ehcoplex 

I've found it handy to have a quill-to-threadless adapter stem (VO has a reasonable one, Soma has a longer one) and a couple different cheap treadless stems to mess around with on a new build and figure out more-or-less what works/is comfortable and then replace it with a quill stem of the right length.

thumpism

As dorky as they might look, adjustable stems can help you play with the fit until you find what suits.

mhespenheide 

Hmm. Thanks to both of you; those are both good ideas.

Doug Fattic 

Here is my sport touring Trek I fixed up about 20 years ago to do bike trips in Ukraine. It was donated to me by a friend as a thank you for packing and sending him a Mississippi built Schwinn he found in my area. I took off most of its original braze-ons and replaced them with ones I wanted. The 3 original brake cable guides on the top tube are bad for collecting moisture and start rusting underneath them. I also realigned the frame. Trek never had very tight tolerances for alignment so even new ones right out of the box aren't all that straight. Then just for fun and my own curiosity, I painted it a chameleon color. i equipped it with a used 8sp Campy triple group, Students on campus often wanted to go on bike rides and I would use it to ride around the country side with them.

In the back of the storage shed are a couple more Treks I also repainted. This picture was taken and sent to me a few months ago after the Russians invaded Bucha, Ukraine where these bicycles are located. They broke in both our workshop and this storage shed and stole many things but not these Treks. The inside of the shed is messy because the Russians left it messy. In fact the door to the shed was left wide open for weeks before people could come back to campus to see what damage the Russians had done. In fact I'm not sure what they took or left besides the Treks. I think I had sleeping bags in the now empty boxes above the bikes.


My reconditioned Trek and other Treks the Russians didn't bother to steal in our storage shed in Bucha, Ukraine

Bruce27

merziac

Would have thought this was here but seems not so here it is, one of two Treks I own.

Not a fan, not because of the bikes but because they changed the LBS landscape in PDX dramatically and swiftly when they rolled into town, and not in a good way IMO.

ehcoplex 

They are rather the Guitar Center of bicycles now..

merziac

Yep, my point exactly, they never weren't IMO, steamrolled the scene here and half the good, oldschool LBS's folded within a year or two.

I'm sure half of them were on their last leg after the bike boom and then the bottom falling out but one big Trek shop was like a sledgehammer.

All of a sudden Treks were everywhere, seems like no accident, Trek = Trendy, Welcome to PDX.

AdventureManCO 

I'd be curious to hear JohnDThompson 's take on this, since I think he was there around that time. I'm just sad my new-to-me '83 600 has a one piece headtube/lug tamping in place of a good ol' fashioned lug'd n' braze'd headtube

merziac

Well he was at ground zero and was likely all in, wisely so.

Treks invasion of PDX was largely the work of the family that brought them in and they were all in, really put in the work so it paid off big.

Good folks in a very affluent area that was ripe for the transition, plenty of families needing lots of bikes and well able to buy them so trendy before it was trendy.

Like I said, nothing really against the bikes, they were good, and not cheap, again, trendy.

XxHaimBondxX

Just got it home. Don't know the model or year. Not sure what to do with it once cleaned up, maybe add to the "stable. Appears to be 1977-1980 412 based on decoding serial number.

The Golden Boy 

I'm having trouble understanding any of these points.

What made/makes Trek "trendy?" Maybe we're thinking about different time frames- but American company, making American made and American assembled bikes is about as trendy as Schwinn. If you ask me, something more exotic and exclusive makes something "trendy." Like something imported from Italy or France or England... American stuff is just... American stuff... Maybe a little less trendy than some other companies that established themselves by rebranding existing products and literally STEALING American designs and having them made in Japan and importing them back into the US while litigating everyone that stands up to them into oblivion... but I digress.

If half the LBSs were on their last legs- if a Trek shop hadn't opened, and then they failed- would it still have been Trek's fault? Which then goes to the other point- does "Trek" actually own the store- or is it a local franchisee licensing the Trek name and products and services? Which is then some local businessmen torpedoing other local business owners...

