Trek TX900
 

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more pix

Trek TX900
 

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Trek TX900
 

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f85e4cdce.jpeg

Brooks
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Back 2/3
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Cinelli
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Decal
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Top tube. No brazed holders in bike. At all

Trek TX900
 

someone asked my location- metro Atlanta.

I will be in Eastern Iowa the first full week of August.

With older bikes is it best to clean and bring up to maintenance but not repaint original?

its been a long time but I used to spin a good wrench on this bike. Even had the back derailleur completely apart a few times. I think I still have my crank puller but I haven’t seen the headset tools for a long time.

I got got really good at adjusting the hub race bearings. This is a really fast bike

Trek TX900
 

i spun the wheels to see how out of plumb they are.

Not too bad. I never got to be much of a hand at lacing or truing up wheels.

If if memory serves there aren’t any nasty flat spots. Clincher rims. Tires and tubes are 20+ years old. Need to be replaced

I asked about location since you were talking about the original owner being in Des Moines which is where I live. This is my 1978 Trek TX 900:


https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...-tx-900-a.html

Yep, yours is a TX 900 as well, same fastback stays, same cut outs on the lugs. The best way to date the machine is to use the serial number and look at the vintage Trek website.

Sweet bike; you should fix it up and keep riding it. You will need to overhaul it and replace the consumables but it's a great bike.

Trek TX900
 

that was my intent about 20 years ago. But vertigo and insane Atlanta traffic put a stop to it. Even bought a new Hill friendly cluster and repacked wheel and crank bearings.

Time to let someone else enjoy it.

You don't want to repaint this. The paint is in excellent shape. I'd clean it up (get some of that sawdust or gunk off the frame) and remove the rusty bits (like the pump peg) before selling it. It is helpful to get the serial number and run it on the vintage Trek website as well. This looks to be a 25 inch Trek TX 900 but the serial number will confirm the size and year of the bike. Then you have to figure out a price. Atlanta is a large city which helps; the bike is a large size which hurts.

If it were mine, I'd ask $500 as it sits. It may take you a while to find the right buyer.

Really nice bike but the rust some of which looks to be under the semi rough paint kills value IMHO. As P:resented I would say $350-400 and expect it to take a while to sell.

Trek TX900
 

If I strip it down to bare frame, what’s best way to remove rust,? Is it then recommended to use dishwashing soap and then wax with a top automotive product?

I have some Megiuars aluminum wheel product I used on another project (record vacuum cleaner with half inch thick T6061 aluminum deck). I assume that will work on all the aluminum Campy stuff.

How do I protect what is left of the decals?

Yeah, I'm with you. I missed that in the earlier pics. The later pics the bike looks dirty but I didn't see some rust under the paint. If there is rust bubbling up under the paint, that will kill value.

Trek TX900
 

Bottom bracket is by far the worst area for rust.

These pics are of a “ barn find nature” even though this bike has been in conditioned space for past 20 years and in a garage or even my bedroom (bachelor days) before that.

I have several projects outside of work that occupy me but I’ll get it cleaned up and on market later.

Trek TX900
 

can anyone refer me to a thread or forum for restoring old bikes?

Remove wheels, bottle cages, and any guides attached to frame.

I’d give it a wash with a garden hose, a microfiber towel, and Dawn soap to start. Any spots where caked on grease/gunk does not lift off, dilute Simple Green down to roughly half/half with water and work it out with another microfiber towel. Use care to get up to decals with just soap and water, do not use much pressure and do not use Simple Green on them. Then use a cutting polish like Meguiars Scratch X to polish the frame, avoiding decals. Go over that with whatever finishing wax you like and do go over decals.

From there, it depends how far you want to take this. It will look a bit funky with the frame looking glossy and components and consumables needing to be addressed or replaced. You could try to match the paint and touch up the chips but I’d let the buyer do that.

If you you want to clean/polish the components, again start with a hose, soap, and a towel. Move to diluted Simple Green for caked on grease. I then polish with Mothers Mag Polish with an old white t shirt. You can try to remove any rust from spokes or nipples by continuously wetting aluminum foil and working the rust.

Being in Minnesota myself, there are a lot of Treks here and I’ve worked on quite a few. They clean up nice and look good. There is a good demand here for the higher end ones.

