New Bike Day: 1981 Trek 716
 

It looks like Trek bikes have been quite in fashion in C&V this week, and I had the opportunity to add one to my collection as well.

This is my first Trek, and I'm honestly quite surprised that it's hanging in my garage. I have typically never been a huge fan of Trek bikes, they just never seemed all that attractive to me. But I've recently taken stock of what is important to me in a bicycle, and what I need to be comfortable, and I settled on the following attributes:

1. High quality tubeset - double butted everything and nothing oversized
2. Seat tube angle no greater than 73°
3. 27.2 seatpost for best aftermarket availability
4. Clearance for large-volume tires & fenders, 32c minimum
5. No excessively long chainstays (looking at you, 80s touring bikes with 47cm stays)

After looking around and seeing various posts from members on various forums, among other bikes early 1980s Trek sport-tourers came up quite frequently. The seat tubes are right at 72° for a lot of them, and chainstays are typically between 43-44cm.

I had been thinking that I may be looking into picking up a 400 or 600 series Trek, even if it meant compromising on a really nice tube set, but then @RiddleOfSteel posted his new to him 716. Reading though his thread really made me fall in love with the idea of this bike, and lo and behold, what comes up in the "eBay & Craigslist Finds" threads, but a 25.5" 1981 Trek 716!

I almost immediately messaged the seller and arranged a meeting. I live about 1.5 hours away from where it was listed in Milwaukee, but he offered to meet about half way at a gas station parking lot.

I threw a leg over it and took a spin around the parking lot and fell in love with how smooth it rode. Even with the seat too low the frame felt so eager to just go!

Once I got it home I started taking a better look at it. This bike is quite an interesting dichotomy as far as the condition goes.

The frame is unfortunately chipped everywhere. The NDS dropout area is in rough shape, and chain slap has uncovered the majority of the top of the DS chainstay. Large scrapes in the downtube,seat tube, and top tube are on both sides. This is really a shame, because the paint is a beautiful deep blue flecked Imron! A definite surprise is that the 531 stickers are still in legible shape.

But the Shimano 600 groupset is in some of the best shape I've ever seen hanging on a vintage frame!

Wheels are corroded at the eyelets, but the rear 7 speed Uniglide cassette looks to be in great shape, and the freehub spins smooth and quiet.

I'm hoping to get my first ride on it tonight or tomorrow, this weekend was either really busy or the wind was blowing at 30mph and snowing.

Unfortunately it does seem like there is a bit of an issue with this frame. I have tried multiple seatposts in the 27.2 size, but in order to prevent the post from moving I have to both shim the post with an aluminum can, and crank down the bolt until the brazed-on ears are almost touching. Is this typical of early 1980s Trek bikes, or is there something else at work here?

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...18060a28bb.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f6ef6a08fe.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...cc6a8d263f.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...891ecbb068.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...e531e3c7a9.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...477a0cf5f2.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...6798b4461c.jpg

Seatpost slippling is not normal for Treks or indeed any well built bike.

Trek made some of the nicest sports touring bikes out there. There's a lot to be said for a road bike that can take 32c tires.

You can deal with the paint chipping by touching it up.

I'd start a separate post on the seatpost issue you are having to get some advice on how best to deal with it. I would have thought that a shim should have done the trick but apparently it is not.

I had a very similar issue on a Sekai GT2700. The seatpost looked like stuck and was hard to move up or down in my case.
I noticed the blaze on ear was bent each other like in your pic. With a minus driver I opened it to have the cut parallel, but still was hard to come up.
Twisting left-right it came out but got similar scratch marks as you have. Using a sand paper I sanded around until the seatpost would move freely up and down.

Then it was noticeable that the post size was smaller than the tube size - around 1 mm in diameter (?).
Got a cheap post from the bike recycle shop and now fits perfectly.

Even with the correct 27.2 post in, I find I have to crank the binder bolt pretty far to keep the post from slipping on my '83 720. Really only three choices: either the binder bolt is stretching that far, the ears are deflecting, or at some point (possibly during manufacturing?) the seat tube was reamed to far.
I suppose an out of spec post wouldn't help the issue.

i have this problem on one of my bikes and don't know what to do. if you find something that works, please let us know in this thread.

my opinion of Trek is getting better. i just wish that when they buy up bicycle companies to keep the old brand names going. our bike shops have so few brands now: trek, giant and specialized. good enuf, but i miss what seemed like a smorgasbord of brands back in the day.

