies for knowing how to take photos and make a pretty ebay ad. my perfect feedback from over 10 years of ebay membership doesn't hurt, either, and only attests to the honesty and care i take in all my auctions . as i said before, i would have been perfectly happy turning just a small profit to cover the time and energy spent tuning the bike and repacking it for the next person. i'm not one of these ebay sellers who puts an insane buy-it-now price out there for a few weeks, or an insane reserve to test the waters and see what suckers i can reel in. i was pretty lucky that the final price went as high as it did

as for the S/N discrepancy, yeah i noticed that before i won the auction. it didn't bother me. i chalked it up to either an error in vintage-trek.com's database, or the possibility that it was a very early 1986 model, manufactured in late 1985. clearly the bike matches the 1986 model in every way, down to the last detail. no shenanigans there.