rustystrings61 

Yesterday I stopped in at the LBS (Bikes and Boards of Greenwood, SC). In the course of a rambling chat with the new owner, I mentioned I was keeping my eyes peeled for an old rigid MTB. We stepped into the back room, and over behind some stuff I saw this 1992 Trek 820.







“Oh, that - a guy brought it in a while back and wanted me to put brakes and drive parts on it. When I called him back with the quote, he said ‘keep it.’. I’m gonna scrap it, but if you want it, it’s yours.”

So I brought it home, and today in a frenzy of misprioritization I set to work. I had bars, stem, bar ends, a set of Alivio cantis and a set of Altus levers from a long-gone Bianchi Ocelot and other salvaged bikes. I had cables and housing recycled from other projects. The ONLY hitch is finding a 34T middle chainring for the 4-bolt Shimano FC-950 crank, and some single-ring bolts for it.

I haven’t had a single-speed mountain bike since I foolishly sold my old ‘89 Trek 950 a few years back. This approximates the build, but so far for free …



Looks better after. wipe down.

Since 1/4 of the teeth were already gone I snapped the remaining teeth with some channel lock pliers - I’ll fit it down into a chain guard later.

Rolla

How tall are you and what size is that frame?

veganbikes

You are going to want to look for new cranks and BB. As much as yes that is XTR and yes XTR is generally the best of the best those cranks sadly are hard to find chainrings for and when you do they can be expensive or heavily used.

Could be a fun project though once you sort that out.

rustystrings61 

It's a 20-in, or 51 cm frame, but with a high bottom bracket - there's not all that much room between me and the top tube when I straddle the bike. I'm 5'9" and prefer my road bikes to be 23.5-in or 60 cm to top - I guess French fit, but not quite. I set my saddle right on the edge of too high to keep my knees from flaking out - for non-Brooks B17s, that works out to about 79 cm from center of BB to saddle top as measured along the seat tube.

I miss my old Trek 950 - it felt like it had a lower BB, and I think mine was a 22-inch frame. Never gave me any trouble on the local twisty trails.

rustystrings61 

I had set this one aside for a long time, but yesterday while clearing out projects I looked it over again and decided it was time to create the ultimate Edisto Beach bike, capable of also doing some single track.

It helps that this 820 has chro-moly main tubes and forks and possibly even stays - generic plain gauge, but better than gaspipe! Being a more casual sport model, it also has a shorter top tube - and the reach from saddle to bars is about identical to that of my road bikes.

I had a set of anatomic bend dropped bars from a long ago part-out, a set of aero brake levers that have been on who knows how many bikes through the years, and some SR 110 bcd 170 mm cranks. Into the stash pile I went for the 34T Sugino chainring, and I used the 40T for a placeholder/spacer until I can get a 36T. The cranks are pretty far inboard, which meant I needed to rearrange the spacers for the 17T cog. It all went together with less hassle than it could have ….

The current 34x17 makes for a slack chain, but after consulting the FixMeUp site I feel confident that I can run 34x18 in magic gear mode - which leads me to suspect 36x16 will also work, so I could go with a near-60-in gear for meandering around on pavement and have a 49-in for singletrack with different tires.

The best part? So far, ZERO cash expenditures! The bike was free, bars, crankset, brakes, bar tape, cables, housings, ferrules, saddle, pedals and cage were all recycled bits from the parts stash, and the cartridge BB was a gift from a generous BFer!

So, now to get a 36T ring and 16 and 18T cogs - and a half-link for insurance. Guess I’ll have to spend some money, unless someone has those bits and wants to trade …