1993 Trek 8300 Composite

[frantik]

1993 Trek 8300 Composite (Carbon main tubes, aluminum lugs and stays, steel fork)

Suntour XC Comp derailleurs and crankset, XC Expert brakes and hubs. Mostly original.. the shifters have been replaced with low end grip shifters unfortunately though. My first bike that doesn't have a steel frame and it does feel a little different. I haven't put it through it's paces yet but I did notice it felt stiffer and would transfer more road feel to the rider. It also felt pretty agile and fast.

The frame construction looks really nice.. there's no ugly aluminum welds anywhere which is great. For some reason it's a bit heavier than I expected at just under 26 lbs. I'm hoping I can shed some weight when I put on different tires, but I'm kind of surprised it's not significantly lighter than high end steel bikes that were coming out around that time.

My initial plan is to get rid of the suntour cassette in the back since the shifting is pretty bad (thought I may try it with friction shifting first just to see how it is before I get too crazy. It will probably end up with a drop bar and road slick tires. May even turn it into a single speed to knock the weight down..

 

[drcarlos]

Baz77 has one of these and I thought it was pretty light for a bike that was around 1k at the time, the fork is the lightest steel fork I have felt and you need to get rid of those gripshits the XC Expert thumbs or even better the XC Comp ones are much nicer. We stuck a RS Mag on the front of Baz's and he loved the ride just a shame it started to leak so it's being swapped for a Z3 Bomber. I rode it briefly and thought it was quite a nice steer once we had put on a slightly shorter control tech stem.

Carl.

 

[frantik]

Baz77 has one of these and I thought it was pretty light for a bike that was around 1k at the time, the fork is the lightest steel fork I have felt and you need to get rid of those gripshits the XC Expert thumbs or even better the XC Comp ones are much nicer. We stuck a RS Mag on the front of Baz's and he loved the ride just a shame it started to leak so it's being swapped for a Z3 Bomber. I rode it briefly and thought it was quite a nice steer once we had put on a slightly shorter control tech stem.

Carl.

Yeah it's definitely light, I was just expecting it to be a bit lighter i guess. I suspect/hope I can drop at least half a pound if not more with a tire swap. I definitely hate the grip shifters, but chances are I will put on a dirt drop bar (like the Gary II) so I may not use thumies but otherwise, yes some restoring the Suntour XC thumbies would be nice.

 

[frantik]

I just picked up a steel 1995 Diamondback Apex with Deore LX and a suspension fork that is slightly lighter than this bike.. kind of surprised. I might swap the wheels from the Diamondback over to the Trek and see what the weight is like

 

[Chopper the ex Copper]

Nice machine indeedy.

By that time steel bike frames had endured a hundred years of development, and some of the finest tuning was less than half a millimetre thick, yet with still excellent strength and compliance characteristics, aided further by tine profiling etc.

At that time carbon bike frames were very much their infancy so its no surprise you don't need to tie it down in high winds.

 

[frantik]

By that time steel bike frames had endured a hundred years of development, and some of the finest tuning was less than half a millimetre thick, yet with still excellent strength and compliance characteristics, aided further by tine profiling etc.

At that time carbon bike frames were very much their infancy so its no surprise you don't need to tie it down in high winds.

yeah i suppose that makes sense.. still surprising, especially since the steel bike originally sold for $100 less!

 

[frantik]

I just took the Trek out for another test ride and I have to say that it rides like a champ.. I didn't really notice any significant transfer of road feel, or at least not anything that was unacceptable. It does feel stiff, but it also has a "bouncy" feel. The main things that came to mind are "light, agile and precise". I just need to get some road slicks on there to really tell how fast it is.

I was feeling a bit of buyers remorse especially after picking up the similarly weighted steel Diamondback for so much less money, but I'm feeling a lot more pleased

 

[drcarlos]

Baz decided after the southern group ride a couple of years back it was his favourite riding bike.

Carl.

 

[24pouces]

Nice bike.
I could ride my 1990 8700 last week-end and the composite frame is very responsive and stiff. A very cool bike, giving good feelings.
I prefer the first neon color version but this grey paintjob is cool too

 

[frantik]

I prefer the first neon color version but this grey paintjob is cool too

yeah I would prefer a neon color too but the grey with the black tubes doesn't look bad imo.