Such a beautiful blue! You can find automotive touch up paint at an O'reilly's or Auto Zone and there will be a number of blue metallic paints to choose from. You may just be surprised at how much better and "complete" (paint-wise) your 710 will look after doing that! A little bit of wax should really make that thing pop even more. I'm excited for you!

Congratulations!

As far as I'm aware, you're only talking about the Trek 720s and the 1985 620. Other than that- most any other touring or "road" bike of the 80s top out at 45cm for chain stay length. I don't know of any other "road" bike that has 47 cm chainstays.

The shim has stopped it from slipping, I had no issues with it moving even on a bumpy first ride last night, but I have bottomed out the clamp bolt. It is quite strange especially on such a nice frame.

The seatpost slides in quite smoothly, with just the slightest bit of resistance as you would expect from a properly sized post. I tried another post that is a known good fit into another 27.2 frame and it had the same issue. I'm hesitant to try and bend the ears because to me that would just spread the top of the seat tube even farther, and I wouldn't gain anything.

My concern is that the seat tube was reamed too far. I am actually bottoming out the shoulder of the binder bolt on the threads of the ears, so I don't believe that it would be the binder bolt stretching. As I've mentioned, above, I did try another seatpost that is a known good fit into a different frame and had the same issue.

Thank you! I am hoping that I can find a good match, it may be a while since there is so much touch-up work to be done that it will certainly be an all-day project. Plus I don't want to tear down the frame to prep it for touch-up or wax since I just want to ride it!
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You are correct. Once I decided that a Trek would probably work for me I did come across those limousines a couple times. I knew that a 720 was out of reach for me but I did see a couple of 620s that got me a little excited until I saw the chainstay length.

Just to verify that this is a seat tube ID issue, you could see how the Trek post fits into your other frame. If it fits properly then you know the Trek frame ID is a bit oversize. Someone may have had to ream the frame for one reason or another.

Only one year of the 620 has the 47cm chainstays.

Sorry- I don't mean do be coming across rudely- it's just kind of absurd to me. The 47cm chainstays are a very unique feature to very few bikes built over the course of a very small window in time; a unique feature that people specifically seek out- I just find it really interesting that someone would key in on that particular, relatively rare, and desirable feature as a disqualifying factor. Kind of like someone saying they want a Schwinn- but not one of those shiny Paramount Schwinns.

You've got a really super cool bike an absolute upper level frame- it's got the brake cable braze ons (those were extras at the time). The 710 was the sport and de facto upper level "touring" bike. It looks like your paint is stock- from that glorious sparkle showing- but it's a drag about the paint damage. I have a TX700 that has some pretty beat up paint. I'm kind of on the fence about powder coating it- but yours looks like it's in all around better shape.

I was always ho hum on Treks too, until I rode one.

And on the seat post issue, I have long used strips of plastic water bottles for shims. Even, and especially on posts which I know are the wrong size.

No worries, It is simply a case of me mis-remembering a certain measurement and not bothering to check it. I had it in my mind that 47cm chainstays were the default for 80s touring geometry. I actually measured my Passage frame this morning and it was about 45cm. So i'm just wrong. Regardless, though, for the frame I have been looking for, 47cm chainstays are just as disqualifying as 45cm ones ;)

Thanks for the correction, it hasn't been the first time I've been wrong and it won't be the last. I certainly wont forget now, though :thumb:

I am on the fence as well about powdercoat. There is a lot of damage that does not show in these pictures, including underneath the downtube shifter clamp and on the underside of the BB shell. I'm not sure that the results of massive amounts of touch up paint will be totally satisfactory. Maybe a clean and a wax is in order for the immediate moment just to prevent any of the current rust from spreading.

I will say, that pending a few hundred miles on the saddle, I am not intending on keeping this original.

