Originally Posted by Road Fan (Post 20765632)

Also, I looked up your frame on the Vintage Trek site. It looks like a great frame from 1979, and they were sold as a frame/fork or as a complete bike. Trek's top of the range, made in Wisconsin, Columbus SL/SP. For the factory fully built bikes, 6 speed freewheels were used, so I would say (going on how Trek was rather conventional) it probably was 126 mm spacing when it was new. If you got it as 124 mm, I think that just means perhaps somebody stood on it once in the distant past. You could certainly build up a bike to work with that spacing, but you might have to go to 5 speed and narrow the hub spacing and axle length a little bit. It would be a custom job to set it up If you are in the USA and have a decent frame shop nearby you could probably get the frame spread just a little bit and have the alignment restored, for not much money. It should be just a matter of cold-setting, but someone with some expertise should see what is actually wrong. A lot of folks here (including me) could reasonably guess that "its just a little bend, get two guys to help you pull it out," but these days I just like to get it fixed right, if I don't know enough about it.

Once aligned and at correct dimensions, it should ride like a dream with any of the great used contemporary (1969 through 1989) wheel sets you can steal on Ebay, which should just slide right on if 126 mm. Set the derailleur limits and brake shoe engagement, and verify the shifting and go! I had my 1984 Trek 610 fully aligned once (I think it was misaligned rom the factory or at least from the original shop) and it has been a real fine rider ever since, even with all the oddball components I've tried out on it.. Your Columbus frame should be even better.

Originally Posted by merziac (Post 20763278)

My problem with them isn't quite that severe. I can't do modern clipless and don't want to anyway. Even with thin skinny shoes, they rub and catch on the crank arm pretty bad.

The fix for me was easy, pedal extenders. They solved that problem and really helped ankle, knee and hip pain as well. Probably should have looked harder at Q-factor before then.

The extenders move the quill outboard and solve all those problems for me. I swear by MKS Sylvan's, one of the best values in cycling imho. Plenty of Campy in use and in stock as well. ;)

Originally Posted by Road Fan (Post 20763865)

Yes, they are NR. Not sure how they are different from Record. SR came ofter the little metal loops for toe strap guiding were removed. I had a pair of that pedal on a bike I bought new in 1970, but it was claimed to have a lot of NOS parts.

So, those pedals could be around 45 to 50 years old. I'd recommend opening them up and overhauling the bearings even if they feel smooth. If they feel smooth the bearings are likely not pitted. If they are dry and not pitted, they could soon be pitted if you don't get some good fresh clean nutricious grease in there. If they have grease, start your future decades with those pedals by giving them a good meal of good new grease.

That model, with the loops, was highly sought after perhaps 10 years ago. You got a real deal at $50/pair. Now you need a set of Christophe toeclips with Binda laminated straps, and a Record crankset to use with them. You'll also need shoes with hard soles for long rides.

Originally Posted by seedsbelize (Post 20762362)

So are these Nuovo Record? How do you tell?