Will's Trek 730 - A bike that won't get ridden often

I bought this frame on a whim because:

1. It was relatively inexpensive.
2. I'm an impulse buyer when it comes to bikes and cameras.
3. It fits me, as far as vintage road frames go.
4. It has a Joe Bell paintjob, which is probably worth three times the value of the frame. 
5. The Trek decals from this era look good.

After receiving the frame, I brought it to Erik Billings who made sure it was aligned and spread the rear triangle to 130mm, and then I hung it up at Riv and basically forgot about it. I have plenty of bikes and I didn't really need to add a vintage Trek to the collection. 

Fast forward to now, a couple of years later, and I have an opportunity, a rather incredible one, to both visit France every couple of years, and to stash a bike there, and what better use for this old Trek than to be my vacation bike? If I planned to go every year, I might send a Roadini out there, but realistically, I'll probably only go every five years, and when I do go, the main focus of the trip likely won't be riding bikes, so the bike doesn't have to be that good. Still, I pulled parts I had set aside for other projects and it came out nicely:  

It's a Trek 730 from 1982. A newsletter reader turned me onto a site where you can look up what you have based on the serial number. Sure enough, this frame is on the cover of that year's catalog, and it was top of the line.

It may be hard to tell from the photos, but it's a pretty aggressive bike. The head and seattube angles are around 73.5, and the overall wheelbase is tight. I was able to fit 30mm tires, and that has to improve things, but the bike still feels track-y, especially with the flat bar. There's a 60% chance I switch it out for drops before I ship it out. I think that'll both slow down the steering and make reaching the downtube shifters a little less treacherous.

I was reflecting this morning as I rode the bike into work that as far as vintage frames go, I'd probably be better off buying lower end ones made less for racers and more for regular people. Those frames would likely have slacker angles, probably longer wheelbases, and maybe even more tire clearance, all good things, but there's just something so alluring about buying the superbikes from forty years ago for basically nothing. When I envision the type of riding I'm going to do in France, I now realize I'd probably be better served with a humble Peugeot UO-8, or something like that. I don't mean to say this frame rides badly; it rides like exactly what it is: a full-blown race bike, but I'm not gonna race over there. I want to ride around and take pictures.

It really makes me appreciate our bikes even more, which build on the good things about these old bikes and leave behind all the bad. At the time of this writing, I've been doing lots of road rides on my Roadini, and I feel completely confident and relaxed on it. It's predictable, and super forgiving of micro-errors that might prove crash-worthy on the Trek. You can let your mind wander on a Roadini.

It'll be a little sad to change these. I like how the black Jitensha bar looks with the NOS corkers. Fortunately, they're not glued on, and I can pull them off and use them on something else. When I test fit them, the right side grip slightly cracked and I remembered that, although they look and feel great, they were kind of a PITA. The Newbaums over felt is a good alternative.

It's been awhile since I've used our Silver1 shifters and I'd forgotten how good they feel. 

This crank looks good, but It would be a lot better if they had given a 110bcd and given the arm a slight bend so there's more distance between it and the front derailer. I bet 90% of these cranks have marring on the backside of the driveside arm where the front derailer cage can brush when you're in the high gear.

Antonio fine tuned my front derailer so it would both shift up to the big ring and barely clear the arm. 

I bought this hub with pitted cones, and, after hunting around on eBay for awhile, I was able to find the right cones, but I had to buy an entire axle. I rebuilt it and it's super smooth now. It's arguably too much work for a bike that'll get ridden so infrequently, but whatever. It's satisfying to bring something back to life.

This is the MX2 lever we sell in a different color. These are good levers.

Parts list from memory:

• Dura Ace 7400 crank, with a 49/39 chainring combo
• Campy Mirage FD
• Altus RD
• XT 11-34 9 speed cassette
• 113 loose ball BB
• Tange Falcon headset (the original was pitted)
• MKS Monarch Pedals
• Cork grips
• Jitensha bar 57cm wide
• Specialized stem, by Nitto
• MX2 levers
• Hutchinson 30mm Black Bird tires
• Velocity A23 rims, 28h
• Dura Ace 7700 hubs
• Dura Ace 7700 brakes
• Silver1 Downtube shifters 
• Nitto S65 seatpost
• Brooks B17