The Trek 710, The Sad Story of My Most Prized Possession.

After the theft of my first trek 710 I was beyond what a person should feel in the lost of something precious (I felt like Gollum). Within a month I found My trek 500, it was a nice ride, however it wasn't the same. I crashed that one into a car (sun in my eyes) and then waited to see if I could find something better. Right around my birthday I did, this Trek 710!

Amazingly, This frame was even better then my first 710: it had the original forks, it was made in the USA, and being from 1978 it was 4 years older then my first one. Considering the Trek bicycle corporation only stared selling bikes in 1976, My vintage makes this bike the earliest trek I have ever seen.
Needless to say this one became my all time favorate soon after I built it up. Most of the parts came from my trek 500's crashed frame. Eventually I put a Deore Rear derailleur on and it's just amazing on these old road bikes. Later came my bag and fenders.

I was finally satisfied with my bicycle, not something to be taken for granted. In the summer of 2013 I completed the Marin Century on this bike, keeping up with all the carbon.

Alas... nothing lasts forever, By May 2014, I had logged over 3000 miles on this build. I was just headed home after a 15 mile ride, I went to enter the local bike path and a split second later I must have sensed someone coming, But he was going down hill fast. Before I knew it he ran into me right in the middle of my bike at what must have been very fast. He was on the ground screaming, so it was all I could do to try to help, truth be told the nice people near the path entrance rushed out after they herd the crash and helped the guy much more then I could ( both of us were in shock). He seemed OK enough to not need an ambulance , but he had broken the forks off his time triles bike and he broke the handlebars with his face. One of the people that lived near by gave him a ride back to San Francisco. All in all the situation could have been much worse, and everything worked of, I even found another vintage TREK (number 4).

peugeot record du monde

This one was given to me about half way restored, they wanted drop bars (like it should have been), and they wanted it to be able to stop.

I Gave it drop bars, new levers, new bar tape, and new chain. I needed to switch the wheels with some I had in storage for a better breaking surface.

I found a matching simplex front derailleur to go with the rear (It didn't have one). Lastly I ordered big gummy break shoes meant for mountain bikes. It now looks correct, rides and shifts smooth, and stops like a new road bike.

Motorized Bicycle #2 Trek 4500

In the past year I got myself a construction job, paying much better then my old job at a sporting goods store. However, the job We have been working on for most of that time is about 13 miles from my home, and has about 900 ft of elevation both ways. Being an apprentice carpenter, I get to do all the hard stuff, so out right bicycle commuting is sort of extreme for my taste. So rather than not ridding I started going on my first motorized commuter bike. This bike was a friction drive and already was in bad shape, In just a few months it was no longer safe (as if they ever can be safe). So I spent way to much money building a better one. This time a belt drive system on a modern mountain bike with good front suspension. I used the first bike's rear wheel witch was rather newer. 8 x 3 system with an Acera rear derailleur and a Deore front, Deore rear shifter, and a Sram front shifter. Upright, flat, cruiser type bars, Deore hollowtec 2 cranks, and a brooks b67 saddle. The last thing i did was to bolt on my homemade pannier directly to the motor kit, as a bike rack has no place on this bike. The bike tops out at 32mph on flatland and can climb 10% grades without pedal assist at 25mph. on steep hills and when taking off it's best to pedal. I like to think of this bike as a hybrid vehicle "Human and Gasoline."

The motor: I originally purchased
a cloned Mitsubishi 2 stroke motor for this bike for $110 US. It ran well and had plenty of power at 43cc. However, after just 300 miles of use the gas tank sprang a leak, this made my junk warning senses tingle, so I just decided to get the good motor.






The PF-4000 is the motor I replaced the junky one with, and really it's the one I should have started with on a heavily used bike. At $330 it is rather pricy as far as motorized bikes are concerned, but it is more powerful, cleaner, and if it's not quieter, it at least sounds better. The only issue I have had so far is the bolts for the muffler coming out, I had to find the right size on eBay. I have also upgraded the muffler to one meant for a bigger motor, it doesn't effect power, it just dulls the noise a little better. Although for sound the best thing I ever did was get my full face motorcycle helmet, it also keeps me warm and not to mention SAFE (bicycle helmets are not good enough for the speeds and traffic I use this bike For).

Restored Sears tandem

This was a referral from my father's coworker. She wanted it like new, and i told her that I make it ride like new, but retain the aged paint, because I think it's wrong to take the story from a bicycle frame. But, I also told her that if she wanted to do it later, I wouldn't hold it against her. Everything on this bike was rusted to the point of being seized, so I started with WD-40 on everything that needed to come off, so basically everything. 2 weeks of that and I stared the dis-assembly. I repacked the hubs, and bottom bracket, spent days rubbing off rust with steel wool, got the 3 new single speed chains that were needed, new tires (same brand and type as it came to me with), I got some new comfort type seats, some new pistol style grips (red to match the paint), and finally I cleaned the grime of time from the places that count.