jpaschall

While out of town for work this weekend I got a text from a friend. I work nights, and texts don't normally wake me up while I'm sleeping during the day, but this one did. The text contained a craigslist ad, the craigslist ad contained a 1983 Trek 720 in my size for $100. I told my friend to move with haste and get it for me. At the end of the day we got it for $90. The man was older and got the bike out of a storage locker several years before, and had kept it stored in his garage since.

There are a few odd things, and a few very cool things going on with it, and I am hoping to make this my first tear down/rebuild (more about that later). First, it came with a pretty broken in Brooks Professional, which I love. I know there is someone on the forums that mends worn out Brooks, can someone direct me his/her way? It also came with a seat bag full of old tools, also very cool. The original odometer is still on and has nearly 5,000 miles clocked on it. Oddity #1 : Simplex front derailer. The catalogue says Huret Duopar, and I do have that in the rear. Oddity #2 : Raleigh branded barcon for shifting the rear cluster. The front shifter is just Suntour branded

Everything else seems original to the bike aside from the tires. The bike does need a lot of TLC, and I have no real maintenance experience of any kind. That being said, I would like to work on this bike by myself as much as is reasonable. Wheel stuff I will leave to the pros, and the final tuning up I will also have done at my bike shop. I'd like to hear stories or advice from your first time doing such work, even if your advice is "have your shop do it." I do have a coop in my city, but open shop hours are always while I'm working :/

Without further ado, some pictures:












Thanks for looking and for any advice/guidance any of y'all can give me! I'm very excited to have found it.

BluesDaddy

You got the Helicomatic tool! Don't lose that one.

sloar 

Wow, what a deal. Those are my favorite Trek decals. Great find.

elboGreaze

Man, great catch, that bike is in great shape ! Do all the work yourself , lots of info on the forum and YouTube .

seedsbelize 

My size too. Great catch!

bhchdh 

Well done.

otg 

Great find! I did a quick search and came up with a link you might find helpful.

https://www.parktool.com/blog/calvins...ng-older-bikes

daf1009

Good job! And...congrats...

bikemig 

Sweet. I have the same bike but mine is badly in need of a repaint. I rode mine across the US some time back. It is a heck of a nice long distance touring bike. Be gentle with the cantilevers; many modern cantis won't work as the spacing is narrower than is the norm today.

Sir_Name 

Great score - nice bonus tools. With the amount of rust on the chain breaker I'd be curious to see if there is any internal rust on the frame. The paint looks great. Beyond that, new cables, pads and grease and you'll have an excellent bike to last a long time. I'm sure you already know, but between this site, the park tool website, YouTube, and of course sheldonbrown.com you should be set. Do some reading first on specific jobs you would like to accomplish then get to the coop if you can for some oversight (and tool$). Can you ride another bike through the coming winter to give yourself time on this project? Forum member rhm would be the go-to for recovering the saddle (if it needs it - looks okay to my untrained eye on mobile...).

jpaschall

Yes that is a concern. I plan to tear it down completely over the next couple of weeks, so I'll get a good look soon. I know oxalic acid is the way to go for treating internal rust, but it will hurt my paint, correct?

Bradleykd

What a God awful place for a bottle cage!! lol.

Awesome looking bike, I love that color and decals!

oddjob2

The paint will never know. Just don't over soak.

OTS 

^+1
and be mindful of your concentration of OA in the water.

The Golden Boy 

$90 for a full on "grail" bike.

Congratulations! Welcome to the Trek 720 club- your clubhouse keys are in the mail and you'll be taught the secret handshake and all that.

Everything is pretty much as it should be- the front derailleur is the Simplex SLJ- Make sure when you clean it up- that little foil Simplex tag has a tendency to fall off and get lost.
The "Raleigh" branded barcon is just the shift lever cover.

If this is your size, I honestly don't think you can find a smoother riding bike-

I have a very high opinion of my opinion on the 720 and touring bikes in general. I've had my 720 for a little less than a year, I've changed bunches of things here and there, and keep daydreaming of things to do to and with it.

Every year of the 720 it had among the VERY finest in touring/ATB components, although most will probably suggest you swap out the wheels for something that's... engineered a little more... robustly. If you're staying with 27" wheels, you can use all kinds of different cantilever brakes- the brake selection gets a little tougher when it comes to going to 700C wheels, as the canti mounts are higher and narrower than a lot of cantis can adjust to.

There are those who's opinion on bike parts I almost implicitly trust that like the DuoPar- I do not- and I'd suggest swapping out the DuoPar for something like a long cage Suntour or a (more or less) period correct Deore XT. IMO, that Simplex SLJ is a great front derailleur- it's unique and it works really well.

Again, congratulations!

jpaschall

I know there are tons of threads on tool needs for a project like this, but I plan to use this thread as a log for the journey. I know I have the Helicomatic tool, a couple of pedal/headset wrenches and a debatably useful chain breaker, and I believe I'll need:

Bike stand
Crank puller
BB tool
Cone wrenches (if I decide to work with the wheels)
Chain whip (?)
Cable cutter
WD-40
Bearing grease (suggestions?)
Patience

Aside from basic tools that I already have (allen wrenches, socket set, adjustable wrench, etc), am I missing anything?

jpaschall

Thanks! I couldn't believe the ad when I saw it. I plan to stick with the 27" wheels, as I don't want to deal with the issues you've laid out. Are the stock rims not worth much salt? If I do replace the wheels, I'm under the impression that getting away from the Helicomatic is a good idea.

bikemig 

GB has probably the best stash of vintage touring bikes on BF and knows his stuff. That's a good point about how its easier finding cantis to work with 27 inch wheels. That said, I've seen this problem crop up with other vintage bikes that take cantis even when running the correct wheel size. The narrower mounts can be a problem. No big deal but something to keep in mind. I've been running 700c wheels on my 720 for a long time.

