This is the most beautiful bike I have built up yet. I would even go as far as saying it is nicer than my roadeo from Rivendell. After years of reading on the web and doing multiple 650b conversions on my own, this one went together perfectly the first time. With some careful planning, part procurement and patience this bike went together as if it were always meant to be this way.
This Trek 613 started its life as a 27" wheeled touring bike back in 1981, and by the looks of it once in my garage, it was barely ever ridden. There are a few scuffs in the paint, but most of the damage appears to have happened while in storage. The visible portions of the frame's interior were pristine. I treated the inside with a liberal coating of T9 to keep it rust free as long as possible. For this build I was able to reuse much of the drive train, replacing only the wheels, cassette, and bottom bracket. The headset was preserved, and rebuilt with loose balls and phil grease.
The cockpit was built up with a Nitto Technomic Delux stem, Albatross bars and Shimano brake levers. The brass bell is from Crane in Japan. The grips are blue Neubaums cloth tape over a layer of cork tape. Three layers of garnet shellac brought the final color to a fantastic dark patinaed coppery green that is a perfect contrast to the copper color of the bike. Te saddle is a Brooks B17 Special Select.
The front rack is a Bruce Gordon MTN rack that used to reside on my bike and will be the temporary support system for the Wald basket. While the basket provides incredible versatility, the stock hardware is not up to the task at hand. In the long run this will be set up with a rack that will allow for panniers in a low mount with a high mount to support the basket. The fork dropout only has a single eyelet to support both the rack and fender. My work around for this is to thread in a hex bolt from the inside, providing a stud to mount both. The whole assembly is then held on with a lock nut. In theory if the nut ever came loose, it should all still be able to be held in place with a zip tie until you could get to a hardware store.
I utilised Dia-Compe 750 centerpull brakes to get the required reach to the smaller rims. The stock pads were replaced with KoolStop Cross Pads. The wheel set is Shimano Tiagra laced to Velocity Synergy rims. I opted to use an 8spd rear cassette to hopefully be a bit more forgiving with the Suntour Symmetric DT shifters. The downside to this is that the shifters only move the chain across 7 of the 8 cogs due to the limited throw.
Now for the part that everybody cares about. I opted to use Panaracer Col De La Vie tires on this bike to ensure adequate tire clearance at the chain stays. These older Trek frames, pre 82, will generally have room for a tire up to 38mm wide without needing to dimple the stays for more space. Spreading the rear from 126 to 130 mm at the dropouts while adding tire space in theory did not make a noticeable difference in reality. The fenders are Berthoud 650b x 50 mm. These were fairly simple to install, only requires minor re-shaping to accommodate the horizontal stays, leave plenty of room to install wider tires in the future and resulted in near perfect fender line around the tire. I did make a wooden mandrel to help shape indents for better fender clearance at the fork and chain stays. The rear brake bridge attachment was made with Honjo hardware. The connection at the chain stay bridge was made with a long bold and spacer. While a spacer is not ideal, it seemed a better option than moving the bridge on a bike in this condition.
Rear wheel at mid-dropout.
Rear wheel all the way back in the dropouts.
I would like to thank a whole bunch of people for sharing their knowledge on the web. If not for the collective knowledge provided by old Rivendell Readers, the iBoB and 650b email lists and the Bicycle Quarterly publication I likely would not have been able to work through this build in a single pass. It is the knowledge shared by those who have gone this way before that helped me to build such a wonderful bike.
Likewise, online vendors such as Universal Cycles, Rene Herse Cycles, Wallingford Bike, and Ben's Cycle all made it possible to source the needed components.
This bike is going to have a new lease on life. Its owner is going to pick her up tonight. The planned maiden voyage will be a 90 mile ride home from Jalama state park. I wish I was along for the ride, it is going to be a good day tomorrow. Thanks to Mike for giving me the chance to build this bike up as a blue-collar constructeur.
Off to cleain it up for delivery, thanks for taking a look.
After taking the Roadeo out in the morning yesterday, I headed out in the afternoon on the Trek to get some groceries. I opted that way as I knew that the load was going to be a bit bulky, diapers. By the time all stops were made I had about 40 lbs of juice, milk, food and god knows what loaded on the front. Even with a bit of sloppiness in the panniers the handling was fine. Actually better than fine with stop and go traffic, slogging up hills into a 15 mp headwind and bombing down the other side.
Most bikes I have owned would handle like crap with that much up front, or anywhere for that matter. My xtracycle setup does ok with loads like that, but just ok, and is a bit more like a clunky old station wagon. The Trek with the 650b conversion is cushy, but sporty. The handling is a bit light with nothing at all up front, but a 5lb u-lock in a bag fixes that. With loads weighing in between the lock and, well yesterday's 40 lbs, the handling is still smooth through fast turns, holds a line grinding up hills and no wobble or drift at slow speeds.
For those not familiar with the geometric trail of the front end, the subject can be daunting. For those interested in the physics of the whole thing, Wikipedia has a decent
article. The subject has spurred religion/politic like arguments on the web forum over the recent years. I remained fairly neutral until this. Previously I had only ridden the low trail bikes I had built up for my wife, both handled great with a basket, but were way too small for me. This project bike has really opened up my eyes. I still love my Roadeo, just differently, and keep the load in the back. I prefer having the stuff up front, as long as the bike is designed to handle the load, it makes it much easier to keep an eye on the load.
I rode the Trek on the longest trip yet today. 22 Miles round trip to the farmers market. The wind was hitting pretty good off of all four corners as I worked through the ride. While not quite as fast as I am on the Roadeo, I made quite respectable speed, still averaging between 12 and 15 mph on the open road. The front loading, low trail geometry, sitting upright of this bike build really has me smitten. I am really looking forward to installing the basket I have on order.