I am planning a 650B conversion with all the trimmings - fenders, wide range double, low trail fork, handlebar bag -- not quite fully integrated but fairly close.

So if I really like this bike I will probably spring for a respray with paint, after some modifications to the frame like additional bottle bosses and possibly a set of shifter bosses. My only reservation about powdercoat is that it will likely fill in the "TREK" on the seatstay caps.

I finally got to ride it for 10 miles last night. I have some fit issues to iron out but the overall impression is that it is super stable and incredibly smooth. I can only imagine what this will feel like with some nice tires on it.

My initial impressions of 600EX "Arabesque" are not great, but not awful either. Front shifts are very slow, certainly much slower than my 77 Super Le Tour with a Shimano 06 FD. Rear shifts are fiddly, especially with the 7 speed cassette in the rear.

To be honest, I love how it looks, but functionally and practically it doesn't do anything for me. Current low gearing at 39x24 is way too high for the rides that I want to use this bike for.

Nice! Thanks for the trip down memory lane with those brake levers. Makes me remember when I was a kid and that new, magical word appeared -- "anodized."

Graham

That all depends on the coater (@tarsi owns this 930).
Go to post 1632 of the Show Your Trek thread for more on his bike.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ab1262d147.jpg

WAG - could they have, in a pinch, used different stock for the seat tube for this build, with a larger ID? Wonder if @JohnDThompson might have a thought about this.

That does look pretty good. Not quite as crisp as paint, but also not terrible either!

A 27.4 post might be worth trying, especially if the seat tube is just a hair oversized. It wouldn't take much at all to skim 0.1mm or so off of the diameter to get a nice snug fit.

Interestingly, it seems like I'm not the only one that has the ears so close to one another. In the "Show us your 650B Conversion" thread, @inkandsilver posted this photo of his 1981 710 where they actually look like they're touching:

Trek reamed all the Waterloo-built production road frames to 27.2mm (some MTB and third-party built frames used 26.8mm). The only frames to use 27.4mm posts were the 753 tube custom frames, but this is not one of those. I suspect a previous owner may have run a flex hone through the tube at some point for some reason.

Auto Zone...hmm I wonder if they have a nice 1992 green for my Specialized Allez sport project. I was going to see if my local tru value could color match but Auto Zone might be cheaper.

Nice Trek OP I am envious of your Shimano Arabesque bits

Sometimes I do stupid things to solve problems so there should always be a disclaimer with my advise. With that being said I had an issue of my post slipping, so I took a cutoff wheel and made the gap bigger so the binder bolt could tighten down more. If that could be understood.

That's a lot of how I feel about Arabesque. It's neat looking- but it's clunky and flexy. I thought mine might have been due to the RD being a long cage- I've read about the springs being weak in the long cage units, but I had trouble with the front as well. Any Suntour setup I've had- including stuff earlier and contemporary with Arabesque- has just been leagues better. Additionally, I don't like pure friction shifting- whether it's Arabesque or New Superbe Pro- that's entirely preference, but I prefer clutched friction shifting of ratcheting or Retrofriction shifters much more than pure friction.

But as far as Shimano 600- once you get to 6400, 600/Ultegra stuff is fantastic.

Sigh. It is so pretty. Not perfect, and certainly not so after 40 years! I suppose a good bit of credit is due to it for not being terrible after time and chance have had their way with it. Both springs on the short cage and long cage RD of mine are plenty strong, perhaps more so than some of the Suntour units I've come across. But this is anecdotal at best, and a poor way to conduct an assessment. Suntour ruled the friction world, and then their patent ran out and Shimano, having lied in wait for some time, lunged and crushed everybody.

The 6200 generation was at least 10 years, and spanned four sub-generations, ending with 6-speed indexing. Crazy. I think only the later 7400 Dura-Ace era saw more change over its 10-ish years in existence. Having 6400 crush 6200 in performance is not even close.

I should have put in the "what is your C&V weakness" thread something to the effect of: ditching or passing up all vintage components (due to their outright poor performance with regard to my size, weight, and cycling situation and needs) for ones that work well (aka 9 and 10-speed era Shimano) and are widely available. RoS is totally an unappreciative, opportunistic "Millennial"! :lol: