Trek Mystery.
Well I am posting this to get a little help unravelling a mystery. I am the new owner of a metallic flake blue 25.5 inch(64cm) TREK. Now I have owned many Treks and my second race bike was a red Trek 2000 warranty replacement frame. This bike is old. 1970s old. I think it may be a first year hand built TREK but the pieces are not adding up. I am not planning on keeping the bike for myself as it is just too large. Normally after about a week it would become a fixed gear and be adopted into the Brazen Cycleworks family. But this needs to go to a Trek collector and I need to raise some $$ for Toys for Tots for a benefit ride I am doing in August. So if you can provide the most help I would love to send you a Brazen Cycleworks polo shirt in L or XL, I think that is all I have left. I need to know how to market this bike accurately to get the Trek collectors what they are looking for and raise big bucks. Drop me a line if you think you can help. Here are some details and pictures.
Well I am posting this to get a little help unravelling a mystery. I am the new owner of a metallic flake blue 25.5 inch(64cm) TREK. Now I have owned many Treks and my second race bike was a red Trek 2000 warranty replacement frame. This bike is old. 1970s old. I think it may be a first year hand built TREK but the pieces are not adding up. I am not planning on keeping the bike for myself as it is just too large. Normally after about a week it would become a fixed gear and be adopted into the Brazen Cycleworks family. But this needs to go to a Trek collector and I need to raise some $$ for Toys for Tots for a benefit ride I am doing in August. So if you can provide the most help I would love to send you a Brazen Cycleworks polo shirt in L or XL, I think that is all I have left. I need to know how to market this bike accurately to get the Trek collectors what they are looking for and raise big bucks. Drop me a line if you think you can help. Here are some details and pictures.
- Head tube badge is not screwed on, typical of newer models
- Serial number is 5B6B38 size 25.5, model TX200, year 1976, month Feb but these are normally 7 digits, could be 38th frame and that is why missing last digit
- Builder stamp H
- Tubing Sticker is 022 Ishiwata Cro Mo double butted
- Comes from Vern's in Oshkosh, I would expect early Treks to originate from WI
- The headtube badge and tubing used are confusing as the 1976 catalog on vintage-trek.com seems to imply it would have been a TX500 with that tube set if it was in fact a 1976 bike
- Build kit seems consistent with bike assembled from frame up and does not fit specs on later bikes
- I will include a further spec sheet of components when I have more time.
Thanks for your help. -Eric
Trek UPDATE, consensus reveals this TREK is a 1980 414 model. I am selling off the Original 77 Suntour Cyclone components and turning the bike into a giant 63cm fixxie.
Comments
John Thompson recalls the 'H' stamp to have belonged to Bill Horstmeier.
More details to come I presume...
Thanks John! -Eric
Thanks for your note and the kind words.
There have been two other 6 digit serial numbers reported like yours: 5B6D79 and 4B0O58. The first one is for a frame that was not made in 1976. It likely is a 410 or 610 frame, which means the digit that normally indicates the year often does not.
The 4B0O58 was bought in 79 or 80, and it is a 310, or 510.
If your frame is a 410, then the year digit is often not correct. These were typically made in 79, 80 or 81. Ishiwata main tubes would indicate a 41X (either 412 or 414 bike). Have a look at year exceptions on the serial number page.
The glued on headbadge would mean it is not a 76 frame. However, there is a small possibility that the frame was returned to Trek for a repaint, a new stick-on headbadge might have been added. However, the old screw holes would be still on the inside of the headtube.
Cheers,
Skip
Vintage-Trek.com