I have not had the Roadeo out in the last couple of weeks, and am feeling like I should put it to use this week, but the Trek is jus so much fun to ride.
I took some pictures this morning of the bike I threw together over the weekend from parts in the garage. The Frame is an older Trek 400 sport bike converted to 650b. By using the smaller rim I could run a fatter cushier tire, and also bring the front end geometry into a range that will handle well with front biased loads.
I have a few Trek frames in my garage that I bought off of Craig's List and they have been hanging from the ceiling for almost 2 years now. All three have their dents, scratches and other marks of age. I decided it was high time to do something about it. The fringe benefit is the fun in building a bike up instead of stripping one down to sell. With a little planning and 30 minutes here and there I was able to put this together from parts in my bins of spares.
About a month ago I picked up a pair of NOS Weinmann 750 brakes, and they pushed me to get this done. The 750 calipers have just enough reach to get to the 650b rims. There is plenty of room for the 584x37 Col De La Vie tires, and fenders are in the works. The wheels are decidedly not S&S, Phils laced to Velocity Dyads, but they belong to my wife and i am "borrowing" them. I used an old MTB stem, bars and levers that span 20 years of age. The shifting is handled by a Shimano Deore DX in the rear, Suntour XC high normal front and NOS 105 clamp on DT shifters. The front rack is the Bruce Gordon (made in Oregon) rack that used to live on my Rawland. The saddle is an Avocet Touring in pretty good shape. All of the cables and housings are from my recycle bin.
Initial rides have been unloaded and it handles fantastic. This will become my around town bike for errands and such. There are only a few things I hope to change. The handlebars will be switched out with some Wald 867 bars that are on the way. I may do something about the saddle, but i tis OK for shortish trips. I have some newer brake shoes to put on, but the old black blocks have been slowing things down acceptably. As for fenders, I have an older set of the VO zeppelins that were bought on clearance 3 years ago, and will be re-shaped to work here.
Yes, new bikes are fun, but sometimes the best bike is what you have. At least for the moment.
Remember - Reduce - Reuse - Recycle
This Trek 613 started its life as a 27" wheeled touring bike back in 1981, and by the looks of it once in my garage, it was barely ever ridden. There are a few scuffs in the paint, but most of the damage appears to have happened while in storage. The visible portions of the frame's interior were pristine. I treated the inside with a liberal coating of T9 to keep it rust free as long as possible. For this build I was able to reuse much of the drive train, replacing only the wheels, cassette, and bottom bracket. The headset was preserved, and rebuilt with loose balls and phil grease.
The cockpit was built up with a Nitto Technomic Delux stem, Albatross bars and Shimano brake levers. The brass bell is from Crane in Japan. The grips are blue Neubaums cloth tape over a layer of cork tape. Three layers of garnet shellac brought the final color to a fantastic dark patinaed coppery green that is a perfect contrast to the copper color of the bike. Te saddle is a Brooks B17 Special Select.
The front rack is a Bruce Gordon MTN rack that used to reside on my bike and will be the temporary support system for the Wald basket. While the basket provides incredible versatility, the stock hardware is not up to the task at hand. In the long run this will be set up with a rack that will allow for panniers in a low mount with a high mount to support the basket. The fork dropout only has a single eyelet to support both the rack and fender. My work around for this is to thread in a hex bolt from the inside, providing a stud to mount both. The whole assembly is then held on with a lock nut. In theory if the nut ever came loose, it should all still be able to be held in place with a zip tie until you could get to a hardware store.
I utilised Dia-Compe 750 centerpull brakes to get the required reach to the smaller rims. The stock pads were replaced with KoolStop Cross Pads. The wheel set is Shimano Tiagra laced to Velocity Synergy rims. I opted to use an 8spd rear cassette to hopefully be a bit more forgiving with the Suntour Symmetric DT shifters. The downside to this is that the shifters only move the chain across 7 of the 8 cogs due to the limited throw.
Now for the part that everybody cares about. I opted to use Panaracer Col De La Vie tires on this bike to ensure adequate tire clearance at the chain stays. These older Trek frames, pre 82, will generally have room for a tire up to 38mm wide without needing to dimple the stays for more space. Spreading the rear from 126 to 130 mm at the dropouts while adding tire space in theory did not make a noticeable difference in reality. The fenders are Berthoud 650b x 50 mm. These were fairly simple to install, only requires minor re-shaping to accommodate the horizontal stays, leave plenty of room to install wider tires in the future and resulted in near perfect fender line around the tire. I did make a wooden mandrel to help shape indents for better fender clearance at the fork and chain stays. The rear brake bridge attachment was made with Honjo hardware. The connection at the chain stay bridge was made with a long bold and spacer. While a spacer is not ideal, it seemed a better option than moving the bridge on a bike in this condition.
Rear wheel at mid-dropout.
Rear wheel all the way back in the dropouts.
I would like to thank a whole bunch of people for sharing their knowledge on the web. If not for the collective knowledge provided by old Rivendell Readers, the iBoB and 650b email lists and the Bicycle Quarterly publication I likely would not have been able to work through this build in a single pass. It is the knowledge shared by those who have gone this way before that helped me to build such a wonderful bike.
Likewise, online vendors such as Universal Cycles, Rene Herse Cycles, Wallingford Bike, and Ben's Cycle all made it possible to source the needed components.
This bike is going to have a new lease on life. Its owner is going to pick her up tonight. The planned maiden voyage will be a 90 mile ride home from Jalama state park. I wish I was along for the ride, it is going to be a good day tomorrow. Thanks to Mike for giving me the chance to build this bike up as a blue-collar constructeur.
Off to cleain it up for delivery, thanks for taking a look.
