Trek 1400 Bicycle $5 Thrift Find ?

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It will need some attention. Mostly a cleaning, tires, and the seat is junk. The frame is white, and solid. The chain, and sprocket are in nice shape. I am thinking I can fix this bike up myself. Although I have never worked on a bike, I can't see it not being out of the realm of do-ability if one is careful and patient. It's aluminum. I almost left it like a dumb ass. But one of the coolest managers was by herself in the store and said take it for five bucks, and I said okay. I thought it was much older then it apparently is. I will get a picture of it up here in the morning. The only bummer is I am not into road biking. That's why I almost left it. And I did not feel like playing with servicing it. I will have to get off my ass and make nice. :yes:

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Nice find. The seat is easy, buy a new one and bolt it on. The tires are completely doable and easy, just a pain in the butt to get them back on and off the rim. :thmbsp:

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Poking around on the Vintage Trek Site, without looking at the serial numbers, and only looking at the color combo dates this bike to 1989/90 years. I will have to look at it more. I am sure when gas gets ridiculously priced, I can see myself flying down the road with a Vintage Receiver. Damn, what about speakers. :sigh: :D

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Poking around on the Vintage Trek Site, without looking at the serial numbers, and only looking at the color combo dates this bake to 1989/90 years. I will have to look at it more. I am sure when gas gets ridiculously priced, I can see myself flying down the road with a Vintage Receiver. Damn, what about speakers. :sigh: :D

That is when you get the hand truck out. I found an electric organ on the side of the road when I was 15, my parents said I could have it if I could get it home. Well, a half mile with a hand truck latter and it was home any my parents never said that again. :D

[kermit z]

I had a 1991 Trek 1400. I loved that thing until I got rundown from behind by a Pick-up truck. It had Shimano 105 and was white with purple lettering. I miss that thing :(

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I had a 1991 Trek 1400. I loved that thing until I got rundown from behind by a Pick-up truck. It had Shimano 105 and was white with purple lettering. I miss that thing :(

Run down from behind. Was the driver nuts?
So even being the model year it is it's still a good bike. I know there is a Trek following. I have a very nice 750 Hybrid that I try to log some time in during the week. I missed a newer Cannondale Hybrid somehow last week. Unless I ask, or somebody cool is in the store nothing shows anymore. A lot of it is my timing has sucked for a while. I sold a 1994 Specialized Hardrock for $50 over the summer. And that was what I had in it. I wonder what the 1400 is worth? Again in the morning I will post a link to a photo of it.

[Volvo242GT]

Prolly a drunk redneck in the truck...

The 1400 is a pretty nice bike, from what I remember of it. I've owned three Trek bikes myself. Singletrack series mountain bikes, though. Two '94 930's, and a '97ish 920... Still have one of the 930's, recently upgraded to hardtail status from rigid. Sister owns one of the taiwanese-built Trek 830's. A decent bike, but the 930's definitely better.

-J

[pmsummer]

The Trek 1400 has bonded aluminum lugs and frame, that have stood up well. It's a good all-around frame geometry that will probably accept tires up to 700x28. Find someone who offers a bike maintenance locally and attend it. You'll want to make your repairs right the first time.

Helluva deal!

[Andyman]

I love Treks, still have my late 1970s 500 frame I bought in college and almost always buy them at garage sales. Picked up a sweet 1998 ladies 720 Thursday in cherry shape for $35.

There's a ton of good stuff about bikes on Sheldon Brown's website; more than you'll need to know. Here's a link to the repairs page, but there's lots of other interesting stuff there too.

http://sheldonbrown.com/repair/index.html

http://audiokarma.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=111486&stc=1&d=1223211836

[Twenty20Man]

I have an 830 I just picked up for free..needs some tlc but seems a decent bike

[Andyman]

Yep, I have an Antelope 820 I used as my urbo betaer on the crappy roads here, plus a couple 1990s bikes for the girls.
Any full size Trek for less than $30 is a steal.

[gearhound]

You can buy handle bar/shifter kits, that will turn a road bike into a hybrid.
I did that on my late 70's Puch road bike.

Steve

[audio-ed]

I nearly passed up a road bike a few summers back.Looking for other stuff mainly stereo gear.I have no idea what the frame is because its been repainted. The rest of it is campagnolo. looks like its from the 70's .I nearly fell over but I grabbed it and walked it up to the lady.How much ? she said $20. It has tubie tires that are alittle expensive .Heres a pic.

