Originally Posted by
endoftheisland
Thanks for all the great advice. I'm curious about the feedback on the year, Everyone seems to agree that it's a 1983. Interestingly, the Vintage Trek website lists the serial number, 34327 as a 1982.
Vintage Trek Bicycle Frame Serial Numbers in 1982
Maybe I'm reading it wrong. Is there another source for SN data?
Originally Posted by
madpogue
No, you're reading it right. Another anomaly, Mandela effect, timeline shift, whatever. Or maybe the BB was just struck with an SN in '82 and sat on a shelf for a year. The above-mentioned differences, at the very least the under-the-BB shift cable routing, lean toward an '83. I have a similarly mysterious 400 series, early '82 serial number (10920?), but clearly sporting the same cable routing as yours. Interestingly, and perhaps NOT coincidentally, mine also has a Tim Isaac BB shell (60TSI in my case). Maybe a number of his shells / lugsets were set aside for later builds.
Hmmm, trivia question that MIGHT shed a twinkle of light, for any "real" '83 owners following. Do the '83s that have an actual '83 SN do the cable routing with grooves and bolts like shown above? Or do they use the more commonly found plastic guide screwed into the shell? My mystery bike is cabled like the OP's; maybe that's a characteristic of the TSI shells :shrug: .
Looking at the 1982 SNs- after this batch, there is ONE other 21” 720 frame built. As it’s a relatively unpopular size AND an obscenely expensive bike- it may have been built up bare like an 82, not sold, sat in Trek’s stock and then had the 83 spec braze ons added. Or it was built in 82 in preparation for the 83 model year.
Remember there are no 1985 Trek 720s- every single one of those frames were built in 84. The big cue in seeing them is the downtube decal (although there are other little differences- the DT decal is easily seen).
To that end, even though the frames are (usually) the same between the frames decaled as 84 and 85- 85s are referred to as 85s because of the decal. Additionally- as I recall, bikes built in October and later are generally built to be next year’s model. In the case of the 82 vs 83- the 83 had canti bosses- so there’s a concrete difference-