1st owner 1995 Trek 8700 restoration

And there we go, all finished, including the new headtube decal. Pretty chuffed with the end result! Now all it needs is an easy ride to settle all the parts, a good clean, some "bike spray" application to make it all shiny, and then some decent pictures

Looks awsome! I would, however, love to see how it looks with original forks!

Dare":22y9116n said:

Looks awsome! I would, however, love to see how it looks with original forks!

Click to expand...

Thanks! I'll do a mock-up with the rigid forks (without rerouting the front brake cable) soon.

Great rebuild and a wonderful story - top work :-D

WOWZA!

It;s very nice to see an old bike being brought back to it's former glory and more so by the person who originally bought it new and enjoyed riding it so now it's all up and running and looking glorious it makes me realise that i missed out over the years by not riding a TREK but at least i can rectify that ..

I took it out for a little spin today (finally), and what an eye opener that was! When dealing with retro mtb's, it's so easy to get caught up in the history, the reputation of the brand, the parts, the look you want to achieve, all the while assuming/thinking that in reality the old bike is just nowhere near as good as a modern one. But you accept that, because it means something else to you, something much more emotional than stiffness, light weight, perfect geometry...

So I took it out, just wanting to be on the bike, not expecting it to perform very well. Boy, was I proven wrong! This thing is an absolute rocket, and I understand now why I loved it so much back in the day! The stretched and low position, the power transfer, the direct steering, it's f*cking marvellous! I couldn't resist hammering it, pushing bigger gears than on my modern steeds, leaning it into the turns, powering out of the saddle,... I'm in love again, and so happy that I decided to give it a 2nd life!

In all the excitement I of course didn't take time for pictures, but here's one in natural light at last.

I also put in on the scales: 10.96kg, as shown.

Lovely.

I had a purple 8700 with Judy XCs back in about 96/97, and I thrashed the hell out of it. Vastly underrated frames, and wish I never sold mine... I seem to remember getting about £50 for it, it's rigid forks and the judys somewhere around 1999-2000. Doh.

It's great to see you enjoying the bike again as that feeling of getting back on an old friend and being reminded of it's true worth is just beyond words and tbh back in the late 80s Trek was undeservedly known for making cruisers even though they weren't and most people wanted specialize and Roberts but any way so glad your enjoying the bike again and as your comment proves that Trek can make decent speed machines and it's just a shame most don't realize it ..

Any way keep enjoying it mate and be proud of making it back into an excellent bike again as it really does look amazing ..

Re:

Looks excellent mate, you must have a fair amount of sentimental value attached to it after all these years... i used to have a bonded trek i remember how neat and smooth the frame looked without any welds

Sean