[shrinkboy]

i'm guessin' that's a schwinn paramount from the earliest 70s

[audio-ed]

I thought it was a paramount but the lugs where the frame rails come together aren't right.Any paramount that I've seen on ebay is different.The search goes on.

[shrinkboy]

nice stuff on there-- last summer, i sold out a whole mess o' campy along with an old frame....i'm seeing some campy high flange hubs, nuovo record crank arms etc. looks like a nice bike

[Tedrick]

Trek makes nice bikes, and thats a great deal as long as long as the seatpost and the stem are free (i.e. not seized up). We bought a used 1400 for my wife some years ago (which she still rides), and the stem quill had seized up in the steerer tube. Had to cut it off and install a new fork, headset, and stem. Also make sure the seatpost has not seized up in the seat tube.

I also put a bunch of miles on a Trek 1200 some years ago. It's the same bonded Al frame as the 1400, but with RX-100 components instead of the 105. Moved it on when I moved up to a Lemond with Reynolds 853 steel frame/Ultegra gruppo.

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Trek makes nice bikes, and thats a great deal as long as long as the seatpost and the stem are free (i.e. not seized up). We bought a used 1400 for my wife some years ago (which she still rides), and the stem quill had seized up in the steerer tube. Had to cut it off and install a new fork, headset, and stem. Also make sure the seatpost has not seized up in the seat tube.

I also put a bunch of miles on a Trek 1200 some years ago. It's the same bonded Al frame as the 1400, but with RX-100 components instead of the 105. Moved it on when I moved up to a Lemond with Reynolds 853 steel frame/Ultegra gruppo.

Well I am not sure what you mean, unless you are talking about steering the bike. Nothing is frozen on this bike. I may not keep it simply because the frame is very big. I can just stand over the frame, but it is rubbing against me. That's without the tires inflated. I feel like I have to jump onto the seat to ride it. And I did adjust the seat height. It's just to big. I am sure I will stick to the Multitrack 750 I have.

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Well I picked up a pair of tubes, the tires are good. They wanted $30 to put tubes on the tires. I'll do it myself. I thought $18.50 for a pair of tubes was on the high side. Now I have to find a good deal on a seat.

[Tedrick]

...And I did adjust the seat height....
If you adjusted the seat height, the seat tube is not seized, which is good.

The stem is the component that attaches the handlebars to the forks, and looks something like this:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9f/Classic_road_quill_stem.JPG

Unless it's been updated, the stock stem on the 1400 was a wedge-type quill stem that probably looks like the one on the left in this picture:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b2/Quill_stems.JPG

What can happen is that the wedge can seize up inside the fork's steering tube unless regularly greased.

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The handlebars are some Italian Upgrade. The Pedals have also been upgraded. These I am sure are old upgrades. The bike is 19 years old. I will eventually post a link to some pics.

[kermit z]

The truck that hit me, the guys were reading a Mapsco not paying attention to the road:no: I had my L2 vertebra demolished plus other injuries.

I will say that the frame breaks instead of bending. I got a 1993 Specialized Allez Pro to replace the Trek. It had Ultegra on it and was steel frame which I like. Rides smoother than the all Aluminum Trek. But I liked the way the Trek handled. I want to say the other difference between the 1200 and 1400 was the 1200 had a steel fork and the 1400 had an aluminum one. Its been alot of years so I could be mistaken. I have a Trek 930 from 1993 that has been a durable mountain bike. But its pretty heavy. Trek engineered some great machines for sure:thmbsp:

[soundmotor]

It will need some attention. Mostly a cleaning, tires, and the seat is junk. And I did not feel like playing with servicing it. I will have to get off my ass and make nice. :yes:

Great Trek, I certainly would have bagged that for $5! So far the only specialized bike tools I've needed to buy are a chain breaker, cartridge socket, crank puller, and tire levers from Park. Everything else comes from my regular toolbox. I found bike mechanics one of the most intimidating things I ever got into and one of the easiest after I got going. I bought a book on bike mechanics but have hardly referred to it all. Better to take them apart, put them back together, and learn. Operations are simple, elegant, and for the most part common-sense. If you like mechanical devices bikes are wonderful to play with. The only thing I have not tackled is lacing up wheels but I will someday. I've got (2) folders, a Dahon and a PikNik that both are demanding custom wheels built on polished BMX alloy rims w/ Sturmey-Archer 3-speed coaster brakes.

:banana:

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There's one thing for sure, if you want to fly, this bike will do it. What a huge difference from a steel/chromoly frame. The bike is to big though and I will have to sell. It bothers my back a bit, and I don't like leaning forward.