Trek 700 Tri Series 1986

Backstory:

A fun little project I finally got rolling last night. I picked up a 1986 'Trek 700 Tri Series' from the local bike exchange in an 'as is' condition. (Not the kind of bike to give someone as transportation, not exotic enough to be worth restoring to flip, so sell at a bargain). FWIW, getting to meet the folks over there had me volunteering as a mechanic for a few months before my schedules changed.

It was in remarkably good mechanical condition but it was clearly 37 years old and perhaps not serviced in much of that time. So full teardown, clean, lubricate, new consumables etc. It would have been quick and simple except for personal injury, oh, and a hidden broken axle that was hard to source a replacement.

I say 'hidden' because if I hadn't taken it apart, I probably wouldn't have known and had probably been ridden for some time based on the way it was stuck in. The break was so clean, right at the bearing that at first it looked like a replaceable end cap like I'd just serviced on a modern wheel. It took futzing and asking around to figure out what was going on. The trick is that these Specialized hubs are early cartridge-bearing units, not the loose-bearing 'cup and cone' variety that was so common. But it turns out, the axle is actually the same as the cup and cone versions. It just uses a bearing 'shoulder' in place of the cone on a conventional setup. Too bad I lost the one after finding it broken so had to cannibalize another hub to repair it 😢. So one month later, we have this.

Nerdy stuff:

This is a very interesting, transitional bike. It has a classic, lugged Reynolds 531 steel frame made in Waterloo WI. One of ~1000 made. It rides very sporty but still surprisingly comfortable. At least with the "Wide" 28mm tires I installed. In vintage mode, it should have 23mm at the most but nobody does that anymore. I actually would have put on 30mm as there is plenty of room but the ultra-skinny (13mm) rims of the era don't support that well.

But it also uses early indexed SIS shifting in the Shimano 600 (later known as Ultegra) groupset. The first-gen indexed 6-speed shifting is surprisingly amazing. I had figured that with downtube levers working only 6 gears, there really was no point. I've had a non-indexed 6-speed Campagnolo on a Bianchi since before this one was made. But, surprise, it really is good. Click, bang. In gear. Not as fiddly as the modern 11-speed to setup. It just works. No wonder it took over. But still downtube with separate brake levers. No STI for a couple of more years. Also interesting that while it is only a year earlier as the Guerciotti GLX I later got, it has conventional top-exit brake levers with the big loop. The Campagnolo Chorus brake levers on the Guerciotti already had the option (which was used) to route along the bars (or out the top)

Bearings were interesting. Cartridge bearing hubs as mentioned. But also a fully sealed bottom bracket unit. I'd expected separate bearings and axle from this vintage.

The futuristic-looking Shimano PD-6207, 600EX pedals (they have an extra positioning block forward in addition to the classic rear slot engagement but no 'clipless' mechanics) still use 22 itty bitty loose balls and were the only nasty bearings I found anywhere. Everything was a little dirty with caked-on grease but nothing was worn out or rusted. Even these pedals that felt like the bearings were shot, were fine once I spent an hour scraping out the hardened grease. I just need to find a replacement right-end cap that was missing for the full look. (Still looking if you have one)

Sold as a 25.5" frame (63.5cm) and listed at 23.1 lbs (10.4kg) but that's probably for a smaller one. This weighs 11.23kg (24.7 lbs) which isn't too bad for a large steel frame with pedals, bottle holders, pump and not racing tires.