1982 Trek 311

Update as of Spring '12: This bike has been through a couple more incarnations and is currently set up as a single speed. For more on the current build check this blog post and this one.

This Trek was a complete impulse buy. It was listed on Craigslist for a good price so I just ran out and plunked down $75 and it was mine. I bought it from a fisherman down at Fisherman's Terminal in Ballard who had stored the bike on his boat for a number of years and then it spent another decade or two in his net storage shed. From the looks of the original brake pads and tires, the bike was probably never ridden more than a couple hundred miles. However decades of being stored near salt water had left all of the components oxidized and/or rusted. Amazingly it cleaned up very well. I took everything apart, cleaned, repacked, and replaced a few parts that were either too far gone (chain, cables, tires, bar tape), or just not to my liking (saddle, brake levers, pedals) and it now rides like a brand new bike, or at least like a bike that was brand new in 1982.



The Trek 311 was the bottom of the Trek line in 1982, but in those days even the lowliest Trek was a pretty nice bike. The components are nothing fancy, but generally good solid functional stuff.



For a little while I had it set up with upright bars and stem shifters so it could be my "townie" (see below). But it's now back to the original configuration with drop bars and doing duty as my back-up commuter and rainy day training bike. I think it felt a little bit like Huckleberry Finn under the care of the widow with the upright handlebars and all.



More pictures here.