treebound 

Just for fun, looking for opinions in case I decide to downsize some more and sell off redundancy.

1995 Trek 520, 3x7 gearing, barend shifters

2001 Novara Randonee, 3x8 gearing, brake/shifters (aka: brifters)

the 520 is geared a little lower and has slightly longer chainstays

both bikes seem to be comparable as far as mounts go, both seem to be able to take similar tire sizes (the Randonee might be able to fit a little wider tire), both bikes fit me okay.

Any accessories or racks or fenders can be swapped between the bikes so these things shouldn’t factor in.

If I do decide to downsize then I’ll do some alternating rides and then will probably end up flipping a coin. But in the mean time I’m curious how people here compare these two bikes.

And this is not a valuation request so we don’t need to discuss market or resale values.

thank you in advance for your opinions, I’m just sorting out my thoughts a bit.

seeker333

"the 520 is geared a little lower and has slightly longer chainstays"

Keep the Trek - it looks to be an early-to-mid-90s welded model, I think these were still made in WI. Plus it's already got fenders, and they are a PITA to mount.

djb

six of one, half a dozen of the other.

for regular riding, the brifter bike and 8 spd is nicer to ride, more fun for shifting
its 8 spd, more speeds are nicer for less jumps bettween shifts, and heck, you could buy used parts and change it to 9 spd easily
you probably can easily change the granny gear chainring on this bike to a smaller one, getting lower gearing
you might be able to go to a larger cassette also (it probably has a 11-32 8 speed, might be able to go to 11-34 9 speed)

how do each ride iwth loaded panniers?

the trek might be more stable when loaded, but then it might not
you could probably also upgrade trek to 8 or 9 spd, but you'd have to check rear wheel width, and if it can take a 9 spd cassette

wheelsets comparison?
overall hub conditions of both?

toe overlap, do you hit your toes on front wheel with fender on trek, or the other bike? or the other bike if you add fenders?

I guess only you know how you are going to use the bike, but these are some considerations to take into account.

you also know what mechanical stuff you can do on your own, which would greatly reduce the cost of making changes to bikes.

saddlesores

if it's really a coin toss for you, put 'em both on craigslist or ebay and let the cycling gods decide. the one that sells first was not your intended companion.

djb

Also, if one crankset is smaller than the other, you could most likely switch them, if that's a priority and or you can't do an easy granny gear switch, but in those years of gear, granny gear switches were always doable and easy, with no fd changes or anything.
I've done it numerous times.

fietsbob

thread standards the same, mix the parts you like from one, onto the frame you like .

The 8 speed would likely be 130 dropout, the 7 speed 126, but it , being steel, could be spread to 135..










......

treebound 

I like the idea of comparing how each one handles when fully loaded, I think that’s my plan of attack. All good input above, thank you.

djb

Have fun deciding.

Wilfred Laurier

The brifters on the Novara are, bottom of the barrel for that era, Sora shifters with the stupid 'mouse ear' downshift lever. You can only reach that shifter when riding on the brake hoods. Campy shifters were (are?) similar in design but with the mouse ear in a slightly different position allowing shifting from the hoods or drops. I think those Sora shifters were terrible and for that reason alone, if I had to choose one, would keep the Trek.

treebound 

I hadn’t really given the Novara’s shifters much thought, thanks.

djb

Sora trigger shifters were the lower end ones for brifters, but I know that set up properly, they generally just worked and worked. My wife has a bike that had the very short lived 9 spd thumb trigger version, and had a problem with the right one, but who knows what caused the failure.
I wonder if it was a design thing, as she hadn't crashed, but she can be mechanically unsympathetic, and they changed 9 speed Sora to paddle shifters very soon.
As for the thumb shifter, it works well enough.

Changing to 9 speed would mean a certain amount of money spent, perhaps not worth it, and perhaps you are fine with the bike as is.

Hobbiano 

I have a '95 and a '96 520. Both were 7-speed originally ( converted the '96 to 9-speed) and both are spaced 135 mm. Both have lots of tire clearance

treebound 

Right now the Novara is losing to the 520. So now I’m leaning toward gravelizing the Novara to buy it a little more time in the stable.
(“Gravelizing” is a word, right?)

djb

sure, Tom Waits did that to his voice, probably from smoking and drinking too much.