king koeller

I can't believe it! I was driving down the road here in Dayton, Ohio when I spotted all these cars at a yard sale. I immediately saw a road bike for sale, I was curious so I decided to stop. As I parked my car I could see it was a Trek. The lady came up to me and I asked what's up with the bike and she said, It was my husbands, he rode triathlons with it. Then ...I spotted the Reynolds 531 sticker on the down tube, I thought she would want big bucks for this classic steed. How much for the Bike? oh, 50 dollars. I said I'll take it. I just have to go the ATM and I'll be right back, When will you be back? In about 10 minutes. Ten minutes later I was the proud owner of a 1986 TREK ELANCE 400D
( the D stands for double crank not triple). Brand new in 1986, this bike was listed as a Sport model for $400 list price. In todays economy that would be $775,with a hand made frame in Waterlou, Wisconsin of Reynolds 531 Double Butted tubing in the main tubes and Tange Chrome-Moly in the stays and fork. I straddled the frame to see it was my size, and it was a perfect fit. I'm 5' 11.5" and the frame is their 22.5" size in Black Metallic and Silver. The Components are Shimano SIS Light Action Rear and front derailleur with a Shimano 6 speed silver 14-28 freewheel, uni-glide chain, and a 52-42 crank. The sticker says it was originally purchased from BICYCLE SOUTH in Decatur, Georgia. Here's the weird part, There was no seat-post but a seat was shoved into the water-bottle carrier on the down-tube. I said to the lady, where's the seatpost? My husband used it on his other bike. No big deal. I got on the Sheldon Brown website and found out this bike takes a 27.2mm seat-post. I purchased a KALIN micro-adjust 27.2 post and wanted to install my Brooks B-17 seat on this classic. When I tried to insert the post ... no way! It would not fit at all. Took it to my LBS, and they said the previous owner had used the wrong post and bent the seat tube collar into a smaller size like 28.6. They promised me they could fix it good as new. I pick it up today...I don't have the tool they have, it's like a seat tube collar expander, this has to be done with extreme care. On the bike, the seat tube collar is attached to the rear stays.Trek would build bike in a series, and I found out mine is the 2nd one built of 99 total in that series. The series all share the same paint, frame size and components. Then they tooled up for the next series....I really lucked out. Made In USA, These 1980's TREKs were sweet!
Have a great day!