Bearonabike

I have a Trek 1200 made in 1990. It is in fine shape but I understand that Trek used a bonded aluminum frame for their aluminum road bikes from the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s and that the frame had some problems.

I am a 290# rider and I understand that the bonded aluminum frame simply can't take that punishment. Is this accurate? If so, I need to put this bike to best use, and that MAY be using it to finance other projects.

I am rebuilding a '94 370 Sport for the wife.

Option #1: (IF I need to) Sell the 1200, use the $ to finish the 370 rebuild.
Option #2: Strip the 1200 for parts for the 370 and sell the frame
Option #3: Sell the 1200 and buy something else as a complete bike

Opinions?

clarkgriswold

I'm nowhere near a bike expert - but I recently picked up a 1989 Trek 1200 -- It has the 105 group and even the rims had 105 hubs. For 1990 they dropped the component level.

The 1990 had RX100 (or something like that) group, and the rims were the Malliot hubs that had a bad reputation. Supposedly the rims were soft and spokes would pull through - but I have no experience on this. (vintage-trek.com)

I don't know much about the frame - it feels good to me, but I am 210.

In my opinion, sell the bike as a whole either option #1 or #3

StupidlyBrave 

I have never heard anything like that. I doubt that the 1xxx series frames of that era deserve gushing praise, but nothing really negative either.

I have a 1400 of the same vintage.