My son was heading back to college, and was pleading with me to take my old road bike instead of the old mountain bike back to school with him. I really really didn't want him taking my all Campy 1975 Motobecane Grand Record, even if it is beat to heck from far too many miles all those years ...

so I started sniffing the local CL... Finally, on Sunday, this trek tx300 showed up for $200. its a nicely repainted frame, with a few old shimano 600 bits, and some 90s bits. nice set of wheels on deore hubs with some nice mavic hard anodized 700c rims, 7 speed cassette. bars and stem are period SR/Sakae Custom, and the crankset is an old cold forged Specialized track set with a 144mm bolt circle, sporting 52:42 chainwheels.

anyways, I swapped the pedals (I wanted the vintage toeclip pedals, Ian wanted SPD), seats (saved good condition Turbo seat and put on a old Specialized Milano), swapped the cassette from 12-22 to 12-28 (Arcata is hilly), retaped the bars, new brake cables and brake pads.

I didn't save the before picture, but here's the after ...



hey, anyone seen this SR Custom seatpost design before? kind of interesting, the tilt is infinitely adjustable, you have to loosen two 13mm nuts on the inside of the seatpost, and these sideplates pivot on a axle..


crankset

Your son has a reliable and great looking campus ride, well done! As for the seat post, I have the same one on my 77 TX300, I'm pretty certain it's original to the bike.

Unluckily, I never measured the rear dropout inside ('outer locknut')... I know the frame is stretched considerably over these 135mm mtb hubs, but he's already left for school. Do you know what the rear width is (or was originally if you cold stretched yours), I'm guessing its either 120 or 126mm. trek's 76/77 catalogs online at vintage-trek don't give a clue. if the bike was originally a 27" 5-speed, its probably 120mm. if it was a 6 speed, 126mm.

pierce, unless someone installed an incorrect seat tube decal when it was repainted, I might have some doubts whether this was a TX-300 from the class of '77; that colorwrap seat tube decal was featured on the '82 and '82 models and not before. Have you checked the serial number to verify? Regardless, a nice bike for your son to ride at school.

I'm wondering how many 300's had braze ons put on them. They were extra cost options in '77.

That decal is probably an aftermarket replica put on by the painter. all the other decals are missing, including the head tube logo. the serial number says its a 24" (60cm) TX300 from July 1977, with a very low run number of A11 (eg, the 11th frame made that July ?)

Mine is 120mm, Sunshine hubs and a 5-speed Suntour freewheel.

yeah, I note that in the 77 catalog. this one has brazeons for the downtube shifters, it has above-the-bottom-bracket shifter cable guides, and it has top-of-the-top-tube rear brake cable guides. oh, and nut inserts for 1 bottle holder on the downtube. Its *possible* some this stuff was installed by the guy who repainted it. He also painted the "Jm Blackburn" rack and bottle holder too, which look to be late 70s vintage (they were off the frame when it was painted, this isn't some clown's cheap rattlecan, this is a very well done professional paint job).

k, that confirms my suspicions... the current 135 rear hub is way way too wide. when it comes home for the winter holidaze, I hope to have found a good quality pair of 126mm 6-7 speed hubs, build up some new wheels, and I'll cold set the frame to that size. then I'll take the rather nice rims he's got and put them on my hybrid which was built for 135mm hubs, let him keep the 26mm tires, and put some 32's on the other wheels for my hybrid.