eagletree

Well, it's not at all new. This was a bike I bought in 88 and never rode. In the 90s I took the tire off, welded up a mount for the front and back and ran a one-wire alternator to charge shop batteries using the rear rim as a belt pulley, and get exercise. It worked but the concept didn't last long and about 10 years ago I gave it to my nephew to ride (along with a Miyata I mentioned in a previous post). He mentioned it to me recently and said he'd dug it out, tried it, and the front derailleur cable exploded. I told him not to recycle it, but I'd pick it up.

I'd forgotten what it was other than a teal Trek quasi-MTB, but it turned out to be a 1988 Trek 830. I was pleased to find it was lighter than my full-shock Giant MTB which is normally my winter "road" bike. The big surprise was when I got it home, I put some SPD pedals on it and took it for a ride. It felt like I was riding my son's RadRover with electric assist. Every spin of the crank rocketed me ahead. It made my Emonda feel like work. I thought "I really like this bike" so took it to my LBS and told him to order tires, cables, drop bars and come up with some sort of shifters and brake handles that would work on the new bars. That was yesterday.

Last night I'd left the Trek PDF open from when I was dating it and looked closely at the specs. It turns out this crankset was the now defunct Shimano Biopace system only this particular one used the licensed SR Oval-Tech version (Trek used both in 1988 on various models). I got to reading up on how they worked and how they were conceptually elliptical rings, but different timing and profile that didn't hurt the riders knees. After riding it yesterday, I'm pretty excited about getting this back as my winter / gravel bike. The MTB I used last winter was fine, but having a rear shock really made it less than ideal for road rides. I felt like I was giving away too much power from the strokes. This one should be just the opposite, put more power to the ground and be 2 pounds lighter. Now I'm not so dreading the onset of winter.

ups

Nice bike. I wouldn't wait until Winter to put miles on it though!

eagletree

Actually I probably won't wait long. The Emonda is doing full time duty on the smart trainer and mostly what I've been riding. Even popping it off the trainer and putting the rear rim back on is enough to usually keep my riding virtual (I only ride for the fun of exercise and it saves a lot of time to not drive to where I like to ride), so this will probably get me back out on the real road. I can just put it on the car rack and leave on a moments notice. I also don't ride any technical trails (roots, jumps etc) so this will be fine for the small amount MTB riding I do too. I'm pretty pumped about riding with these chain rings too, I described it to my son as "it felt like it had rocket assist". The details about them are that they don't help above 90 RPM which is why they were a marketing failure, but still most of my time is below that on the real road. I often average RPM in the 70s on real rides.

John E

My 1988 Schwinn Project KOM-10 non-suspension mountain bike has become my go-to steed for both transportation and exercise. I drop my panniers over the rear Blackburn Mtn rack for shopping trips. Yes, it slows me down about 10 percent relative to my road bikes, but it is both pleasant and practical. The big improvements I have made are getting rid of the biopace 38T middle ring, installing a Brooks Team Pro saddle, cutting about an inch off the end of each end of the handlebar and adding extensions to the ends to give me a drops-like grip position, switching from a 7-speed freewheel to an 8-speed cassette, and gearing it 1.5-step-plus-granny: 48-40-28 (or 24) / 12-13-15-17-19-21-24-28. On pavement, I ride exclusively on the middle and outer chainrings. Off road, I use the middle and inner rings. It is always fun to ride it with my two little grandsons in the annual 4th of July parade held in my elder son's neighborhood.

Lemond1985

Kid in the front has great form, looks so comfortable on the bike.

Jinkster

Very nice and the geometry looked very familiar as I recalled my Trek 800 (that I gave to my son in=law and he still has) and while it probably didn't have the cool elliptical crankset yours has?...it was a great ride that was surprisingly easy to cover ground with....especially for it's age...

https://www.bikeforums.net/fifty-plu...n-run-pix.html

eagletree

They're cute for sure. Makes miss my grandkids. I was planning a Seattle ride to see them before Covid popped up its head.

Interesting on the Schwinn, it had Biopace too. I know nothing about the antique gear sets so didn't realize there was compatibility between older sets. I will have to ride it for a bit before swapping anything out. My recollection was that it had very nice low gearing. But if I could go with a later rear cog set, that might let me get indexed shifters.

The LBS told me to wait on the bars until he got a new cable and I could take it for a longer ride. I had told him to do drops, but he came back and said there were no indexed shifters for the Deore 6 speed rear end. I told him to hold on the drops and bar end shifter as I'm not sure I'd like them as much as the thumb shifters with the straight bars. The bars are badly rusted and grips shot so those have to go, but what to swap them out with is up in the air. Did your bar ends end up being the horn style and did you retain your thumb shifters.

rumrunn6

ooh a drop bar conversion, subscribed!

eagletree

I read your post on the 800. Sounds like you were looking for the same as I, just an easy rider on less perfect road conditions. I already had a full suspension MTB and felt it really hampered my riding because the suspension seemed to suck up wattage, plus it is quite heavy. This old 830 is two pounds lighter if not 4 (haven't weighed either, just looked at specs). The real nice thing about no suspension is not having to pump the shock constantly. Honestly I don't enjoy real MTB riding anyway (I quickly learned that slowly hopping large roots and rocks in clipless pedals is a rather terrifying experience... I ride for fitness, not adrenalin or excitement), for me, the MTB is needed only because wintertime here means the roads are covered with branches, sand and mud, and having wide tires really helps. That's why this should end up being more a gravel bike style than an MTB.

