My Trek project bike is done for now. I plan to ride the heck out of it then make adjustments as necessary.

Background: This bike belonged to my sister. She bought it new and rode it for a couple of years but then got into Mountain biking, it’s been stored in her garage ever since.

Condition: The bike had a lot of grime from the storage. It was hard to tell what was good and what was bad. I believe the only component that was broken was the rear derailleur. Unfortunately this bike had the Maillard Helicomatic hubs. I decided that a new wheel set was appropriate.

Note: This bike is set up as a commuter. I put on the Freddy Fenders and the Tubus rack.

Upgrades:
• Mavic Open Pro wheels
• 7-speed 105 hubsets 126 mm, 32 holes
• 7 speed cassette
• Continental Ultra-Gatorskins Tires
• Nitto Technomic Stem
• Ritchey Biomax Handlebars
• Cinelli Cork bar tape
• Cane Creek Brake Levers
• Ritchey seat post
• Brooks B-17N Saddle

I just picked up a 83' Trek 560. It would make a great 'before' picture compared to your beautiful 'after'. You did a great job, it looks like a new bike.

The decals on the bike are faded. These are going to be hard to replace. Any ideas?

Bike is a beauty. I'm keeping my eyes open for something very simular myself. Are those 700c or 27" wheels?

I got lucky on that one. This model of Trek came stock with 700c wheels. I noticed that Trek used both 700c and 27" wheels on their 1985 bikes. Must have been a transitional time.
The originals were shot so I opted for new set of Mavics. I think they captured the original look nicely and will be much more reliable.

Nice bike and nice build up.

Regarding the decals...

If it were mine, I would leave them be. I generally prefer to keep the frame looking as original as possible, unless its just horrible, which yours definitely isn't.

That paint scheme is pretty subtle. What follows is just my own taste and prefs. Ignore it if it doesn't suit yours.

With a light frame like that, I would try to match saddle and tape to the accent colors on the frame. You've got plenty of black working for you with the headset, bottle cages, rack and Brooks. I would consider trying brick red bar tape to match the decals. Here's some pics of a bike (not mine) of the color that jumped to mind for me.

https://www.cyclofiend.com/cc/2006/cc...ersey0106.html

I thought of the very same thing! The bike originally had red bar tape and red cables. When I was gathering parts I had a hard time finding red cables so I opted for black. I wasn't sure if the bike would look good with red bar tape so I put the black on instead. Now I'm not sure if I like the Narrow Brooks saddle yet and may change over to a standard width. If I do, I may go with a honey colored saddle and put the red bar tape on it just to add a little color.

One of my goals on this build was to keep the look similar to original. I would still like to replace the decals but would only do so with the original design.

Thanks for the comments about my bike!

hmmm, decals. . . I wonder who here at BF has a company that reproduces
decals. . . .
oh mike, I hear you being paged!

marty

I've really bad luck trying to be bold when the bike didn't really support it.

For example, I'm a sucker for yellow bars and tape due to a love affair I had with a bike that had yellow Benotto tape on it for many many years. I've got one bike on which it currently works but that's because it has some yellow in the decals.
https://home.comcast.net/~pinnah/Dirt...s/trek-311.JPG

I tried yellow on 2 other bikes, neither of which had yellow on the frame to begin with and yech.

I mention this because I think your black Brooks looks just perfect. Some bikes look stunning with brown but to my eyes they fall into 1 of 2 camp. Either they have that tan bars thing going (later green 520s did this or lots of Rivs) or the frame is so bold to begin with that the Brown saddle doesn't distract like this one.
https://www.cyclofiend.com/cc/2005/cc...orsky0805.html

I guess I just like black better myself.

I also think the Trek cast lugs on your bike are really cool looking. Sort of industrial feeling to me. That combined with the sportier geometry of you bike, I would tend to stay closer to a no-nonse "fast bike" feel and I associate that with the black saddle.

I like some constrast so I would keep the black and red thing going. Red bars with black saddle and cables. Red bottles in the black cages. Custom painted red frame pump? Or black. Red striped tires like the Michelin Carbons?

Mariner,
Very nice bike. Clean and simple. Where did you get 7 speed hubs in a 126 mm width?

I actually got these new from Harris Cyclery. Nothing fancy, just 105 hubs but perfect for my needs.

The bike is stunning! Congrats.

