bobotech

Older Trek 820s make great utility bikes. Tons of them on CL and they have very sturdy solid rigid frames that may not be the lightest but will last forever. We have probably 4 frames at our shop. I would go for a rigid model, not the newer front suspension models.

I'm not sure about disc brake bikes, I wonder if there are any potential gotchas regarding adding a rack and panniers with the disc brakes? I just don't like front suspensions, they reallly don't add much value to the bike if you are using it on pavement other than some weight and complexity.

My son has a 93 Trek 1100 that i built up for him a few months ago. Great bike. Light and solid. He loves it. More race oriented so you might want to check to make sure you have enough room to fit bigger 700c tires under there as well as rack bosses and fender clearance. I am not sure if his bike has the clearances or bosses needed to be a decent utility bike. The other thing is that the chainstays are shorter for a more nimble ride at the expense of some stability, might be an issue loaded down.

The Trek 7.3 might be interesting. I got a Trek 7.1 frame from my co-op and built it up as a full touring bike with drop bars and front and rear racks and fenders. I put an aluminum fork that had lowrider rack mount bosses on it and drop bars with 9x3 Tiagra STI shifter/brakes on it. Sold it to a friend who has taken it across WA and is riding it to Oregon and then to CA and loves it.

onespeedbiker

I believe the spell is "Reducio!" But as you said you're still going to need a wand

samg07094

Drop bars on the Trek !! You grabbed me with that one for a build-up option.

Yes, indeed. Admittedly, the challenge of turning 200 miles over a weekend when you're in your twenties or thirties is about even with 25 miles for a Saturday now that I'm pushing 70. That $100 Trek 820 gives unlimited budget for finding 26x2.0 tires with a straight-line lower-resistance pattern and turning it into a sweet-ride local tourer. Like a cop bike. The Continental Town&Country tire is recommended.

But no, this project is not going to have a K.I.S.S. end to it. I'll end up buying either the Trek 820 ($100) or the 7.3FX (closer to $400 cuz it's a 2010) plus modding it for touring, pick up a 60cm Panasonic Sport Deluxe sooner or later, then go nuts and spring for the (Raleigh) Diamondback Inspiration after agonizing over derailleur or STI-8.

Gets me even for 330 years of No Stress, No Change, No Cost service from the Panasonic.

RubeRad

Wow, 330 years of service from one bicycle! Somebody call Guinness, I think we have a record!

I'm glad to see you have been persuaded from your original plan; you have sentimental attachment to your bike, but there's a lot of fish in the sea, there are plenty of cheap bikes that can meet your needs even better, glad you're honing down to one.

If you still have the itch to whip out the old welding torch and do something crazy, I'd recommend frankensteining two regular bikes into one awesome tandem, or make yourself a "longbike", (for inspiration, click here, or click here and search for "Stretch" -- those from regular BF member SixtyFiver, he can give you tips I'm sure...) Another idea, once you have a bike, instead of just buying an off-the-shelf rack and using threaded-steel cylinders to attach it to your frame like the rest of us schmucks, why not custom fabricate a rack and weld it on? (for inspiration, check out this site again, scroll to the bottom)

samg07094

It feels like 330 years. Have you met my right shoulder?

The stretch/long-tail concept is tempting. If I get tempted into appying "Redigere!" to the 64cm Panasonic, it's about another afternoon to get to here:



That's your Arvon World Tourist. I like "Traveler," better but there's many more tourists for customers. Anyway, there's bound to be a supremely ugly way to stretch out the chain stays -- cut 'em and paste something on there. We're talking 1020 pipe for fabbing seat stays and auxiliary supports so maybe I'll slip some extra pipe inside for supports at the ends, similar to what Arnold, Schwinn did before butting came along. It's going to be apart anyway -- after a Hurricane Sandy'ed repair-the-Electrolux project gets done -- so why not? Here another stretch with the photo played with (and note the snow):



That Arvon rack is a cutie. Then there's that one additional temptation to convert to the closed cassette "STI-8" setup that you see on the Diamondbacks. Eliminate the derailleur and friends. End result is a super-strong lugged construction 1020 frame, plus the longer tail, plus build anything for the rack, plus no deraileur to be cleaned and adjusted. A new "perfect."

"Redigere ad sexagesimum centesimam metrum, et ceteri !!" Prob'ly should borrow a cloak from Dumbledore's nephew for the occasion.

