bobotech

I need to get pics of it tomorrow but it is a nice gray/pewter with blue lettering Trek 520 fully lugged frame and fork. According to the stickers on it, it is full chromoly frame and fork and has rack mounts front and rear.

Well since it is just a frame to play with, what do you think I should build it with?

I have a set of cyclocross wheels with a 8-9-10 speed freehub for the wheel set. The rims look like Mavics but no stickers. Brakes will be a set of older beautiful Shimano Deore XT canti brakes. The stem will just be a normal alloy stem and the handlebars will be also just normal alloy drop bars.

The rest is where I'm kind of wondering. I have either 8 speed or 9 speed cassettes for the rear freehub. I will most likely be using a Deore XT rear derailleur but I can

Shifters are a big question mark. I have in my spare parts, 2 sets of 8 speed brifters (105 or Dura Ace) or Dura Ace BS77 9 speed indexed bar ends. I'm leaning towards using the brifters but I can do bar ends as well. The bar ends can do triple in the front but my brifters only have double capability for the fronts.

As far as cranks are concerned, I have 2 sets of triples that I can use, a 53-42-30 or a 52-40-39. The 52-40-39 is a compact I believe, it has the 110 bcd wheras the other crank is the bigger 130bcd. Those will work fine with the bar ends but won't with the brifters. I also have 2 sets of doubles, one is a 105 Tricolor and I forget the other.

I mentioned that I was going to use a Deore medium cage rear derailleur but I also have 2 other short cage derailleurs I could use that match the brifters, a Dura Ace or a 105. I figure that with the doubles up front, the short cages in the rear should be fine.

I will use either an Ultegra triple front derailleur or an Exage double front derailleur. I don't have any better front derailleurs other than those 2.

So how would you configure this bike? Unfortunately when it is all said and done, it won't be a matching groupset bike but it still should be full of decent enough parts.

nfmisso

i think that you should just send it to me

If not, equip it with what suits you for the riding you do.

zukahn1 

Well if you just want to ride the sucker I would say go with the 8 speed Dura Ace stuff built up on this frame it should be sweet.

bobotech

That is the thing, I am not sure which would be easier for me. I use brifters now and love them but I also make use of triples since I'm a super clyde. So if I wanted to do a triple, I would have to use the bar ends which I have never used and wonder if I would like them or use the double with the brifters which I am used to.

Decisions decisions!

MrEss

You could go pseudo-CX bike with it -- replace the big chainring on one of your triples with a chainguard, and use the integrated shifters on your new super-compact double.

With lots of parts in the house and no specific plan, it might be fun to just build it with whatever's at the front of the pile and then iterate, replacing the parts that seem least suitable to the actual riding you find yourself doing on the bike.