In which I trade a Motobecane Mirage for a Trek 420

About a month ago I sold the 1973 Motobecane Mirage to a nice college student.  Not long after that for some reason I thought to look on CL for Treks.  Now Trek is the largest maker of bikes on the planet but I have never worked on one or ridden one.  Usually when I have looked at older steel, made in the USA, Treks they are pretty much $200 and up.  That is higher than I like to start for a bike I am going to refurb, hence no Treks have darkened my door.

I am looking on CL and this pops up, its a Trek listed for the same $$ I just sold the Mirage for, hmmm.  Its not too far from where I work so I email the seller and arrange to come see it.

Before that, however, I went to the excellent website Vintage Trek and via their brochures I came up with this being a 1985 model Trek 420, which was in the Sport Tourer line up, not quite a full fledged tourer like its big brothers the 620 & 720.  Interestingly the 520 which I think of as an Iconic Tourer was also a sport model in 1985.  I also discovered that it is most likely a 22.5 inch frame, a 1/2 inch smaller than the 23 inch I usually look for in a Vintage road bike.  I was intrigued to see how 22.5 would fit.

Its made with True Temper Chromoly, not super special but solid.

classic head badge

I made two rookie mistakes when going to view this bike; 1) I forgot to pack tools in the morning so I could make sure the seatpost and stem weren't stuck (they weren't luckily) and 2) well I'll get to that.

I approached the bike wanting to look at the details and confirm that it was an 85, and to see how original it was.

Made in the USA, check, this makes it a bit more collectible if you're into that kind of thing.

Original SR triple crank, still has both bolt caps which is nice,  the SunTour XD doesn't appear to be stock as the catalog says Shimano Z series is what it came with.

Shimano DT shifters -check, they appear stock and I kind of like the look.

Seat stay detail and interesting seat post binder.

Stock Blackburn rack -check, which is nice as the Cresta GT did not come with one, even though it would have one originally, so it might get moved over to the touring bike, we'll see.

Lower head tube detail.

Upper head tube detail, interesting that the catalog says the headset is Trek standard black, this one is obviously not black..hmmm.

One extra was the funky brake lever mounted mirror, I don't usually use one but it might fun to play with.

The Dia-compe side-pulls are stock and perfectly fine, they are also an indicator this isn't a real touring bike because by 1985 that would mean canti-lever brakes like the 620 and 720 models.

And here is where my second mistake comes in, the wheels.  I know I looked at them because I recall thinking the tires were old and dried out and would need replacing, but I didn't see them.  I am fairly sure the front wheel is the stock Weinmann 116, 27".

Not until I got home and I'm taking the bike out the car does it hit me, the back wheel has a black rim, and wait a minute the tire says 700c! and..

man that freewheel is kinda small....that's no freewheel, its a 7 speed cassette! how did I miss all that?  I would have haggled with the seller.  As it turns out I still have a set of 27 inch wheels to spare and they are matched with nice hubs.  This bike would not have come with a 40 spoke touring rear wheel anyway, which makes my oversight slightly more palatable.

So I finally have a Trek, the man who sold me the bike told it was his sons college bike, and it looks it.  The frame-set is going to need a deep clean and some serious attention with rubbing compound and wax,  With two and maybe three bikes ahead of it, the Spa treatment won't come anytime soon, so it may be in the queue for a while.....

And then I had a different idea.  On a recent doctor visit, can I say how grateful I am to have health care coverage again,  we were talking about weight and exercise and he mentioned, not knowing I am a bike nut, that I could get a trainer for my bike and ride while watching TV to get my heart rate up.  A project that involves bikes?   I'm in!  I found a Cyclops trainer for $40 on CL earlier this week and I had just the bike in mind for it, but it would need a bit of work first.

First the hideous and tattered old foam bar covers would need to go.  Shiver.

Foam be gone, that was satisfying, I hate those things.

There was some muck on the bars near the stem, probably tape residue,  I find that getting it wet with something like Armor-all wipes and then using a plastic utensil can clean it right up.

 All clean, I thought that since I was going to be spinning on this bike that some SPD pedals might be in order.

So I took off the flat pedals that came on the Trek..

And I moved the Shimano MD324s from the Handsome Devil to the Trek and the HD got the Treks flat pedals,  I have been thinking of doing flat pedals on the HD for a while to replace the dual sided MD324s.

I can blow the dust off my Keen Commuters for some spin class.

Got the bars wrapped with some Origin 8 black bar tape to replace the awful foam.  I subbed in a Weinmann brake lever as I didn't want to mess with the mirror.

Earlier in the week I ordered a phone mount so I can use the count down timer on my phone while on the bike, the plan is to start with 20 minute rides with some ramp up intervals at 5, 10 and 15 minutes to get the heart rate up.  This will help make doing some road rides a reality this summer.  The phone mount should also be easy to transfer to other bikes so I can use the phones cycle app feature (Cyclemeter) on road rides.

Work done for the day; bar wrap, pedals and phone mount finished.  I have a "spin bike" ready to go and I am planning to test run it tomorrow.

