Wow, a real live 170! :love: I understand the desire to preserve, and you've certainly ridden it and got a lot of "money's worth" out of it. Still, I'd ride it (I say this as an encouragement). Having that arrow in the quiver of bikes (or the only bike) is really cool. At a moment's notice, you could be riding Trek's finest and a bit of history. If I'm remembering the tallying I did for my 1983 970 road bike, about 535 970s were made that year, and less than 200 170s were made. R-A-R-E!

As far as I know, that wasn't a Trek thing until much later. If anything, Schwinn did it with their high end stuff in the late '80s. 1983 will have the ST and DT "TREK" panels and a chain stay protector decal with "170" on it.

The Trek panels were usually the same style panels that were used on the back of seat tubes in 84.

http://cdn3.bigcommerce.com/s-1h8i1i...80.380.jpg?c=2

The reason I asked is someone had posted a pic of a female racing team and one of the 170’s had that on the fork.

Every 1984 Trek I've seen has had those decals on the front of the forks.

Thank you for the education. Looks like in 1983, Trek kept it clean and classy with regard to decals.

No. The only decals on the fork are Reynolds 753 logos.

I always wondered about the builder and never knew there were only three people putting these amazing frames together.

Even with Rich's signature, you may also have a builder's mark on the bottom bracket.

John's was the letter Z.

This exact reason is why I don't sell the group and wheels, I know one day I'll get the bug to put it back together.

A couple of complete build pics
 

I found a couple pictures from when I last rode this beauty.

How much does it weigh?

Put it together and get out on it!

Just over 21 lbs

I was thinking about it, but I just committed the 8speed DA group to my friends vintage Paramount. I may build it with a new group.

Just don't try cold-setting to a wider rear dropout spacing. 753 does not react well to cold setting. If you can't squeeze an 8-cog hub into the frame, keep using a narrower hub or sell the frame.

This is often said but i have a 753 frame that has been cold set to 130 and i run 10 speed dura ace and no problems

All I can say is that we tried cold setting 753 frames at Trek, to see what happened, and more often than not the tubes buckled before the set took hold.

yeah mine may have just been one of the lucky ones.

Mine was cold set to 130 back in the 90's before I knew the rarity of this bike. Luckily I've had no issues.

Hey Zeke,
Thanks for photos. Love the grey tape and the black stem. What stem is that by the way? Cinelli?
Thanks,

Thanks. This bike has been a joy.
It’s an ITM

Nice to see the ultimate vintage Trek racing frame.

Trek 170
 

was the 170 made in 1985 and did it have a 6 didgit ser number ?

I don't know if anyone is monitoring this thread anymore, but I believe this ebay listing was my late husband's. I still have the bike. It's sweet!