Gallery - 1978 Trek 510 owned by Dave Mann
Dave writes: "In 1978, I was in high school in
central Ohio. Chuck Harris, the owner of the local bike store in our
town, took me in and gave me a job. He remains one of the most genuinely
kind people I have ever known. Chuck's passion was for bike touring
and we sold mostly Fujis, with the occasional Miyata. Chuck also had
a Chestnut Brown frame from the new American frame builders he knew
in Wisconsin. It was made with Ishiwata 022 tubing and it was the most
beautiful frame this high school kid had ever seen. "
"By 1983, I was going to college in the Boston area and I finally
saved up enough money to trade in my old Fuji Royale II for a Trek 600,
which I rode until 1995 when I drove it under a car port while it was
on the roof rack. Yes, I cried. I had been commuting on the bike daily,
went on regular training rides with it and had ridden it cross-country."
"I replaced the totaled 600 with an aluminum Trek
1220, which had a triple crank and eyelets. But, it was a racing style
bike in every other way - certainly not a sport touring design. Mountain
bikes were all the rage at that time and the sport touring bike had
effectively disappeared from the market it seemed. The 1220 was loads
of fun on short rides. In particular, it sprinted like a rocket ship
and climbed like nobody's business. In contrast, the old 600 was a bit
whippy in the bottom bracket. The thin 531 tubing and my tall 64mm frame
size were a bad combination. Still, I really, really missed the stable
ride of my old 600. Thankfully, I found the Vintage Trek site and was
able to research what frames to look for. My hunt finally payed off
in 2006 and I was able to purchase this frame."
"I consider myself extremely lucky to have been
able to find this specific frame. I really wanted to find an 022 frame,
and not another 531 frame. Partly, this is because of the big impression
that brown Trek had made on me nearly 30 years ago. More importantly
though, I wanted to get a slightly stiffer frame than the thinner-walled
531 tubing provided. The first step in getting the bike on the road
was to take it to Peter
Mooney, the frame builder in residence at the Wheelworks,
to have the frame aligned and to have the rear triangle spread to 130mm
to accept a modern drive train. I also gave the frame 2 coats of Frame
Saver. "
"The drive train has been scavenged off of the
old 1220. It's an 8-speed Shimano indexing system with RSX hubs, rear
derailleur and crank and Shimano barcon shifters. The one bit of the
system that is not modern is the Suntour BL front derailleur, which
was taken off of the old dead 600. They work together famously, but
I suspect they bicker when I'm not around. "
"In 1978, you could still order optional braze-ons
on Trek frames. It's as if the original owner had me in mind when he
ordered the frame since he choose down tube cable stops for my preferred
bar end shifters. Other nice upgrades include: water bottle bosses on
the down tube, brake cable bosses on the top tube, cable guides on the
bottom bracket (I think these are Campagnolo but I'm not 100% sure of
that) and Campagnolo drop outs, which were upgrades on the stock Suntour
or Trek drop outs originally specified for the 510. And of course, in
1978 they still attached the headbadge with screws, which just tickles
me to no end. "
"The current brakes on the bike are 
a pair of DiaCompe 500Gs, which provide a bunch of room for fenders.
They came on my 600 so I've racked up a lot of miles with these brakes.
Still, I don't have much emotional attachment to them. I've always considered
them to be functional but somewhat homely looking. Hopefully at some
point in the not too distant future they'll get replaced with a pair
of Suntour Superbe or DiaCompe Royal Comp calipers. "
"I'm not doing any extended touring at present
(hopefully this will change as the kids get older) but I still use a
handlebar bag pretty much all the time. The racer boys at my local bike
store don't understand this and visibly shake their heads when I come
into the shop. For those of you who remember the late '70s, the handlebar
bag is an Eclipse bag. About a year ago, it was a nasty sun faded red
after spending over 25 years in the sun. My wife begged me to let her
buy me a new bag. Instead, I dropped it into a hot pot of Rit dye and
it came out looking almost like new."
"By far, the most compelling
thing about this bike is the ride. The long wheelbase, the long rake and
low bottom bracket all give this bike a kind of stability that has to
be ridden to be believed. The place I most notice it is on sections of
rough road and torn up pavement. On my race style bike, the bike would
pitch to one side or the other in the rough stuff. In contrast, this bike
just hunkers down and rides straight and true."
Click on each image to see an enlarged
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