Trek 420 Refurb: Assembly II (brakes, cranks and bars)

As I mentioned in the last post I am not going to be able to use the new Tektro brakes due to rack clearance so it was time to dig out the stock dia compe 500's.   I stripped off the old pads.

And they got a soak in the sonic cleaner along with the non drive crank arm.

And came out cleaner than when they went in but....

I noticed one brake was missing its cap nut ...

So I was able to scrounge one out of the parts bin, off the brake I didn't end up using on the Schwinn LeTour in fact.

They still need a bit of polish from the brass wool and the new pads but they are on the bike.

I decided not to disassemble the cranks but cleaned them up with chain rings in place, some sonic cleaner and then some simple green and a tooth brush to deal with the grime and some Mothers on the cranks arms.

Turns out this crank is a very sensible 50/40/28 which paired with the new wide range 7 speed cassette should give this bike lots of useful gears.  It probably won't win town sign sprints or climb up trees but it should handle all the stuff in between.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do about pedals as my bikes have had a lot of swapping lately.  The flat pedals that were originally on this bike came off so I could mount the Shimano PD324 with SPD side for the trainer.  Those stock pedals went onto the HD which lost the PD324s and then eventually went on the Novara Randonee when I sold it so I could keep the MKS sneakers I had on it and they went on the HD which deserved my favorite flat pedals.  I found these in the parts bin and I believe they came in on the Cresta GT.  They needed to lose the toe cups.

I should probably see if they are worth anything on ebay but for now anyway they are on the 420.

And more progress is made, I have cranks and pedals mounted.

I do, however, keep getting in my own way on this build.  I started to prep the bars but realized they did not fit my vision for the bike.  I wanted bars with the raised and engraved section in the middle so I would have a clear mark to start the cotton bar tape.  As you can see these bars are plain Jane.

The stock bars from the Novara Randonee that got replaced when I upgraded its cockpit where perfect.

And since they came with cloth bar tape they had the cool Cateye bar end plugs which I plan to clean up and reuse.

I also have some cane creek replacement hoods that have been knocking around in the parts bin for a while, which is good as the stock ones are a bit crumbly and sticky.

My next job will be to clean all the sticky residue off the bars, shine up the engraving, get the new hoods mounted and the bars and stem back on the bike.  The wrap will wait until after I have test ridden the bike.

I continue my slow march to the finish and hope to make some good progress this weekend.

Ride. Smile. Repeat.