jbz255 

Although I have bought vintage bikes in the past to fix for friends or flip, this is the first vintage road bike that I have bought just for myself (the '84/'85 Trek 770 with the damaged frame from another post doesn't count). Saw this on FB marketplace a few days ago and it immediately caught my eye, even more so after seeing the price of $250. I convinced the seller to hold onto it a few days until I could make the hour and a half drive to come and look at it. Not sure why, but he insisted that this was an '89, that someone had painted the head tube and lug cutouts. Not one to argue, I looked it over and decided not to try and haggle the price, even though in the ad he stated that the price was negotiable. From what I've been able to find out so far, most of the components are original- Specialized 52/42 crank, Suntour Superbe Pro derailleurs, Suntour Sprint shift levers, and DiaCompe Royal Compe brakes. The wheels have been replaced with unknown tubular rims laced to Campagnolo Record hubs, stem and handlebars are Cinelli, the saddle is a very clean Brooks C-15, and the pedals appear to be some random/cheap ("Performance" written on the outside). As an added bonus he even threw in a pair of new tubulars to go along with it, probable because the current ones are showing signs of age.
Took it on a quick 15 mile ride this afternoon after getting back home, and I couldn't be any happier right now. The downtube shifters are going to take a little getting used to; I figured that since I run bar end shifters on my touring bike it would be pretty much the same thing, but it is definitely a bit different than that. Not sure about the tubular tires, but since most of my rides around here are on protected paths, I probably needn't worry about a flat 30 miles out. Was also not sure about the cloth tape, but I found that I actually enjoy the feel much more than the thick cushioned tape that I run on my tourer.

Although most of the components are correct, I'm thinking about possibly installing the Super Record groupset that came off the 770 that I picked up last month. I'm sure some of you will say "it's your bike, do what you want," but I'm curious what kind of difference going from the existing setup to the S.R. would make. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

I guess I'm just excited about my new addition, and wanted to share it with those who appreciate the beauty of these older bicycles, and who have also helped educate me over the last few years through their sharing of knowledge on this site. Cheers!

AdventureManCO 

Beautiful bike. Color reminds me of my aqua Pro Series 560. Good deal too.

Piff 

Great bike, great components, great paint, great condition. What more can you ask for?

As far as changing groupsets around, you almost certainly won't notice much of a difference. Except perhaps shifting quality. But a corn cob freewheel and 52/42 chainrings are easy to shift with just about anything...so even there it won't be that big of a difference probably.

Mad Honk 

Not trying to rain on yer parade, but that color scheme was used for the 1985 760 models. However a lot of those were sold as frame only items. They were factory equipped with Suntour Suberbe drive train and Sprint or Modolo brakes. Even so the frames were identical for both the 760 and 770. The difference was the paint scheme as 770 was often yellow and blue decals. I still think you have a great riding bike as I owned one of each model and they rode the same. Smiles, MH

jbz255 

Not trying to argue with anyone's knowledge here, but here is what I found from vintage-trek that I was going by.

1986 Catalog screenshots:




The green with lavender headtube certainly look correct, and the crank/derailleurs/brakes are the same as my bike.

The 1985 catalog:






Obviously the color on the '85 760 is not even close, however the 670 is similar, minus the lavender headtube; perhaps that's you were thinking about?

Again, I'm not trying to argue, just pointing out the sources that led me to the conclusion that it is a 1986 year model.
Interestingly enough, the serial is 203035, which according to vintage-trek, puts it as a 660 in 1985. I guess I'm just confused by fact that the paint, decals, and groupset match up exactly to what the 760 in 1986 shows in the Trek catalog for that year. Who knows, maybe someone spent a lot of time and money making an '85 660 look just like an '86 760.

trainman999

jbz255 if you look at the 85 660 frame specs and the 86 760 they are the same. last yeare leftover 660 frame painted this year as a 760. notice there is no 660 in 86

jbz255 

I'm confused by what you said, maybe I'm not looking at the same specs as you?

'85 660 specs:


'86 760 specs:

jbz255 

Are you referring to the frame geometry? Looking at that, I think I see what you are talking about, the '85 660 and '86 760 have matching specs, except the fork offset and wheelbase; that would be due to using a different fork, yet same frame I'm assuming? Thanks for that info, that clears up my confusion about the serial number!

'85 Frame Geometry

'86 Frame Geometry

Mad Honk 

What ever model it is it is still a great riding bike. I worked at a Trek dealership back then and owned multiple bikes of the higher end models and they all rode very well. You still have a very great find! Smiles, MH

sbarner 

I'm about as close to being considered a "Campy Guy" as anyone can get, but I can't even begin to understand why you would switch out that group for Super Record. It likely won't be any lighter, and it certainly won't be any better working than what it has now. That Specialized "Flag" crankset is stronger, and if you spend a little time with it, the indexing will make the down tube shifters easier to acclimate to. I have about every example of shifting setups on different bikes and indexed downtube shifters are still my favorite. Campy sidepull brakes won't stop you any faster, either. Save that Super Record group and look around for a nice, vintage Italian or prestige small-shop builder's frame to hang it on. Those pedals have to go, though.

