I am in negotiations with a LBS to buy the Trek 520. I test road the bike and found that the drop bars and shifters did not work for me. I have also followed the posts on the 520 in this forum and understood that other changes would be helpful. I asked for changes to the tires, crankset, bars and rack. For an extra $100 Canadian ($75US) I have been offered the following changes: Armadillo tires, Blackburn Expedition rear rack, straight bar and Deore regular (not LX or XT) 44-32-22T crankset.

I have three main questions. Is this a reasonable price? How much of a quality downgrade is the Deore crankset? Is it possible to get a decent granny gear without going to the full crankset change?

Please answer as quickly as possible, I have to phone back tomorrow to get the deal done? Thank you.

I would spend alittle extra money and get at least the LX Shifters and Crankset. I believe that deore still has a bottom bracket that is square tapered and with the LX you at least get the splined spindle on the bottom bracket which gives you more power to the cranks. I have both on different bikes and can notice a big change in proformance. the rest of the parts sounds like a fair deal.
Good Luck and let us know how it turned out.

I just looked at the shimano website and it appears that the Deore crank is available in a splined and non-splined version. The non-splined version weighs 785 grams, the splined Deore is 706 grams, and the splined LX is 656 grams.

The deal you are being offered sounds pretty good. I got an LX crank swap as part of my original purchase, but later chose new tires, rack, and handlebar/shifters, all costing over $200 total. If you can get the Deore crank in splined, or the LX, that would be great. Of course, it may cost a little more over the non-splined Deore.

do NOT go for a straight bar...the worse possible bar for touring, IMO.

Consider a longer quill to raise the drop bars, or perhaps try moustache bars. Or good old fashioned cheap steel northroad bars (3-speed type bars). For long-haul biking, nothing is worse than a single hand position.

When we bought my wife's 520 a couple of years ago I got a quote for the basic bike. I then asked for a second quote for an LX drive train, a flat bar, LX shifters and Avid brake levers. It was the same price. as the lbs owner knew he could use or sell the original components. The price was $100 US below retail.

We have noticed no significant difference between LX and the basic Deore shifters which we had on our mountain bikes. However, the 105 front derailleur was hard for her to operate with a thumb shifter as she has some arthritis in her hands. I upgraded to an XTR and it made it much easier for her. Today I wouldn't get an XTR as Shimano has redesigned the XT and it's now a very good derailleur. The XT is actually a better match for the compact crankset (22,32,44) than the XTR. I have it on my mountain bike.

Our mountain bike Deore pods got sloppy over time with wear and she now has XT and I have XTR shifter pods. They do shift better than the basic Deore.

Unless your 100% set on flat bars, you might consider the newer ergonomic drop bars made by Ritchy. They have lots of hand positions on the flats and the drops are better shaped for the hands and shallower. You have two choices of drops. Mine have the least drop and they are very comfortable. You can also have STI shifters with drops. I could never go back to anything else for a road bike now that I've used 105 STI's.

Al

While this may be true for you, it does not apply to everyone.

I used the drop bar setup on my 520 for about 1000 miles. It was OK, but not very comfortable after 30 miles into a ride. And the handlebars were as high as the saddle, had two layers of cork tape, etc.

Then I thought I'd try matching the setup I have on my MTB/commuter.

Worked even better. But still a little bit short of perfect. I then altered the barends by putting dual/density MTB grips over the barends and tweaking the angle a little.

Perfect (for me). Usually when I ride I experience a little tingling/numbness in my hands for the first few miles, then it goes away, then returns after 30-40 miles. If it's a long ride (75-100 miles) I may experience numbness in one or two fingers for several hours after the ride.

Over the weekend I did about 7 hours of riding. No hand discomfort at any time. Plus I prefer the position of the brake and shifting levers on a flat bar. I find that I have a variety of hand positions on the flat bar with barends.

I think the key is to find out what works for you and your goals. My selection of cranks, handlebars, shifters and brakes were all made after using the original setup and comparing it to what worked for me on other bikes I have used.

Plus the original poster did not ask our opinion on his/her choice of handlebars.

"While this may be true for you, it does not apply to everyone."

- very true; thats why I qualified it as my opinion.

"Plus the original poster did not ask our opinion on his/her choice of handlebars."

Fair enough. He did mention straight bars, so I offered my opinion on them. I agree with your premise that what works for one may not work for another; but the basis of my unsollicted offering was the assumption that most people dont find several hours of numb fingers to be 'perfect for me'

peace out; happy pedaling.

Numb fingers might be caused by how far fore and aft the saddle is thus putting to much weight on the arms. If I was putting a flat bar on my touring bike I would also install Cane Creek barends. I have them on my hardtail mountain bike that I race in 24 hr events and thay are great.

I'm looking for a touring/road bike and believe that this will be the same case for me. I have been doing tours on my old Giant Iguanna with Zoom Brahma bars which offer many differnt hand positions (which is very important). I too also really like the brakes and shifters mounted like a MTB. I'm not all that bothered about not having brakes out at the ends of my "horns" of my handle bars. I frankly think that cruising on the hoods of a drop bar setup looks awkward...

