Result!

[winjohn]

About 20 years ago Mrs RS, who had never had the pleasure of owning a bike as a child but could ride, decided that it would be a good thing to get a bike. She had seen how useful my trusty 15 year old Specialized Rockhopper was for getting around town and fitted with a child seat front and rear was useful for transporting the family too.

So we went out and bought her a brand new Gary Fisher hybrid that she rode for about a year, slowly going on longer and longer rides, until one day she said that she fancied doing a London to Paris ride. I told her she might need to upgrade from the heavy beast that was the Gary Fisher and she said she had already had a word with one of the staff at the gym who had just the thing since he was a very keen cyclist and was upgrading.

So for about £1000 she became the proud owner of a carbon fibre Trek with full top of the range Shimano Dura Ace kit, the same model that Lance Armstrong had ridden in the Tour de France. It was a beautiful bike and very well maintained and sorted, the brakes were razor sharp and the gears snicked into place like a rifle bolt, it was as light as a feather.

She loved that bike a did hundreds maybe thousands of miles training for the London/Paris ride that she completed the next year.

The following year she rode Paris to Geneva on it and during the whole time she had the bike it never needed any new parts, just servicing once a year.

Unfortunately though, due to the extreme riding position, it was starting to cause neck problems, so she had to stop riding it and changed to a Specialized Sirrus with straight bars and a less extreme riding position which was much more comfortable. We sold the Trek and bought the new bike with the £700 we raised.

Over the next few years the neck got better and road bikes started to get less extreme and more comfortable so a carbon fibre Cannondale Synapse was purchased and that has been providing great service for the last five years or more. However Mrs RS often looks back on the Trek with nostalgia and reminisces about the great rides she had on it.

So fast forward to today and the local car boot sale and walking through with my daughter, what should I spy but the exact same model and size carbon fibre Trek, even down to the same metallic blue paint work.

"How much for the Trek?" I asked.

"£200" came the reply.

SOLD.

I put it in the back of the car and Mrs RS happened to be coming out of the front door as I turned into the drive.

"Wait there" I said as I quickly pulled the bike out of the car.

It was only half out when she exclaimed "It's my bike!!!"

I think I am in the good books today!

 

[TreaderSteve]

Nice story and cool bike. Stick some low-rise riser bars on it - it might become her favourite bike?

 

[winjohn]

Update on the Trek.
SWMBO let me know on Saturday morning the she was so looking forward to our Sunday morning ride on her new old Trek. This was a bit of a surprise since I had not really touched the bike in the week and it definitely needed some work before she could ride it.

So Saturday was spent cleaning, adjusting, lubing and generally checking the bike over. It was luckily in remarkably good shape and amazingly the gears were dialled in perfectly already so no fettling of mechs, shifters or cable required there. Headset and BB were also in great shape with no slack or roughness. So far so good. The noseless saddle had to go so I swapped it out for an old Specialized Toupe that wifey used to like on her Synapse. I also turned over the carbon Botranger stem so it gave and little more height to the front of the bike to help out my wife's 60 year old cervical vertebrae that led to the demise of her original Trek 5000.

The wheels were smooth running and perfectly true and the brakes seemed very powerful with the blocks in decent condition. The only problem I could find was a bit of brake rub on the rear brake which I thought would be fixed with a quick adjustment on the caliper but not quite so simple in the end. It seems the cable adjuster on the rear was a bit gummed up and the cable was not running freely. A quick spray to release it did not do anything, so I disassembled things and actually ended up running a 2.5mm drill bit through the adjuster to remove whatever gunge had dried hard down there. The brake now worked perfectly.

Tyres were pumped up to 75psi and were in good shape and holding pressure and we were ready to go bright and early Sunday morning.

The weather was perfect, a hint of early morning mist hung in the still air and it was a chilly 10 degrees but the sun soon came out to burn off the mist and it was a glorious morning for a ride. My only slight concern was the first hill at a mile in with the 39 front, 25 rear lowest gearing but SWMBO ground up like a trooper and made no complaints about missing her 34 X 32 usual gearing from the Synapse

She absolutely loved the feel of the bike saying it was so much more responsive than her carbon framed Synapse, I started talking about steering geometry but she stopped me before boredom set in. She also remarked how different the gears felt in terms of positive shifting which must say something about Dura Ace 7800 vs 105 5700.

At the end of the ride she was very happy indeed and said how much more at home she felt on the Trek as though it was much more "her bike" than the Synapse. I remarked that she had ridden her original Trek thousands of miles regularly for four years and had done London to Paris and Paris to Geneva on it so that was to be expected.

The only two quibbles were the gearing and she thought she felt more stretched out on the Trek than the Synapse.

I compared the measurements on the reach and she was indeed 50mm more stretched out on the Trek so I have put on a shorter stem to see how that helps.

I will also be looking to see what I can do with the gearing, I don't think I can get a compact set up for the Dura Ace cranks but I believe I can get a 28 tooth as a maximum on the rear which should help.

All in all a very satisfying find though.

 

[hamster]

That's a very long layback on the seatpost. While the saddle too far forward can put too much load onto the arms, a less extreme post might help the fit.

You can probably get away with a bigger cassette than a 28, if you fit a mid cage road rear mech. Definitely it will work nicely with a short cage MTB mech on it.

 

[Woz]

That's a very long layback on the seatpost. While the saddle too far forward can put too much load onto the arms, a less extreme post might help the fit.

You can probably get away with a bigger cassette than a 28, if you fit a mid cage road rear mech. Definitely it will work nicely with a short cage MTB mech on it.

The post layback looks normal for a road bike, but the saddle rails and position looks very weird.

It would be hard to brake (unsafe even) when in the hooks. Flipping the stem would help raise the bars and reduce reach a bit.

A flat bar with bar ends could be much more suitable.

 

[winjohn]

Thanks for your comments re position and set up.

Note that the saddle originally was one of those weird noseless jobs so it will look strange, it has been replaced.

I am changing the shifter position this week, although wifey does not tend to ride down on the drops they do look high to me but of course repositioning them will increase the reach again.

Here is the current set up which is better but still work in progress.

 

[winjohn]

Re: flat/riser bars unfortunely she is not a fan, just not used to them I guess.

Re: MTB rear mech, hmmm I have an XT that might suit, although it is a 9 speed that should matter...should it?

 

[winjohn]

Aha just read the comment re layback on seatpost...will look at that too.

 

[pictonroad]

What a great story, well done you, I don't think it's finished yet though.

The internet is full of experts, offering advice, here comes another one. If I was you, (I'm not, feel free to ignore this) I'd read some proper articles on bike fit and positioning, particularly the levers.

Speaking as someone with a very sensitive neck, it's so important and makes a massive difference.

 

[winjohn]

Thanks for your interest and concern. You are correct that the story is not finished yet, the weather has just been so atrocious and Mrs Winjohn has been so busy at work that she has not been riding this or any other bike. As I said previously, it is still very much work in progress. The positioning of the levers needs to be corrected which requires retaping the bars, I may even change the bars. I have already changed the stem and seat post. She has ridden her synapse for seven years or so without issues so I am trying to recreate the position of seat and hands and reach as close as I can to that.
Will update in the spring.