I have never owned a trek before this one and as of now, it is just a frame.. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should build it up with? Much thanks!

I love this era of Trek. I have an '81 750 Pro that is one of my favorite bikes I've ever owned. Trek was all over the place back in those days using Campy, Shimano and Suntour. Sometimes mixing brands on the bike. Really most bikes back then didn't come with a "groupset". The '82 736 model came with SunTour Superb 6 speed, Cinelli stem and bars and Campanolo hubs. If you want to update the frame it should be fairly easy to cold set the rear to 130mm and put on a modern groupset and wheelset. My '81 Trek has 6400 Ultegra 8 speed brifters on it and it looks pretty good and works very well. Personally I would go the Suntour Superb route though it may be hard to find all the necessary bits.

I've got a 78 730 (came as a 736). I built mine up with Suntour Cyclone derailleurs, Suntour Superbe brakes and levers, a Stronglight 99BIS triple crankset, and the original Shimano 600/Rigida wheels. I switch around the shifters pretty often between Simplex Retrofriction, Suntour Sprint and Huret ratcheting. I like the way it rides, IMO, leagues better shifting and braking than with the Arabesque stuff it came with.







Looking at the Vintage Trek catalog- it looks like the 82 736 came built up with Suntour Superbe.

IMO- your bike is old enough that the 70s stuff still looks good on it- and new enough that the 80s stuff looks good on it as well.

I actually have a 600 arabesque groupset. I wonder if that would be okay for a temporary setup..

Sorry for the thread hijack but @goldenboy how does that Suntour front derailleur/ Stronglite 99 combo work for you? I've got the same setup on one of my bikes using Suntour Power ratchet shifters and the body of the FD hits the crank arm when I ride in the big ring. Do you have the same problem?

PS hey I was born in Waukesha!

I don't have a lot of experience with different vintage groupsets, but I do happen to have an '82 Trek with Suntour Superbe/Superbe Pro bits and I'm very impressed with it. Apart from how well they function, these are some of the best looking components I've ever seen.

Ha! That's awesome! Our son's future father in law was born in Waukesha, moved away from here when he was like... 6. Junior went to Minneapolis for college, met his little girlfriend up there, was dating her for a while before he found out her dad was born here.

As far as how the Cyclone and the Stronglight play together- they do great. I hadn't even considered that distance from the crank to the ring thing- even though I've read about it- I hadn't even considered it on this bike- and not on my other bike that I was riding a 99BIS on with a Suntour XC Pro FD. Before I built the bike, my only concern was if I'd be able to run the granny- I know the Cyclone had a cage extension, but people rarely used it.

Where's the arm striking on the cage?

On further review my front derailleur is a Suntour Compe V. The cage is very wide. What I end up having to do is shift it onto the big ring and then dial the shifter back a little bit to pull the cage closer to the chain. If I don't dial it back the outer face of the cage skims the inside of the crank arm. I can still use the big ring but it can be a bit annoying.

I never actually lived in Waukesha. My family own a large farm in Oconomowoc and a couple smaller farms in Deerfield and Marshal closer to Madison. But there were no hospitals in that area back in the 60s/70s so we were all born in Waukesha.

Yeah, the Cyclone/Superbe stuff is going to be a bit more graceful than anything else in the Suntour line. I've heard modern derailleurs are bad on the Stronglight 99 arms as well.

Have you been out by Oconomowoc somewhat recently? Your familys' farms are probably McMansion tracts now.

You're talking to the wrong guy about that- IMO that frame WAY outclasses those components.

Actually still in our family. I was there last about 5 years ago. My cousins have bought up several adjacent farms and they own about 2 miles on either side of a county road. One of my cousins is a horse whisperer, always thought that was really cool.

another vote for superbe. it's dressy and works great.

i like first gen cyclone on '70s bikes... and campy or dura ace on european and/or racing frames.

As others have recommended, you can't go wrong with Suntour Cyclone or Superbe from this era.

how about go a little wild and try to build an ofmega set? its something on my list -




etc. a real distinctive style.

Superbe stuff from that era looked good and worked very well.

Shimano wasn't as good IMO until Suntours patents ran out, and they were able to come out with Dura Ace 7400.

As has been pointed out, aside from "full campy" racing bikes, matching groupsets were the exception not the norm at the time. In fact the word groupset didn't exist.

No specific group but if mine, would be seeking Superbe Pro doing the shifting and brakes. Then take the time and select some sort of higher end, elegant chainset, a trick bb - perhaps ti. And again if mine, the wheelset would certainly be more exotic yet period and definitely tubular.... (could see some of you cringe

I have been using a combination of Superbe Pro derailleurs, Sprint powershifters, Superbe 4700 calipers and levers. On my Trek TX900 1977.
I have been really happy with them. I removed them this week and will be listing them in the sale forum. I am going to use a combination of modern components hoping to extend my riding years.
You have a great platform to work on.

That's really cool. I know all that area around the old Pabst farms had been built up, basically built a little town to the north of the off ramp.

I put the Arabesque stuff on my 82 412, shifts great, the only quirk is i can't keep the brakes centered.

Trek 412

OK- so less than a week later, I decide to put a 99BIS on my Voyageur SP- I'm still using the Mountech FD- really, one of the finest front derailleurs evAr. I get the chain on and "THOK" the crank arm hits the tail of the derailleur. I immediately think of this post. "I don't have any problems with the 99BIS..." my azz... So I move the derailleur in- shift around, and no matter how careful I am, no matter how I angle the FD cage- moving that chain to the big ring- the arm slides across the 3/4 of the cage.

I used this particular crankset on my Trek 400 Elance- with no problems using a Suntour XC Pro FD. I do have one other XC Pro FD- but I'm not so sure about the stylistic match.

*sigh*

Dang I didn't mean to curse you [MENTION=174646]The Golden Boy[/MENTION]! From what I can see the crank arms have almost no offset so FD choice is critical.

Seems appropriate. If you like 600 series stuff (I do, fwiw), that sounds like a good place to start. Sorta depends on where you want to go with the build too......

Treks of that era got modded up alot, make it how you want, 600 arabesque seems like a reasonable 'theme' for the build.