1982 Trek 715 Conversion

[Tony DeFilippo]

I'm about 80% that it's a 715, very possible it's a 612/614 but the braze on details make me think otherwise. Regardless it is not one of the 'low-trail treks', unfortunately.  But it is a cool frame with great paint and neat lugs.  I've got a bunch of pictures and discussion  here;

http://dr2dc.blogspot.com/2013/07/state-of-trek.html  

The 42mm hetre's (Extra leger) do fit!  But it's tight, particularly at the chainstays.  The key component to the conversion was the prototype VO (black) long reach side pull brakes, definitely my favorite component.  My only complaint about the frame at this point is the relatively tender (light) steering.  I have to pay close attention to steer one-handed, and no hand's riding (not really necessary) is impossible.  Does anyone here have some experience with getting a fork rake changed?  I've been curious about going low-trail with this bike to complete the experiment, and while I was at it try and get the chainstay's dimpled a bit to improve clearance.

I just picked up a Riv Atlantis 2 weeks ago though and I've been a bit distracted with that.... with the Riv in the garage my plan is to convert the Trek back to drop bars, possibly go with STI shifting and investigate the fork/chainstay options.  WIsh I'd known about this group as I was going through the process building up this bike!  

Couple shot's to get you interested!

Tony

[Joe Broach]

Hi Tony,

Nice work with the conversion. Your bike looks identical to the 78 710 I had years ago. Wish the 650b revival had taken off before I sold it on! The serial number should confirm which model it is. Check it against the vintage-trek.com data.

The VO brakes look pretty interesting. I hope they make it to the market.

Best,

joe broach

portland, or

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[William Lindsay]

Nice work.  I've done DIY chainstay dimpling with good results.  I dimpled them one at a time using a C-clamp as the squeezer.  First I fashioned the cradle to protect the outside of the chainstay.  Grab a short piece of 2x4, drill a 1" diameter hole right in the middle.  Rip it on the tablesaw, so now you have a 2x2 with a 1" diameter semicircle in it.  The semicircle is your chainstay cradle.  Next find an implement that will make a nice shape dimple when you crush it into your chainstay.  I liked the shape of my vise grip pliers.  I clamped my vise grip pliers onto the end of the C-clamp, and squeezed that assembly together, and got that 3-4 extra mm of clearance that made me happy.  Let me know if you want to talk about it.  

[Fred Blasdel]

On Thu, Aug 22, 2013 at 6:36 PM, Tony DeFilippo <vpi...@gmail.com> wrote:

My only complaint about the frame at this point is the relatively tender (light) steering.  I have to pay close attention to steer one-handed, and no hand's riding (not really necessary) is impossible.  Does anyone here have some experience with getting a fork rake changed?  I've been curious about going low-trail with this bike to complete the experiment, and while I was at it try and get the chainstay's dimpled a bit to improve clearance.

I'm pretty sure that Trek is from the era that had 55-60mm fork offset — it's already low trail!

The tender steering is a direct property of being low trail, and the width of your bars will make it much more sensitive.

Your super-upright position on a road bike will exacerbate it a lot too — the weight distribution isn't much different than riding no-hands, but because you're touching the bars it's very easy for the steering to be erratic

If you can't ride the bike no-hands even with an empty basket, that strongly suggests that your fork and/or frame are out of alignment.

[Tony DeFilippo]

Joe - Thanks!  The guys at VO told me that their current long reach brakes are the 'final' but that they are considering some black finish items possibly next year.  The SN got me the 1982 part, but I wasn't able to nail down the model on vintage-trek with that alone.  Based on the 531 sticker, and the braze on's and a looking in the catalog sheets its either a 61x or 71x...

William - I may be in touch, sound's pretty doable the way you describe.  Then again if I end up getting some other frame work done I'd probably just lump that in for the pro to do.

Fred - Based on the geo in the catalog for the 715 has a 45 degree offset, and using a web calc with the wheel/tire combo I come out to around 53cm of trail... not that the numbers are inherently meaningful.  My biggest issue is as you describe with the tender stearing.  Interesting point about the wider bars contributing.  I'll get the chance to look at that soon as I'm going to go back to drops (nitto noodles) in a couple weeks.  I think your idea about alignment may be the culpret and I heard that from the one frame shop I spoke to about it.  I may be able to get it in for a check at the Bilenky shop in Philly in a week or two.  We'll see.

As of now the plans for this bike are to;

-Swap to Noodle Bars

-Swap to a 5600/105 STI drivetrain with exception of keeping the VO crank for now

-Remove the front rack, add a rear rack for commuting loads

-Re-mount the supernova light on the fork crown centered

So it should be my fat-tired, semi-fast bike (semi only b/c I'm the engine...)  to complement the Atlantis that will be my upright go-to commuter and hauler.  At least that is the concept!