eagletree

That is the idea, though, as mentioned, my LBS said he couldn't get bar end shifters that could index on the 6-speed rear end and they would have to be configured for friction. Sure enough, the only indexing bar ends I could find for older gear sets on Ebay started at 7 speed. So I was encouraged by the above post which suggests I could replace the rear with a 7 speed, then get some Suntour bar ends that would index. Then I could have my drop bars.

rumrunn6

yikes, good luck w/ that. sounds like you & they know enough about it. I did a conversion once but I got lucky w/ parts I had. doing it the "right" way is so much more intriguing

BobbyG

Here's my 90s MTB drop bar conversion from last fall:
https://www.bikeforums.net/general-c...converted.html

you could go turn off the indexing for the rear derailer.

Jinkster

Yep...I'm riding a specialized crosstrail disc these days just for the wide variety of road conditions and sidewalk/curb/medium hopping I do and while I thought about a fully suspended MTB?...I've shied away from them for the very reasons you state.

I'd cry if someone stole my crosstrail but the Trek 800 was a cool suburban warrior as well!

eagletree

Yes, that is very much the idea of what I'd like to come out with. I like the full fenders and that was going to be my next project on it. I wanted to attempt to make my own since I'm learning the English Wheel right now. As far as the indexing goes, that is what the LBS suggested. Just turning off indexing would be a quick and painless way to go forward with the conversion.

eagletree

That is one negative about this, no discs. I didn't measure the width of the axles before I took it in to see if I could get new hubs and weld on frame and fork tabs for discs. I doubt it as I think the wide axles on MTBs was later (don't know much about it but I've read about MTB disc conversions and that looks like a challenging mod). That would make it a perfect bike for me. If I don't have them, I probably won't notice.

eagletree

Sorry to reply again to this but what shifters did you use?

Jinkster

I think we all go through a process of "Refining The Defining" of what is and what makes "The Perfect Bike" for the terrain we encounter which in turn dictates "What Type Of Bike" is best suited for us and that terrain we encounter...for instance?...

I would've loved to have kept my old Giant OCR3 but?...there's no way that RB would've been able to take the sort of beating that just hopping on a bike and rolling out from my driveway requires...I'd get tired of un-clipping and dismounting to walk it across grassy mediums and leaping off a curbed sidewalk?...out of the question...I'd surely fold a rim at some point...I often times drool over great deals on killer Tri-Bikes on FB marketplace from time to time but?...I know better...my bikes need to be like Timex...takes a licking but keeps on ticking! LOL!

I sure suck hind tit when I get out to the wide open spaces with smooth surfaces and get passed by just about every RB out there (especially on windy days with my near upright flatbar riding position) but?....when the surface gets rough?...I get to stay clipped in and on the saddle while they walk.

I'd of liked to kept my RB and sometimes entertain the thought of getting another but reality dictates that it would be a rare occasion that I'd bother to load it in my truck and transport it somewhere smooth as opposed to just hopping on my Hybrid and hitting the road...any road.

BobbyG

Shimano 200GS 7s-SIS SLM-201. $3 each at the bike co-op.

They're thumb-shifters I mounted near the bar end. They worked beautifully this winter.

eagletree

I was wondering if that was possible but my LBS didn't mention it. I suppose the cosmetics aren't as good with the cables hanging out there and a purist/shop would consider it unsat. But I don't ride to profile ;-). I already have the Deore indexing thumb shifters that are on the bike now, so I'm going to suggest it as a solution. It would be better to have cables out there than have to deal with friction bar end shifters.

eagletree

Same for me, that's why I used the Giant MTB last winter and want to get this one set up for this winter. I was clueless and riding my Emonda with Aeolus carbon rims in the worst of the mud, rain, snow sand, and tree flotsam all over the shoulders. The LBS fellow said "You have an MTB, why aren't you riding it, you're ruining your bike". I hate to think of how much I ground the rims down prior to that, having rim brakes. I also was concerned the impact of all the branches and fir cones which are unavoidable on a carbon fiber frame. It's like a washboard in winter on the shoulder in Western Washington rural areas. A stout metal frame like this shouldn't have any problems, or if it did, I could Tig it myself without too much worry. Had I ruined the Emonda, it would be new bike time.

BobbyG

With the way I have the shifters, there is a slight chance of catching your fingers if you are not careful. OTOH I completed my conversion for under $80. I bought new cables and brake levers including cross brakes or interrupters for the uppers. My bike has V-brakes and I couldn't find any used long-pull levers at the co-op.

I was going to put downtube shifters on, like on my old road bike, but the old MTB doesn't have bosses and the fat downtube made finding a cheap harness difficult. And, as I said, this really worked out well for me.

eagletree

Here are the thumb-shifters I have to work with. They look like they might be the same orientation, but mine may be too bulky. They look thicker.

BTW, that is the cable that exploded when my nephew tried to ride it, the casing just self destructed. This was particularly fortuitous since it was the catalyst for my renewed interest in the bike. You can also see why these bars are gone, but that is the excuse to go with some nice drops.

BobbyG

I'm not a bike mechanic...just the basics, but I'd try it...what have you got to loose?