denaffen

I recently picked up a Trek 640 frame and fork and am starting to think about how I’m going to build it up.


The paint is polishing up beautifully. The right stay is polished. Left is untouched.

denaffen

For those who aren't familiar, the 640 was only offered in 1983, and was pretty far up in the line-up. Of course, all the Campy stuff was long gone from this one by the time I got it.



The first thing I have to do is decide on drop bars (probably Soma Highway 1) or maybe some porteur bars.

canopus 

I have always loved that particular trek paint scheme..
But Campy with a dork disc....

denaffen

'83 was a different time

And I agree, that metallic black paint with the reddish accents is just really, really nice to me.

tkamd73 

That’s a great riding frame, have the same one one my 670. I went with Velocity A23 rims, Ofmega CX hubs, Nitto stem, bars, and seatpost. Kept the Italian drive line and brakes, but thinking about switching to Suntour derailleurs.
As stated many time before, the Campy NR derailleurs are well made, look nice, and will keep shifting poorly forever.
Tim

denaffen

Currently I'm still sorting out components, largely based on what I have in the parts bin already.

Wheels are -- at least initially -- going to be some 700c's that I have, take-offs from a Bianchi. They're not great rims, but I already own them, they're 700c and they take a free hub, all of which is desirable.

I have a Nitto stem set aside for it. It may turn out to be a bit long but I don't think I'll know until I ride it. It'll do to start.

I have a Gipiemme seat post already.

Bars will probably be Soma Highway 1 or VO porteurs, depending on which route I go. That'll impact brake lever choices, but either way I think I'll go with bar-ends.

I expect brakes will probably end up being Tektro 559s given the 700c conversion.

Crankset is a wildcard. I'm keeping my eyes open for something suitable and nice, or a project bike to just grab a bunch of stuff from. I'm thinking a 2x9 drivetrain.

canopus 

I say skip the Tektro 559's, just get some long Mafacs or Weinmanns or Dia compes or Paul Racers... or anything else. I dislike my 559's so much... They are the next thing coming off my 710.
Heck even any normal (campy) brakes with a drop bolt, if you need it. Although I have normal brakes on all my 27" bikes that are now 700. You should really only need something longer with a 650B wheel.

RiddleOfSteel

This black-with-red color scheme is also one of my favorites from Trek during this era, and yours is in beautiful shape! I'd love to come across a 25.5" version as Trek finally learned how to match brake reaches on these bikes (610s and 710s and x10s of the past all had low rear brake bridges in relation to the front--no bigger tires or fender room for anyone in the rear!)

A note on brake calipers: Tektro R539 and R737 are 'standard reach' (47-57mm), while the R559s are long reach (55-73mm). 559s get used for 650B conversions a lot, while 539s and 737s are dual-pivot replacements for lackluster/tired/dead single-pivot original calipers. I would mount the 700C wheels you have, and if you have some standard reach calipers (of any vintage), I would mount those and see where the pad position (in the slot) needs to be to properly contact the rim. Looking at the catalog photo, there is still some room for those pads to drop 4mm lower to work with a 700C wheel.

Dfrost 

Hmmm… I have Tektro 556’s (559 predecessor w/o the QR locking nub) on my Marinoni 650B conversion. Very happy with them and the Kool Stop salmons.

sd5782 

One year only? Funny, as I have the next bike down in the catalog, a 700 and it is also only an 1983.

denaffen

I wonder what the story was? I mean, they kept using the same frame(s) on other models. In the 640s case I think the Campy groupset pushed the price up *way* higher than the 630, which may have been more usable for a lot less money. But that's speculation on my part.

lonesomesteve

The '83 640 is the vintage Trek I've been pining for for years but have never owned. Personally I'd only want it if it came with all of its original Campy goodness. There's something about the American-ness of Trek sport tour models of that era mixed with all of the Campy bits that's sort of weird and appealing to me.

My guess is they didn't last because customers of the sport tour 6xx models weren't as deeply into the Campy cult as the customers who were buying the racier 660s and 760s. So, the 6xx buyers weren't as willing to pay the Campy premium for something that didn't work any better than Suntour. Trek continued to offer race models with Campy (e.g. the '85 760), but to my knowledge there were no other sport tour models with Campy.

Without the Campy parts, it's still a very nice frame that will work in a number of different configurations. The frame isn't really any more special than any of the other 6xx series Treks of the early 80s, but then I've owned several early 80s 6xx and 7xx bikes, so obviously I think they're all pretty special. Build it however it will work best for you and have fun with it!

canopus 

It really was just expense vs return... by '83 this group was considered older and heavier and didn't shift near what a comparable suntour group could at 1/2 the price. I remember building my first bike at the shop and getting pushed by the racers into Cyclone...

jjhabbs 

Wow. what a rare bird you have. I had one and sold it like an idiot. I dont know why. They were rare. For less money you could get the Trek 600 that had shimano 600 parts and performed better. I miss mine. Mine was stock, 27 inch wheels and all! lol. I did change out the rear derailleur to NR instead of the gran sport. Why? cuz I can.. lol


nice bike

JJ

RiddleOfSteel

The Trek 600/620/630/640 siblings rode the same frame geometry and tubing, but differed in color and obviously spec, which also, to whatever degree, defined their purpose. For any frameset hunter (like me), it's basically a case of pick your color and go.

The 700 model was a TX700 in its previous life (in name mainly) as a slightly longer (in the chain stays) all-around bicycle. It returned in 1986 for one year as a very nice sport tourer (425mm chain stays).

I had a 1983 one-year-only (as a road bike) 970. Very nice bike/frameset. The 970 went MTB/ATB/hybrid in later years, and was a 950 (frameset) before 1983, and a 930 before 1981.

Road Fan

Hey! Who says Campy riders can't be dorkistic????

denaffen

Getting the parts together is taking time, especially for the new bits. But I did find a period-ish Shimano Alpine long cage derailleur and 48/38 crankset for it (although I’m thinking I’m likely to go 48/34 or 48/36). I decided on porteur bars with bar ends and a 2x10 drivetrain. Those bits are on the way. Haven’t sorted out brakes yet, but RiddleOfSteel is right, I don’t need long reach.

denaffen

Drivetrain is coming together.

denaffen

Pulling the parts together takes forever. The VO porteur bars finally arrived yesterday

52telecaster

Porteur are my favorite. 23.8 o.d. for bar ends rocks. Personally I invert them but it looks nicer the way you do it. Great build!

lonesomesteve

This is shaping up to be a very cool bike.

denaffen

Thanks, I'm already seeing bits I'll probably upgrade eventually, but I do think it's coming together nicely.

denaffen

So on the plus side, the bar end shifters are in and the cobbled together 2x10 drivetrain shifts beautifully, at least on the stand.

on the down side, I’m not sold on the eBay-sourced brake levers, and my first attempt at wrapping porteur bars is not great.

but it’s starting to look like a real bike, and when my brakes get here I should at least be able to take it for a test ride

denaffen

I finished it up and took it for a spin today. The jury is still out on this brake levers, and I’m gonna take an inch or more off the porteurs but I think I like it. Definitely like the gearing.

denaffen

Put in 20 miles today and got a glamour shot.

the parts bin pedals and seat are letting it down but it’s a really fun bike