I have considered using a true "trial bar" which would allow me to mount a set brakes at the ends, but I don't think that such a big deal. I can switch back to my MTB brakes pretty fast and if I'm going though a hairy bit of road (rough terrain, conjested treet, or downhill), I just switch back to the straightbar position which gives me the maximum control anyway. My bar's pretty wide (57 cm), so I can breathe well and have tons of control even if I give up a bit of aerodynamics.

Was your conversion of your 520 to straight bars a major ordeal?

No. My bike shop is very good about doing these things in a timely fashion.

We decided on swapping the bars, and then I selected shifters, brake levers, grips and bar ends.

It turned out that they didn't have the Deore shifters in stock, so they upgraded to LX at no additional cost. The brake levers are low-end, but they work just fine. The grips I selected turned out to be uncomfortable for long rides, so I got some new grips. I'll use the old grips on my commuter.

I had to make a couple return trips to get some things adjusted, but I live less than a mile from the shop.

It's fun tweaking the setup, getting things just the way I want, and my bike shop really helps.

Well I have made my decision. I phoned the store today and ordered the bike with the items I listed but upgraded to the LX crank and shifters. That upped the price by $40 C but I think it will probably be worth it.

I would like to thank all of you for your great help. Let me explain a few things about my choices. I chose the straight bar because no matter how many times I tested with the drop bars I could never get comfortable with them. The shifting, the brakes and the feel never worked properly, no matter how many times we switched things around. I went to the straight bars because they felt the best. That may be because most of my touring and riding has been done on a MTB.

I know this limits my hand positions but I think I can live with that for now. Most of my touring will be less than 100km per day. When I recover financially from this purchase I can begin to try out new types of handlebars or add barends.

Right now I can't wait to take delivery of the bike. I pick it up on Friday, just in time for a long weekend. I intend to put it to the test right away. Again thank you very much for quick responses to my request.

Right away (before you leave the bike shop) have the saddle and crank changed. The stock saddle is just dreadful and the crank is more suited to fast club riding than touring. I complained to Trek about these two issues but they obvously have done nothing about them. I suspect their hands are held concerning crank choices by the mighty shimano but they could easily put on a half-way decent saddle. Note to Trek: tell shimano to put up or shut up. You are afterall one of the largest bike manufacturers in the world. Shimano needs to have their products on your bikes.

Are you talking about the Trek 520? What's wrong with the Shimano 105 Hollowtech 30/42/52 crank? It looks like a good one to me.

Also, what would you suggest for the seat?

You ordered the Trek 520?

The 105 crank is wonderful on the 520 if you never carry anything. However, put some loaded pannieries on the bike or tow a trailer and that 52 ring becomes dead weight. Switching to a mountain bike crank such as LX or XT will save your knees. There's really no need to have a 52X11 gear combination on a touring bike. If you look at the custom builders, they all use mountain bike cranks. As for a saddle, it's hard to tell you what to get. For me it was a trial and error process. I am finally happy with a WTB speed V. (bought 3 of em and put in the parts box for the future.) Some people swear by Brooks B17 but I have found I can't get comefortable on one. I'm either leaning too far forward or mashing my privates. Most bike shops will let you try out different saddles over the course of a few days. That may be the best way to find one you are happy with.

I guess you would never be going that fast under a full load, huh? I'm looking at it for day tours (64-100 moles) where I just carry a trunk on my rack. I was thinking that have such a wide range of gears as the Trek 520 offers would be really nice since sometimes I wish I could go faster on the flats to keep up. Maybe it's just overkill... I just like having the flexibility...

If you have the larger triple, what do you cruise in? 14-52? 11-42?

Which triple should you use? The 28/38/48?

If you are doing day rides with just a trunk pack then the 105 triple may suit you perfectly. Then, the bike is basically a more comfortable club ride bike. I don't think I've ever even had my Trek in the 52X11 but I use it for fully loaded touring. I think the LX crank comes with 22/32/44. That would be perfect on the 520 for loaded touring but not for quick day rides. It sounds like you would be happiest with what you already have on the bike.

Yeah, I'm not hauling anything like a trailer or huge paniers. But it would be cool to be able to do that in the future. Like in a tour where you have to carry all your own gear as opposed to the cushy ones where SAG vans carry it for you.

Maybe you could give me a little advice. I am weighing the Trek 520 Touring against the Lemond Wayzata ($1000), the Motobecane Cafe Noir ($800) and the Bianchi Strada ($700). All of these have steel frames which what I believe I want (I have one now and I fear that an alum frame will be too stiff). With the other bikes, they come with straight bars and carbon frorks so I wouldn't need to mess with that setup the way I would on the 520 (on the handlebars, brake levers, shifters). I'm leaning towards the 520 because all of the components are really good quality where on the other bikes I would want to upgrade some of the lower-end generic stuff which will basically offset the cost benefit of the cheaper bikes. Any opinions here? Is the Trek fairly nible or is it such a tank that it's sluggish. I want a little zip in my bike.

Thanks,

Warren

I'm the wrong guy to answer comparison questions as I only know my 5-year old Trek 520 and have no experience with the other models. I would ask the questions again under a new thread heading and see what you find out. Sorry Norsman your post went left a little.

Yeah, sorry too. Just a bit wayward.

Thanks anyway.

Warren

Yes I did.

I don't have any problems with that. I see that as one of the great things about this type of a forum. I have had my questions answered and don't have any problem with others building on what I started. Have fun.