I have been riding sewups for 50 years and, while I still have them on a lot of bikes, I'll advise you to sell or swap the wheels and get a nice set of vintage clinchers. You don't have a lot of clearance, so you can fit any tire that will fit in the frame onto even the narrowest clincher rims. With the move to wider tires, there are increasing numbers of great vintage clincher wheels out there that most people don't want, and few people have any use for a threaded hub these days. While there is some truth to the things you will read about tubulars having advantages over clinchers and being easier to deal with than the horror stories you might hear, the fact is that ride quality differences are so small as to be subjective, the rolling resistance of glued tubulars is greater than that of properly-inflated, good-quality clinchers, gluing on sewups is a royal pain in the keister compared to mounting a clincher with a tube, and that second flat will totally ruin your day. If you don't have experience riding tubulars, or haven't thought long and hard about your reasons for doing so, my advice is to not jump down that rabbit hole. You have a nice set of wheels there and the ideal solution would be to find someone to swap a suitable pair of clinchers with decent hubs that will take a freewheel.

Speaking of freewheels, if you have any hills in your area, get a 13-24 or 13-26 freewheel and your knees will be much happier. Suntour recommended no larger than 23 in the rear when in indexing mode, but I doubt you would detect any difference with a 24. It may be trickier to get the indexing to work correctly if you go larger. The maximum chain wrap is stated to be 26 (if you can't do the arithmetic, shame on you). You should check the right shifter first to determine if it is 6-speed (5 clicks) or 7-speed (6 clicks) and then ideally find a Suntour Accushift, Winner, or similar freewheel, though I've had great results with a variety of freewheels and cassettes, as long as they match the number of cogs supported by the lever. What you cannot do is to get that lever to index with a Shimano or Campagnolo derailleur. The catalog specs call for 6-speed, so it likely wants a normal, not ultra spaced freewheel.

BTW, you got a great deal on that bike. The components alone are worth at least what you paid.

Sedgemop 

Hey man, congratulations on the deal. You did great. Those 760's are super quick and fun to ride. There's a dedicated thread on this site to the 760 and related models, by the way. Post over there for a little more appreciation.

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...cluded-13.html

As other people have said, there's not a strong reason to switch out the components unless you prefer the Campy aesthetics. Those original components work well.

Vintage_Cyclist

When I picked up my 84 Trek 760, I swapped out the downtube shifters for barcons pretty quickly and never looked back. Likewise, I ditched the tubulars and relaced the OEM Sprint hubs with clinchers.

I also replaced the corncob freewheel on this with a Shimano 13x28 7 speed (this required some experimentation with how much to screw in the B screw to get it to work). Do not think you can use one of those Shimano 7 speed Tourney freewheels that have the last two cogs bolted on to the preceding ones. It's longer than one where all the cogs are freewheeling and will have issues with the narrow fast-back seat stays.

philpeugeot 

Lovely bike! Great handlers with a well-controlled ride. It was my favorite bike until my brother popped a rear spoke. I think they stand toe to toe with better known Italians, these are hugely unappreciated for those out of the loop.

3alarmer 

.
...I would not swap out the Suntour stuff on your bicycle for Super Redord. The Suntour stuff shifts better more positively, IME.

JohnDThompson 

Looks nice, but I'm not convinced that it's a 760 frame. The one-piece cast head tube was not used on the 7nn series frames (at least not when I was at Trek 1980-86), but the fork with the Cinelli crown would have been appropriate for a 760 frame -- but the sloping Cinelli crown fork had been replaced by a flat Tange "trident" crown by the time the Trek cast, socketed dropouts went into production.

I suspect that what you have is a chimera of sorts; a 560 or 660 mid-80s frame matched with a 760 early 80s fork. Do you have a serial number that can be checked against the database at Vintage Trek?

Mad Honk 

John,
The serial number of 203035 puts it in the 1985 21" 660 range. Again a great riding frame and equal to all of the frames that came out of the factory back then. Smiles, MH

b dub 

jbz255 

Thank you to everyone for all of the great advice and feedback, the amount of collective knowledge on these forums is quite amazing. I've decided that I'm just going to keep the original components as-is; as someone that grew up around classic cars, I realized that it would be similar to swapping out components on a something that was already original. And as a couple of you mentioned, the indexed shifting right now is incredibly smooth; I do have a pair of Suntour barcons that could potentially get used, but I'll keep the downtube shifters for a while and see how it goes. Going to go ahead and make the swap from tubulars, although now that means I'll have two pairs of tubular wheelsets with Campy hubs sitting around... I suppose if I can find some boxes to pack them up in, I may list them in the vintage for sale section. The one other change I do want to make, that several of you have touched on, is getting some lower gearing. We do actually have some hills in Florida, believe it or not, and I did find myself grinding up a few of the ones that I usually spin up without much thought. Looking at the crank, I obviously can't go any smaller on my 42t chainring, so that leaves the freewheel. Not sure if going from the current 13-21 to a 13-24 will be enough, but if I want to keep using the indexed downtube shifting, that sounds like it will be my limit. Of course if I switch to barcon shifters and run friction, my understanding is that I can fit a few more teeth on the low gear... Anyway, that gives me some things to give thought to before I start stripping it down for checking/cleaning/servicing, so again, thanks to everyone for their thoughts and input here!

Sedgemop 

You got those horse country rollers over there. More hills than I've got over here, for sure. Enjoy the ride.

panzerwagon 

My ‘85 670, along with my ‘85 600, are some of the nicest riders ever. The 670 is the same color as yours (absent the painted head tube). Despite not really needing both, I keep hesitating to let either go.