due ruote 

The jury's out on the paint scheme. It's a beautiful finish, and each color is terrific. But I've decided that fades look best when they are more subtle, ie. monochromatic. But hey, it's in great shape, it fits me, and the price was right.

JohnDThompson 

Since I'm laid up with a pinched nerve and can't ride without significant pain, I took some pictures of my one of a kind 720. The tubing and geometry is the same as a stock 720 frame, but I used some different pieces; e.g. Cinelli bottom bracket shell, Cinelli fork crown, diamond decoration on the bottle bosses, brazed-on rear brake cable hanger, and brake bridge, and prototype fluted seat stay plugs from Andrew Hague. I also put cantilever mounts on -- this was before Trek decided to put them on. Mine have MAFAC tandem cantilevers; trek used Dia-Compe. Don't be too critical of the brazing; this was only the second complete frame I built and it shows. I don't consider it to be up to standards any more.

The Golden Boy 

Holy Cow John!

That's fantastic! I've been waiting for YEARS for you to post some more pix of this bike. The very first Trek 720 with cantilevers... amazing.


Best wishes on your pinched nerve. I've had it in my neck/shoulder thing and it's awful.

Get well soon!

Velorific

Damn that's nice. And from a Yard Sale? WOW. If I could only get so lucky. Where I live [Atlanta] at yard sales I see almost exclusively beater Schwinns, Raleighs and Sears.....

PilotFishBob 

Hey Velorific. Yes, when I go looking for a bike I tend to find the beaters and when I'm not looking is when I stumble over the nice ones. It figures... This one took a bit of work to get looking good but it was worth the effort, just wish it were a bit bigger.

Classtime 

Here is ours as I picked it up(my size but it will be my son's transportation). 1986 560. I paid $220 today and just noticed a small ding in the top tube but the tube is straight. Complete 600 group with an aero wheel set. The Sedis chain is close to 1.0 on my chain checker so I think it spent most of its years getting beat up in the garage. Hopefully, a new chain will play nice with the cogs, I can find new hoods, and I can find a brake adjusting spanner.

eschlwc

picked up an '88 trek 400t with true temper 4130, indexed shimano and a triple.





it was ... ok. (i quickly sold it.) i'm partial to the earlier version of this bike, like my '80 414 with ishiwata tubing and first gen cyclone.

PilotFishBob 

Picked up this 660 in Oxford MS in mid-June. First time I've found one on CL worth looking at that I was able to get to first. Took quite a bit of work but it cleaned up pretty good. All original with Campy Record and Helicomatic hub/Matrix rims. Very little wear, just the usual scratches I touched up and a ton off grime and some dried clay (?!?!?). Fortunately it's turning out to be a great rider.

fleslider 

That cleaned up nice. Its beautiful looking!

were you able to find touch up paint that was a match?

PilotFishBob 

Hi fleslider. As it turns out, Testor's standard gloss red was almost dead on in color match. I directly filled the scratches with a pinpoint paint brush, then smoothed in with an airbrush so there were no hard borders. For the most part the touch ups are undetectable. I was extremely pleased at how it turned out.

FatBaldMen

Shimano105 6 speed, 531 tubing w/ risers for "city commuter mode", as soon as I stop being lazy & get the stem out its gotta leave the stable to fund a paramount upgrade

Ryvers

Just picked this up yesterday. In need of a tune-up.

Ryvers

Does anyone know a good nail polish for touching this bike up? Also, can I use nail polish remover safely to remove the prior owners attempt?

bikemig 

This apparently is my year to refurbish a few Treks. Here is a 1984 Trek 400 I picked up for my daughter. It was a garage queen. The bike is in close to perfect shape and the parts have little or no wear.


I have two other Treks in the build queue. One is a 1984 Trek 610. I bought the frame from a fellow BF member. The other is a 1983 Trek 720. It won't look as good as @JohnDThompson's beautiful '83 Trek 720 though. The bike needs to be repainted. Plus finding cantilevers that will work well with 700c wheels is no easy task for that bike.

simmonsgc

Can't help with the paint, but the half-step biopace caught my eye. Maybe I'm just exceedingly pedestrian, but I don't see that too often in my area. Cool.

jcoll003

Can't tell, but if it's 'Race Blue', Testors model masters acrylic "French blue" is a reasonably close match. A 'five feet away' match in any case.

hockeyteeth

Picked up this '78 510 frame with Ishiwata 022 tubing recently. The next day I went back to the seller to pick through his parts and got some decent, mostly period correct parts to finish the build. Would anyone know if this bike was spec'd for 27" or 700? I found a decent pair of 27" wheels with double wall Matrix rims (w/ Presta drilling!) and the current cheap 1-1/4" tires seem like a pretty tight fit near the chainstays.