The Golden Boy 

The rims are fine- it's the Helicomatic that you'd want to replace. I got lucky and happened to stumble across a set of 27" Phil Wood / Super Champion wheels here.

Keep reading around as to what you gather are "good" rims and "good" hubs- and keep an eye out for those. I have a thing about Super Champion rims. Since getting the Phil Wood hubs- wow- it's a whole different league of wheels than anything I'd ridden before.

So, if'n I got your bike, I'd replace cables, housing; regrease everything, look for a different wheelset (IMO something 126 or so with a 6 sp freewheel) and a sporty long cage rear derailleur.

Here's mine:

John Zeni's blog of the rebuild of my bike:

John's Bicycle Restorations: Dave V's 1985 Trek 720 Overhaul - A Holey Grail Touring Bicycle

And a few of the changes since then:

jpaschall

Is the spacing already 126?

Velocivixen

A Grease *** to get grease into bearings like wheel hubs. So much easier to aim the grease where you want it. Grease, of course, shifter & brake ferrules & cable tips/crimps, a roll of blue shop disposable towels (like thick paper towels), citrus degreaser or the like. You'll have a great time. Wrenching is fun & satisfying.

jyl

Bike stand - in a pinch you can hang ropes from a garage rafter. But a good bike stand is so useful. Don't buy a crap off-brand one. False economy.
Crank puller - yes
BB tool - yes
Cone wrenches (if I decide to work with the wheels) - you can use the ones in the toolkit
Chain whip (?) - no, very unlikely you'll want/need to take cogs off the freewheel
Cable cutter - yes
WD-40 - for cleaning, it is a good degreaser
Bearing grease (suggestions?) - a tub of synthetic axle bearing grease from the auto parts store will cost $10 and last decades
Patience - yes but enjoyment too

Also:

Headset wrench
Spoke wrench of correct size
Tri-Flow for pivot points like on the brakes
Metal polish and rags for shining up the alloy components

I can't see paint damage or rust from the pictures. It may not be necessary to OA the frame. If there are just a few little chips and minimal rust spots, I'd just clean the frame really well, sand off the rust (sandpaper wrapped around tip of a chopstick, etc), and touch up the spot with paint or even clear nail polish. If it is very rusted internally then OA but I'll bet its not.

So is the Simplex FD original? I think Huret is a darn cool brand of derailleur for a vintage touring bike, if there was a Huret FD to match the RD and that will shift the triple, I'd be tempted to swap it out. I'm unreasonably bugged by non matching derailleurs.

What's wrong with the rims? If they are undamaged, why not keep them. Check spoke tension and true as needed. The night before, put two drops of Triflow on each spoke nipple, at the nipple/spoke and the nipple/rim junction.

When you overhaul the bottom bracket, if the fixed cup doesn't want to come out, don't go nuts with the adjustable wrench - unless you have a bench vise or other special tool, I'd overhaul with that cup in place, rather than risk damaging something with just an adjustable wrench.

Beautiful bike and an absolute steal of a price.

jjhabbs 

Your absolutely killing me. That is my grail bike I have had a hard time finding in my 24 inch size. How is the paint??? Looks good from the photos. Ever want to part with it and make a good profit on it let me know.

Sir_Name 

Your paint should be fine. Caveat: second hand info.

The Golden Boy 

I think the Simplex is original, despite what the 83 catalog says; the 84 & 85 have the Simplex / Huret combination.

Trek specced the 720 (and the 620) with the BEST components without regard to the manufacurer- the proverbial "eclectic mix of parts," but in no way haphazzard.

Regarding the rims/wheels... Although Trek used the best hubs available, the best touring hub at the time was the Helicomatic- because it was so easy to switch cogs. However, it wasn't quite engineered properly. So, the Matrix rims (as far as I know) are good rims, but the hubs they're laced to have proven to be problematic.

From Sheldon Brown: French Bicycles

"Some French bicycles (and many early Treks!) came with Maillard "Helicomatic" rear hubs. This was the first cluster that could be removed without a big, powerful tool. It came with a cute little pocket-size tool that incorporated a spline wrench for the cassette lockring, a spoke wrench, and a bottle opener. The Helicomatic was a nice idea on paper, but poorly executed. These hubs are losers.

Both hub flanges were 1mm farther to the left than those of a normal hub, causing increased dish in the rear wheel, and persistent spoke breakage problems. Many loyal Helicomatic fans tout the ease with which the cassette may be removed for spoke replacement as a great virtue, but if the hub were better designed, it wouldn't break so many spokes!

These hubs were prone to bearing problems as well. Due to clearance requirements, they couldn't fit the normal 9 1/4" bearing balls, so they used 13 5/32" balls on the right side. These didn't hold up well. The cones tended to wear rapidly, and replacement cones are no longer available to fit these hubs."