You can get red cable housing a loosescrews.com

https://tinyurl.com/lhq9d

Bob Hufford
Springfield, MO

I could ride that with my head up. Nice bike.
Top

Well I took the old gal out for the first ride today. Shifting with down tube shifters is easier than I thought, though not as easy as STI's of course. I took it out fully loaded with the bag attached to the rack and found that it rolls really nice. In fact I found very little reduction in speed vs. my Lemond. The bike rides smooth and solid. Only one small problem encountered. I jumped on the pedals while outrunning a dog and it shifted to a smaller gear by itself. Is this common with friction shifters?

I don't know that it's the friction shifters. I put some hard miles on an 85 620 many years ago, and I soundly cursed that Duopar derailleur & that helicomatic freewheel a number of times. Really honkin' up a hill and the whole thing jumped in between gears. Ugh. Replaced it with a conventional (Suntour?) hub/fw and it would just shift up when applying generous torque, so I then suspected it was the steel frame flexing enough to allow things to move, because my (then) friction-shift road c'dale didn't jump out of gear no matter how hard I jumped on it.

Although... it couldn't hurt to tighten the shifters a bit.

Mariner Fan,

Sounds like classic "ghost shifting" to me too. Like Moo said, this happens when you stomp on the pedals sometimes. The BB deflects to the side and this stretches the cable. It can be severe enough to cause the friction shifter to move a bit and thus, when the pedal stroke goes round the slack in the deraileur cable will allow it to shift down to the next smallest cog.

Often, tightening the shifters a bit will be the cure. Also, be sure to lube the cable well where it passes through the BB. Your bike has unique cable routings and you may need to appeal to the Trek gurus to get the kinks worked out. I've heard of problems both at the BB and at the point where the RD cable comes out of the chain stay. The chainstay problem can inhibit good indexed shifting. And (on all bikes) binding of the cable near the BB shell can contribute to ghost shifting in friction mode. Several folks on the iBob mailing list have this type of bike so it might be good to ask there too.

Lastly, if you are 200lbs or more or if you are a really powerful rider, the BB sway you are getting may be due to you hitting the limit of frame. Newer oversized steel tubes do a better job of stopping BB sway. Although, if I recall, that frame is 501, not 531 and I would expect the 501 to be noticably stiffer.

I would look at the BB cable routing first.

That's a great looking ride that is in fantastic shape. Love the vintage Treks!


As to the gear jump, did you run through the derailleur set up, ensuring the jockey wheel is centred under the 4th gear with the chain on the big cog?

I think it's just set-up unless the cassette/chain is worn. It's not inherent to friction shifting or down shifters.

E-mail me at mswantak@comcast.net; I can hook you up.

I talked with the LBS guy who also owns multiple vintage bikes. He said the bottom bracket is plenty stiff enough and it shouldn't cause ghost shifting. It's just an adjustment thing. The cassette, chain, derailleur, and cables are new so wear is not the problem. I assume I'll have to adjust things as the cables stretch out. Thanks for the nice comments about the bike. I got alot of satisfaction bringing the bike back to life and it rides very nice.

Excellent! I'll E-Mail you very soon.

I've been looking at this bike for awhile and I wasn't sure what to say. It's so subtle that it doesn't jump out like some of the more flashy bikes posted here. But it keeps drawing me back and the more I look the more I like. Very nice job. I want to do an old bike now.

How easily do the shifter levers move? If you can move the levers with a very light touch the tighten them a tad.

Nice bike. What size is the frame? Your sister must be tall.
Is it an optical illusion, the top tube seems to slope downward from the saddle to the head tube.
Bikes from this era can be extremely nice, my '84 Centurion still gets ridden regularly.

That's exactly what I did and the problem was solved. The frame is 60cm. My sister is tall (5'11") but I think the bike may have been a touch large for her. It's fine for me but I think I could handle the next size up. I'm 6'2". I also have a 59cm Lemond and it feels larger to me.
The top tube is level. Must have been the angle of the photograph.

The Lemond probably feels bigger due to the longer top tube, likely longer stem, and likely more saddle to bar drop. All will increase the reach.

I learned my lesson with loose shifter screws the other day myself on the Gazelle. Couldn't get the shifting right, kept over shifting on the high end when I had the low end dialed in perfect. Ended up it was the loose shifter causing the problems. Now that's the first thing I check when shifting starts feeling sloppy.

Great looking rig, hope my Schwinn ends up even close to being as nice when it's finished in a few days.