When I get back home to Florida in October I will probably modernize it slightly so I can do some light touring. Right now it just gets roadie treatment up the mountains.

Bikedued

I think they were sold as a bare frame only, IIRC from my reading of Trek history. Mine came to me with mostly Campy Gran Sport, but had a drillium Superbe crankset and Universal Mod. 77 brakes. I like it how it was, so I may make my second Raleigh Competition a single speed, and return the Campy gear to it. This was about 6 months after I got it. This is what I want to return it to. Such nice riding frames, they're uneventful in a good way. This was taken in South Lake Charles, Louisiana. Just about a ten minute ride from the last grid street.,,,,BD




EDIT: Add blurb from vintage Trek site....

1978.5
Frame models 510, 530, 710, 730, 910, and 930. Bike models are: 512, 712, 514, 714, 914, 536, 736, 936, 737, 937, 738, 938. Seattube graphics and headbadge are the same as for 1976-77. Model number does not appear on frame.

The 1978 brochure and model designations appear to have been operational in mid-78. The May 78 price sheet lists the earlier TX models. The November 78 price list shows the newer models (510, 530 etc.)

The first digit of the model number indicates the tubing used to make the frame: 5 is Ishiwata 022, 7 is Reynolds 531, 9 is Columbus. The second digit indicates the designed purpose of the frame; 1 indicates touring, 3 indicates racing.

1979
Frame models 510, 710, 910, 530, 730, 930. Bike models: 512, 712, 514, 714, 914, 536, 736, 936, 737, 937, 738, 938. Seattube graphics and headbadge are the same as for 1976-78. Model number does not appear on frame.

There also was a Model 310 that did not appear in catalogs. It was constructed of Ishiwata high tensile butted tubes.

Tim Isaac, master framebuilder, joins Trek.

Chriscraft760 

I'm the new proud owner of this rust free 1984 Trek 760. Previous owner stated his friend who was racing at the time helped him place the order from Trek for this unique 760. By the looks, its been well taken care for and stored for the past 20 years. PO said the bike was all original including tires and yellow tape. You never know what to believe from a craigslist find. I am still doing researching on this road bike.

I have replaced the saddle to vintage Ideale Diagonale 92 leather saddle. Wheel set with a mid 80's custom Mavic red label MA40 36h rims w/Specialized quick release hubs laced by Wheelsmith. Rear cogs are 13-21. New tubes and Continental Gatorskin tires. Cinelli stem with Cinelli 64-42 bar. The 760 was ordered with a 1983 Campagnolo Super Record Guppo, crank 53/42. It has a 1983 Trek 170 Burgundy paint and slate grey panel scheme. It also has some 1984 decals and appear to be original. Frame and fork are constructed from Reynolds 531c tubing, 60cm frame. I still need to detail this bike and purchase a few things for it.

hockeyteeth

Thanks for the clarification!

Bikedued

Sarcasm, or?

The Golden Boy 

It doesn't specify which in the 78.5 and 79 catalog...

In the 1980 catalog- it specifies that the x1x bikes are all 700C, then in 81 the x13 and x14 go to 27", but the x15 and up stay at 700C.

If it's a tight fit with 27 x 1 1/4", try 700C with 32s.

While 1 1/8" or 28s are doable, any extra cushion to relieve fatigue would be welcome.

I couldn't get 700c x 32 under the brake bridge of my 78 Trek 736.



By the way- that's a really cool bike and some beautiful looking terrain!

The Golden Boy 

I had one of those 88 400T. It's a "stout" bike. One thing that strikes me as a component nerd... My 400T came with a Deore MT-60 RD and the Z206 FD- Same as the Schwinn Voyageurs of the time. I don't know why they wouldn't use an MT-60 FD...

hockeyteeth

Ah, I was worried that my thanks would seem sarcastic after clipping your quote. I just didn't want to include multiple paragraphs in my reply so I used the ellipse. Sorry if it seemed facetious. All of you guys are a wealth of information!

Bikedued

Gotcha. Text has a wonderful ability to not sound like it was meant. No worries.,,,,BD