Jim,

Here is my second submission for the Current Classics gallery.

This is my "new" 1983 Trek 500 "Resurrectio". This bike was completely rebuilt using a combination of new, new-old-stock, and used components taken from my 1976 Trek TX500 (Current Classics #261). The decals are from Rivendell, designed to adorn bikes that have risen from the ashes. No one will ever see the bike cleaner than in these pictures Š taken on the morning I finished final adjustments, and just before its maiden voyage around Lake Harriet in southwest Minneapolis, Minnesota.

I bought it as a complete, non-original bike on ebay. Probably paid a little too much, but it came built with 1980Õs campy record crank, brakes, pedals, and hubs (French), badly mismatched non-campy bottom bracket, crappy headset without enough spacers, and a really marginal paint job. IÕll call the ebay seller "Jack the Dripper". He claimed the "custom" powder paint job was really nice - he lied. Oh well, a bike is more than its paint job. I have the original head badge -- waiting for new paint.

I bought the bike because my 1976 Trek has always been (as in going on 30 years) too big for me. After all that time riding a larger frame, I still haven't gotten used to the riding position on the '83, but the upright bars are part of that. I have another setup of Nitto noodle bars, stem, and brake levers with cables and casings that I am planning on swapping out with the Albatross, kind of a bar conversion kit that I can swap out (although it's never as quick and easy as it sounds). IÕll update with photos once I finish it.

The one downside of this bike, and not uncommon among many of the bikes of the 70's and 80's - toe clip interference with the front wheel, especially with fenders, which I like to use. Believe it or not, we're pretty adaptable.

Component rundown:

From the 76 Trek:
Wheels - Campagnolo Record hubs, Weinmann concave rims 27 x 1-1/4
Brakes - Suntour Superbe, long (standard) reach (early model)
Crank - Sugino Mighty Tour, new 46-36 chainrings
Pedals - Loyotard Berthet platform
Seat - Ideale 90

New-Old-Stock bought on Ebay or elsewhere:
Shifters - Suntour Sprint Power ratchet (as good as it gets)
Derailleurs - Rear: Suntour Cyclone, Front: Suntour Superbe
Brake Levers Š Suntour XC Expert

New:
Bars and Stem Š Nitto Albatross, Technomic
Freewheel Š Shimano 6 speed
Chain - SRAM
Headset - Tange

Came with frame, probably original:
Seat Post - SR Laprade

Weight as pictured: just a few ounces shy of 24 pounds.

Paul Jacobson
Minneapolis, MN

paulj@relres.com