Spin, smile, repeat.

No Illusion, its Finished! (1973 Motobecane Mirage)

I learned recently that the Hindu god Ganesha is the remover of obstacles.  He could have been my mascot for this build.  The first obstacle was me, after doing a lot of work on the Mirage during the July 2017 bike blitz I couldn't find the motivation to tackle the wheel hubs.  I had done the; tear down, frame clean up & wax, bottom bracket, headset, brake pads and brake mounting but I let the wheels derail me.

With the right tools, cone wrenches, taking apart a hub is pretty straightforward, and then its all elbow grease and sonic cleaners to get the parts cleaned up.  For the rear hub I decided to leave one cone in place thinking it would be faster to put everything back together and get it adjusted.  Wrong.  During the disassembly the cone had actually moved so I had to remove it anyway to get the cones correctly centered on the axle but the keyed washer for that cone was stuck and required an overnight with some liquid wrench to come loose.  Then when trying to reassemble things, one cone had a hard time screwing onto the axle, after spending time cleaning the axle threads I realized there was a bur on the cone threads! I finally got everything where it needed to be but my short cut turned out to be a long cut.  I also had the all to common issue in adjusting both hubs in that everything was great until I tightened the lock nut and my no slop/no grind adjustment went to heck and the end product had too much play.  After doing this three times I changed my strategy and made the initial adjustment too tight (grind) and after I tighten the lock nut it was just right.  He can be taught.

Since I was working on the hubs that gave me a chance to clean up the filthy FW and spoke guard.  I could have probably just replaced the freewheeel but the teeth were in good shape and I was trying to do this rehab on the cheap.  It got a WD-40 bath, a wipe down between the cogs and 3 in 1 oil in the creases on the back.

When I was getting old wheels ready for scrap I made sure to save as much as I could, one old rear hub was a great template when I had to re-space the cones on the Mirage rear hub and when I discovered the front skewer was missing a spring I had a spare to use.  And finally, I had finished the set of wheels that had been holding things up for so long.

I also found a place for the rack off the Gitane Tour de France, I had tried it in other places but couldn't find a fit until the Mirage, which was good because I had misplaced some key pieces for the pletsher rack it came with.

I have had this bike for nearly three years and worked on it intensely last July, but it wasn't until last week I realized it had cool MB branded bar end plugs.  I kept the original bar tape because it still looks great and it saved me some time and $$.

Back in July I had the foresight to label the drive side cotter pin so I would remember where they should go back.  I could have replaced the cotter pins but again I was trying to this rebuild on the cheap and since I use a cotter press the pins mostly come out in good shape.

My next obstacle was the non drive cotter pin, something didn't feel right as it went in and then it was in tight enough that I couldn't just pull it out.  I though I would need to spring for a punch to remove it but thought to give an old drill bit a try and it popped right out.  As I write this I wonder why I didn't just use the cotter press to back it out....bleary thinking I guess.

You can see the cotter acquired a crease on the lower part of the ramp about dead center of the pin from going in slightly off kilter which is why it felt "wrong", some work with a file and then carefully aligning it got it back in and finished off the cranks.

aligning the rear brake cable guide

When dialing in the brakes I found my 3rd hand tool to be very valuable.  When I was tightening the seat post clamp the rear cable guide, which has the seat post bolt pass through it, got out of alignment with the rear brake.  I used a piece of wood and the mallet to "persuade" it back into the right line.

I'm screwed

After getting the new chain installed, I didn't totally cheap out!  I noticed a potential issue.  The rack screw was protruding, could be a problem...test....yes its a problem, interferes with the chain.  Some spacers on the outside of the rack solved the issue and I didn't even have to take off the rear wheel.....yet.

While testing the shifting I noticed the chain was getting bound up in the largest FW cog, not sure if somewhere the RD or FW was changed from the original but it was not going to work..sigh.

Fortunately I A) used a chain with a master link B) have Park Tool Master link pliers -MLP 1,2 and C) had a new in package SunRace RDM10  rear derailleur.  In theory you can take a master link chain apart without tools but I find that the pliers save a ton of aggravation.  You can see that the Simplex RD has a very short cage which I think was the main issue.

New RD installed and working like a champ with no binding.  I really like the SunRace RDM10 because it's cheap, 10 bucks, and it looks the vintage part, and it works.  In my post on Sunday I said I was close but not quite there.  After getting the shifting sorted I found the following; the brakes weren't dialed in to my liking because the wheels need more truing, both front and rear, the headset was loose and the rear rack wasn't quite level.  Since it was late Sunday I hung it up at that point.  I then had my first week in a new job and didn't get time to address those issues until Friday.  

I was using the cable and housing spares I had and since I had some Jagwire shift housing I used it to make the gold pin striping and lug lining pop a bit.  I didn't get the rear rack totally level and would have needed to remove it to accomplish that, its good enough.  Finally she is done and on CL.

Until next time.  Ride.Smile.Persevere.Repeat.