1999 Trek 8900 beater

[messiah]

Not a Retro classic by any means...

Bought in 1999 as it was one of the first light weight production hardtail frames available with a disk mount (hayes).

The wheels are 1998 Mavic Crossmax disks which have been completely rebuilt a few times - front rim is wrong
Brakes are Hope Pro - an ususual version of C2's with Hayes mounts.
Drivetrain is XT (workhorse)
Purple Answer Hyperlite bars and X-lite bar ends for that retro look .
Manitou X-Vert 100mm forks - third set as they always crack at the brace but I like the feel of them and they are cheap to pick up these days

Mount for the kid seat so I can take one of my little boys out.

Mostly used to commute 14miles offroad each way. But recently hammered round Glentress including the big jumps in the freeride park and the elevated trails in the Ewok Village.

This is another frame I have tried to break... but sadly I have failed... so far :twisted:

 

[Iwasgoodonce]

Nice Trek! Are you a bit of a Trek expert? There is one on Ebay with spinergey wheels I may have a go at. Not sure about the paint blistering though. Could it be from tube damage? Either that or the dude drinks nitromors!!

 

[ridevintagemtb]

Nice bike. I think you've got it nailed, that was one of the first bikes that I can recall that came standard with a rear disc mount. In 1998, Trek had that model I believe with a gold/blue scheme and standard Hayes brakes.

Funny anecdote, a kid I knew who raced one on my college team didn't know how hot the rotors get after long descents... while waiting for some friends, he leaned up against the rear of his bike and burned a half Hayes rotor into his calf. You can still see the scar, its still in perfect shape with the holes, etc...

 

[stu_mcp]

Nice bike and good to see it - looks well used as it should do! Is it just me or is that another bent seatpost?


Some of the earlier Treks had problems with paint blistering, but this was mainly on the bonded frames or their alu bikes. I remember a few of the 850's from the mid 90's doing it too though, and they were True Temper tubesets. None of the ones I've seen were ever structural, just problems with primer coats or oxidization. The nicest 970 I think was a really deep, almost chocolate metallic brown - http://www.ne.jp/asahi/cycle/days/trek970.jpg

 

[messiah]

Ah memories!

The Blue and Gold/Yellow 8900 was the year before (199 and I rode one before buying this one - stu_mcp will remember this as it was spanner-boys

Due to my history of breaking OCLV's I didn't buy the first year and got the shop to speak to Trek UK before I bought this. I wanted to be sure Trek knew why I was concerned and that I would not be happy if it broke, they still agree'd to sell me it (was that you stu?). Their faith in the frame was well placed, it's had a hammering and I was amased to discover it weighs less than 3-1/2 lbs!!!

I loved that chocolate brown colour of the 970 but the geometry was very different on the steel frames - much shorter top tube, more like a Bonty which I could never get on with. The geometry on the 8900 is exactly the same as on the OCLV's I loved, but could not have

Stu, I don't think it's possible to bend a carbon seatpost???

Stu - do you remember refusing to sell me a Pace after that demo day up at Kirkhill :twisted:

 

[stu_mcp]

Aye, the yellow/sid blue one was really nice, really light - spanner did get one of those, remember having a heap of grief getting the hayes discs to stop rubbing at the time. Hope's were much easier.
I can't remember if it was Ian or me that spoke to Trek about you buying one back then; I think as long as they weren't going to be left with another carbon frame to recycle they were happy, and confident enough that you wouldn't pop the ally frame
Can you imagine what would have happened if you did get the Pace?!!!! 'Give it a week and see the tubes drop off?' Another day in the workshop stripping and rebuilding yet another frame...I think we should have written to all the marketing guys selling the bikes/frames you liked and asked if they would like to take the bri-challenge

 

[Iwasgoodonce]

Funny isn't it? A combination of now having a bit of dosh (unlike BITD) and the evil bike gathering influences of this forum. I hadn't thought about getting any bike in ages, now I want a 19.5" Breezer (anyone got one?) and am thinking about a Trek 970 on Evil bay just because I saw this bike and thought Trek, yeah! It's all your fault!

 

[Vitorzip]

Hey guys, the ´98 frame was either White /Sid Blue or Yellow/dark Purple, or at least here in Portugal.

Are you sure there was a Yellow/blue version?


Edit: Forget it, you are right...

 

[messiah]

I'm having a nightmare with this bike at present.

I used it to commute through winter a couple of years ago and when it stopped working properly I shoved it to the back of the garage and ignored it. I'm now trying to reserect it but the disk brakes were seized and the Nokon gear cables had corroded into the frame guides.

So far I've dismantled the brake callipers which was really difficult and I've managed to drill out the seized cable guides. I might end up drilling all the guides compltely so I can run solid cable runs. I drilled out some of the guides originaly to run the rear hope gear cable...

Hopefully I can save the Hope brakes as I don't fancy trying to find another post mount disk brake.

 

[mechagouki]

It's single-speed time methinks.