treebound 

Sometimes a bike model keeps showing up, and sometimes one just gets you.

I recently picked up this Trek 1000 locally, the previous owner decided he was never going to get time to work on it. It had probably 30 years worth of gunk on it. I had concerns how the disassembly would go.

per the s/n it is a 1987 model year and it appears to still be all original.

Tonight I started cleaning it and disassembling it. Thankfully the bottom bracket came apart with relative ease. The bearing look fairly dry and probably still have the original grease on them. I haven’t cleaned the cups yet but the balls look okay. The so-called sealed assembly I’m not sure about and am thinking I might just fit it all back together if it looks okay once cleaned. Or I might update it to something newer.

I’m probably just going to leave it as a 2x6 gearing downtube shifting bike.

Anyway, just one of my current projects.

Charliekeet

Looks in great shape! I suspect you’ll enjoy it more than I enjoyed riding its successor, a 90s 1000. Just never got on with that thing for whatever reason- and I LIKE aluminum.
Yours looks like a “real” Trek somehow. And yeah, seems right to just let it be what it was.

treebound 

I spent some time working on the bike tonight and got it ridable. Tires are some oldish 25mm that clear okay, I’ll probably eventually put some 23mm wide tires on it. The rear wheel has one dip/flat spot, not sure if it is bad enough to do the old school whack it with a big stick trick to round out the circumference.

I haven’t opened up the steerer tube yet, but it feels good so I’ll leave it alone for now.

i’ll get some better pics next time I have it outside in the daylight.

cb400bill

I like that era of Trek graphics.

Velo Mule

Trek did a great job of smoothing the welds on those frames. I picked one up a while back and was impressed with the workmanship, finish and how the bike rode (for oversized aluminum). If it weren't for the fact that I was limited on tire size, I would have kept it.

Enjoy it. Keep the pictures coming. And a ride report would be good as well.

Here is mine, or perhaps, here was mine.

treebound 

Hopefully a little better photo.

I will probably clean and lube the headset bearings if/when I replace the bar tape. I suspect the tape is original and only has one torn area so I might just put a wrap of yellow electrical tape over that section.

And, yes, I put the plastic pie plate back on there, seemed appropriate to keep the bike original for now. Easy enough to remove later.

And I have an old Blackburn frame pump that fits nicely on the peg, so that will be on the bike as well.

treebound 

Headbadge photo

dedhed

Watch for cracks around the spokes on those rims. Had that issue on my 88. Lots of miles on it though.

treebound 

I will keep an eye on them, thank you

romperrr 

great rehab. I've always enjoy Alu treks from that era as well. Love the close up photograph of the shifter

Trakhak

Not welded---That series of aluminum Treks used a bonded (i.e., glued) frame.

JohnDThompson 

Those frames were epoxy-bonded, not welded. The tubes fit over investment cast aluminum plugs on the head tube, seat cluster, and bottom bracket. The dropouts were also cast aluminum, with plugs that fit into the stays. You can barely see the joint between the top tube and head fitting in this picture (the faint line perpendicular to the tube axis):



Tube thicknesses and diameters were explicitly chosen to emulate the characteristics of a high-end steel frame of that period, to avoid infringing on Gary Klein's patent on using oversize aluminum tubes to increase stiffness. Several years later, Trek bought out Klein, and this concern became moot.

Velo Mule

Bonded not welded. I did not know that. That doesn't change how much I like this bike and what, I believe, a value it was and still is.

Perhaps because the tubes are not so oversize, to me, it look great and rides great.

Trakhak

The area Trek sales rep told us in the store where I worked that the objective was to design a frame that didn't encroach on the ridiculously broad patent that Gary Klein was awarded, which stipulated that any manufacturer in the U.S. who marketed a frame that measured more than 25% stiffer than a benchmark Columbus SL frame would have to pay royalties or risk being sued. The frame that the Trek engineers came up with was roughly 20% stiffer than the SL frame, the rep said, which was a bit closer to the limit than they'd expected.

JohnDThompson 

We actually had Gary Klein come to the factory to test ride the prototype to ensure he felt the design did not infringe on his patent.

leftthread

That cleaned up well.

treebound 

I brought it to work with me today and managed to put 13.7 miles on it during my lunchtime. It rides and rolls nice.

Photo is near my turn-around point for the lunch loop, Oak Leaf trail portion south of Milwaukee WI.

youcallmetube

Great condition, and nice built!

Lazyass

I love those early aluminum USA Trek's and Cannondale's. China doesn't make welds that smooth.