And since the Guitar Center analogy was brought up... I live about 50 miles from Waterloo, 20 miles from Milwaukee (also about 20 from Waterford)- but the closest Trek store I know of is about 90 miles away in Madison. (Why isn't there a Trek store in the most populous city in the state?) The one time I was in there, it was mostly only Trek and Trek owned products (maybe it was different back in the day, maybe it is different now- but then why have a "Trek" store?). To use the GC analogy- that would be like only GC owned products would be sold in the store- while I think GC has pushed out brands in favor of GC owned brands (LiveWire vs any other cables)- GC sells all different brands it has agreements with. Plus- I don't think GC is a franchise- meaning Guitar Center owns the individual Guitar Center stores- not a local ownership group.

While I'm kind of a Trek homer, I'm also pretty much the 'anti-monopoly' type person- On yet the other hand, I understand the point of a business is to make money. It's very much an oversimplification to say "Trek started with 2 hippies in a barn and grew to one of the major players in the world." My interest in Trek tails off after the brass head badges left, so I don't pay a whole lot of attention to Trek after that.

merziac

Well all good points and yes maybe a bit oversimplified. The area they opened in was/is very affluent so it was a 1,2 punch.

Initially it seems they sold to mainly families that didn't necessarily ride them much aside from the kids.

Once they filled up all the neighborhood garages they were well established when the possibly more serious riders came calling after that and not having found the old LBS network able to help them.

They benefited from 2 different back to back trends in PDX when we were becoming trendy setting trends.

Not saying this was engineered upfront but it was a perfect success/storm much like Trek in general.

I'm not sure about the last leg theory but we all know small LBS's generally have tough go of it. A couple of the shops nearby said they were impacted early by the Trek store and no, it wasn't a factory store, it was a well known local to the neighborhood family that took advantage of the opportunity and made it fly.

Bruce27

My slightly altered 81 all cleaned up with new wheels. First new set of wheels in 42 years.

stedge 

bought the frame here, found some parts and built up a bike for the first time. Works pretty well!

AdventureManCO 

WOW quite an intro! TX900?

stedge 

Tx900. Yes.
thanks!

mountaindave 

For a first timer, that’s a tight build!

stedge 

You, all, inspired me!

mtbikerjohn 

From this..

To this..

The Ultegra drivetrain was moved,shortly after this was taken, to my Kellogg-era Ross. The Trek is currently built up with a 3x6 drivetrain..all Suntour except the Sugino Alpina triple crankset and Gran Compe 610 center pulls..

sd5782 

I had to look up the Trek 81 catalog to check this one out as I saw the full Reynolds stickers with the non racing wheelbase and the twin rack eyelets on the seat stays. 710, and very similar to my 83 model 700. This seemed to be such a nice era with silver brazing and Reynolds tubes, but not race bikes. I bet it is a fine ride. Very nice.

thumpism

Mine was a 25.5" built up with various bits and I never felt comfortable with it on loaded descents . Like my previous Batavus, it had an unnerving headshake so I sold it. Don't need that feeling on a touring bike. Hope that one is better than mine.

sd5782 

That would probably be pretty thin tubing on a big bike, and especially somewhat loaded and going downhill. Kudos to Trek though for giving people options, as your application probably wasn’t the intended use. Another rider tooling around the countryside more casually might write to applaud the compliant ride.

Jacob_R_59 

Cast dropouts with internal rear derailleur cable routing retained.

Overall view of the frame. The fork is still wrapped up!

Mark added René Herse Cycles mounts for Mafac centerpull brakes.

Investment cast seat lug with fastback seatstays.

Jacob_R_59 

I’m down in Olympia, Washington where today I’ve just picked up my 1985 65cm Trek 660 from Forever Powdercoat.

I bought it from Forum member, RiddleofSteel in 2019.

I then sent it to Forum member, Mark Guglielmana of Portland, Oregon. Mark added René Herse direct mounts for Mafac centerpull brakes, plus mounts for my Velo-Orange fenders and Nitto Randonneur rack.

I used Illusion Blue powder from Prismatic Powders to approximate a Toyota color, RAV4 Electric Storm Blue.

I also ordered a complete Trek “Build A Set” of Trek 660 decals, including gold foil headtube badge and Reynolds 531 decal, from Velocals shortly before they closed their doors on 12/31/22. They will be missed! 😭

I’ve had encouragement from Forum member Drillium Dude to address and speed up my backlog of projects, so this will be my 1st build of 2023.

Thanks for looking.