Sparkee

Hi everyone,

In November of last year, I committed myself to commuting to work daily, rain or shine. After several months of this, I've developed a strong desire to find a mid-to-late 80s road bike for use in dry weather. You might call it an obsession... I'll use my slightly beat up mid 2000s Trek Multitrack 1000 in the rain.

The following bike has had several repostings on my local CL in the past month, and even though the seller's description appears a bit specious, I'm curious to see if I can identify the bike and if it might be worth pursuing.

Here's the bike:

https://miami.craigslist.org/mdc/bik/3514478257.html

Several things I've noticed:

- The rear derailleur cable is routed outside the chain stay, which seems to eliminate many of the post 85 Treks (except the 300 series?)

- The seat post to seat stay connection matches the Trek brochures from 84 and earlier. There's no sign of that connection style in the 85 and later brochures. Higher end 84 Treks have the new-style connection in the brochure.

- I believe it's been repainted and rebadged since I can't find that color combination on vintage-trek.com, the blacked-out head badge indicates the bike is from 84-87 while the Trek logo on the downtube is from 88 or later, and there's no model number on the seat tube, chain stays, etc.

- The brake calipers, shifters, and rear derailleur pulley cage are black. It looks like the 84 560 and 660 had black brake calipers, but I couldn't find a black rear derailleur pulley cage in the Trek brochures. The shape looks right for an 84 560 or 660 though. It may be that none of it is original. Somebody really wanted a ninja bike.

- The seller claims the frame is Reynolds 531, though he doesn't show the seat tube sticker and the bike has been rebadged...


That's what I've been able to gather so far. What do you think this bike was originally? Is it worth the asking price? Is it worth dealing with a potentially delusional/shifty seller? The price isn't too bad and it's around my size.

My completely newbie guess / delusional fantasy is that it may be a 84 660 with aftermarket Shimano components in place of the original Campangolo.

Thanks!!

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Sparkee

auchencrow

Welcome to C&V Sparkee.
Unfortunately not much can be said about the bike because the link is down (flagged).

Sparkee

Thanks auchencrow. It must have been flagged right after I posted. Not a good sign, heh.

Here are the pictures from the CL post. Sorry they're so small; that's the way they were on CL. The seller's description was a whole bunch of stuff about how it's probably worth $1000 but he's selling it for $200...
He did mention Shimano 600 components. That's about all that was relevant.





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Sparkee

wrk101

We discussed this bike a week or two ago, its a mess and price was ridiculous. Search the valuation forum, where this one belongs anyway.

Serial number will tell you exactly what it is.

Sparkee

Thanks wrk101. Sorry about that. Still new around here.

wrk101

No problem, here's the old thread. It is a bike that is beat, and was repainted poorly (see the overspray on the headset cups). Seller is shaky and a creative writer. Odd thing there is Trek has the best paint jobs in the business, so when I see one with a bad paint job, I am thinking wrecked, or damaged in some way.

It may not even be a Trek.


https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...531c-Appraisal