Catching up Trek TX900 restoration
 

So, it’s been a while since my last post.

I retired last year and now come to this project.

the bike is stripped to the frame. All screws, nuts, bolts, wires, clips, etc are removed and de-rusted. I had to get help with the drive side bottom bracket bearing cup.

lots of rust around bottom bracket. I used a wire brush and a rotary wire brush on my drill to knock off loose paint and remove rust as I could.

I soaked the bottom bracket in Evaporust for a week and that stuff worked miracles! Nice shiny metal exposed.

I asked the bike shop’s opinion when they removed the bottom bracket bearing cup as to the fitness of the frame. The mechanic said it looked road-worthy. Good news!

I am at a cross roads:

the frame paint is iffy. Several 1-2 square inch Paintless sections, and in some areas I see very small bubbles under the paint. The size of a pin head or smaller. Lots of scratches commensurate with a bike ridden hard the first 5 years of its life.

if I planned to keep this bike I’d strip the paint to metal and powder coat it.

So I’ll hit the bottom bracket area with Rustoleum primer and a couple coats of black spray out of the can. Smaller areas touched up by brush. But this approach only buys a little time before it needs more attention.

Components are mostly Campy Nuovo Record and the races look mainly good. I have original cables/cable jackets, the brake hoods are long gone.

the crank threads on the drive side are messed in a section about 3/8” wide but the extraction tool threaded in perfectly and allowed me to pull it without a problem.

There are some marks on the some of the components, the worst being the break levers… nasty road rash…

so this is not a show bike but could be a great runner for not much more money than a new entry level road bike that’s worth having.

I haven’t repacked the hubs yet but I marveled how long the wheels spun with 25+ year old grease in them! This is a fast bike!

My plan is to finish cleaning and polishing the group set, get a few fresh odds and ends like pulley wheels, then decide what to do about paint.

I’ll get some pictures posted this weekend.
g e

Some cleaned up components
 

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Rear derailleur taken apart, cleaned, lubed, polished. One of the pulleys has a small crack. I have a non Campy replacement


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Pedals taken apart, cleaned, lubed, and polished. The leather straps have not rotted. Not sure I’d use them again tho


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And the brakes redone. The Campy brake pads feel hard as rocks. Likely have hardened in the past 20-25 years. The brake pad holders polished up great. Not pictured here.

More
 

More stuff has been refurbed including the pedal arms, sprockets, front derailleur and shifters. Headset needs doing, handlebars have tape residue to get removed. Cables and cable housings to be cleaned and evaluated too. Hope to stay original with cables and housingss

wheel bearings are getting cleaned up. I need to get the freewheel off - make it way easier to pack the bearings.

and then clean up spokes and rims. Not looking forward to that.

stay tuned!

Easiest color ever to touch up is black. I would NOT repaint. I use one of the rust converter paints as a primer, then touch up with Testors. May not be perfect, but its original!

Trek used Dupont Imron paint that I find to be very durable. I bought a Trek 710 at Goodwill, had a tree branch going through it! Cleaned up incredibly well.

Bravo, a heartfelt reunion.

I agree with the post above regarding the original black paint. Cost may not be an issue, but if you’re cheap like me, it’s hard to go wrong touching up black paint.

In the end I stripped the frame to bare metal.

my first try was to remove just the “iffy” paint and then touch up.

nope, large sections proved unsound. So off it went.

I’ve been sanding off and on. And deciding finish options.

powdercoat is a possibility but decals don’t like to stick. The better rattle can paints are an option too.

And I’m following Mick Jagger’s advice to “Paint It Black”

found some leather conditioner and rubbed in multiple coats on the seat. It responded nicely.

First post was 4 years ago! I think that's called sticking to a project. You might want to ask the mods to move this to the C&V forum as this has become a rebuilding thread, not a what is this worth thread.

ha ha, or maybe a reflection of how pokey I am.

I need to get this done and then sold. It will help fund some other projects like a basement bath build out.

Where are you located?

suburban Atlanta.

Nice to have an update. It's worth starting a restoration thread with before, during, and after photos on the main C+V forum. Be good to see the process, especially the end result. Glad you're hanging in there as a steward of this one. I'm a fan of the TX's.