RubeRad

Rebuild at 160 meters, etc? Or is that 60 centimeters?

samg07094

Bring back to sixty hundredths of a meter, and the others.

Wilfred Laurier

it sounds like you are coming to your senses and realizing there is no reasonable reason to do this
while trek 520s may be rare there are hundreds of hi ten ten speeds that have everything your panasonic does
and most of them are cheap

and after you get another bike you can strip and begin the rebuild of your panasonic
do it at your leisure while you ride the second bike

it is possible that everyone here
and the 99.999999 percent of people in the bike world who havent seen this thread but would also agree it is a bad idea
are wrong
but dont put all your eggs in one bucket
have a backup plan for riding while you get the panasonic project completed

edit

also
i think you are romanticizing the old days of bike construction
things liek 27 inch wheels and lugged construction are not better
they were standards used because of what was available
lugged frames broke all the time
i think usually because of the longer duration heat had to be applied during construction compared to TIG
and 700c wheels are only 8mm smaller on the diameter
so makes virtually no difference but has hundreds of tire choices that will kick the pants off whatever is available for 27 inch

Airburst

Er, no...

Wilfred Laurier

ok

why did they break then
smarty pants

TheReal Houdini

Nut cup?

Airburst

They didn't? I don't ever recall hearing about huge numbers of lugged frames breaking. OK, one or two did, but then again if you hang around on here long enough you'll see the occasional TIG-welded steel frame fail (usually in a "is this a crack or just my paint?" thread). Lugged bikes don't, and didn't, break "all the time".

krobinson103

My grocery getter/kid carrier. Super comfortable, the front shock can handle a load of up to 30kg before it starts to get upset. The back has had 50kg of kid and stuff on it. An mtb makes a fine grocery getter. I also a 27 inch wheel roadie turned hybrid. Love it as well, but this one is the mule to be sure.

Wilfred Laurier

sorry
i didn’t mean to imply that half of all frames broke
or that frames were breaking en masse
all the time

but there was a failure rate similar to that of modern tig welded frames
which is probably one half of one percent or less
but that still adds up to tens of thousands of broken frames over the years

and since the theory was and is that the lug is extra material that reinforces the tubes
but they still broke
the extra stength added by the lug had to go somewhere
i know with fillet brazed frames the failure rate was higher because of the extended heating time during construction
and I always kind of figured lugged frames sometimes had similar problems
especially lower cost ones where a whole lot less care went into the manufacture

himespau 

I like the idea of taking an old mountain bike (with a rigid fork, you don't want front suspension) and putting drop bars on it. If you decide to go that way, here's a whole long thread you might use for inspiration: https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ar-Conversions

Old hardtail mountain bikes with rigid forks are frequently easy to find (not necessarily so in larger sizes like you or I would want) because of the boom for such bikes in the early 90's. Lots of spots for attachments. Just watch out for the fact that sometimes the top tube can be longer than that of a road bike for the same seatpost size. Also, you can go a lot narrower in the tire if you feel like. Mine originally was a 2" tire and it's had as low as 1.25" on it with no trouble.

samg07094

• "Get another bike" is the key idea. Yes, indeed. Went over last night and picked up a like-new Cannondale Quick 6 with 700c tires, aluminum frame/steel forks. Amazing buy, close to theft, and the deal included a modern bike lock. All I'd ever need for in-town and banks-of-the-Hackensack cranking.
• Lugged construction. Well, that uses brazed joins which take less heat and lower maximum temperatures than welding. The lugs are an added cost factor and take time to install. Frankly, I can't imagine anyone wanting to weld 1020 to 1020 without lugs and send it out for use by litigious Americans. But the strength of 1020 steel with brazed lugs has to exceed what you get with aluminum or cro-mo tig seams. It's just much more expensive to fabricate than automated welding.
• Doing a stretch job on the tail end of the Panasonic has me doodling. She could end up with an approximation of the German Arch roof support system. Fab time doesn't matter, doing a one off.

Thanks for the help, folks !! This Quick 6 is an amazing bike. Shows off 33 years of techie progress for a very similar solution compared with the Panasonic. Now, on to the resizing project.......

But, but, but it takes a 5-pound u-lock such as the OnGuard Brute 8000 series to safeguard the frame, plus a second lock to be used to attach the front wheel cuz both wheels have quickie removal levers. Weight might end up lower than the Panasonic and its skimpy wire lock.

Welcome to New York.