1991 Trek 2000

The year is 1991. 

Will Smith is starring in Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Red Hot Chili Peppers just released their Blood Sugar Sex Magik album, and at the A-1 bike shop in Washington, IN., a family is picking out a beautiful red Trek 2000 as one of their road bikes.

And while those pop culture references I made came and went, the bike is still as fresh as ever.

The cogs have barely been graced by the chain, the original grease never wiped from the headset -- turning into crust -- even the original tires... brand new tread.

I'm happy to have found this wall-hanger on marketplace for the price of $155, and am eager to share some knowledge and photos of this bike on the Ringer Bike Review.

I'm actually having trouble working on this feature; I can't stop admiring the bike! :)

You can see the aforementioned grease crust on that external bottom cup.

To be frank, there wasn't much information to be found on the bike at first.

In the 1991 Trek catalog, Trek didn't actually include this bike, confirmed by the Vintage Trek website. This was no help to me, who was attempting to find out what the original components for the model were. Both myself and other collectors will be much happier if the bike is 100% original.

Older Trek 2000s prior to 1991 always came with Dura Ace, which was a concern for me considering my bike's groupset is certainly not.

The Deore DX, Shimano 105, Tricolor, and Matrix componentry is certainly period-correct, as the 1420 model from the 1991 catalog has almost every component that my 2000 has, minus the seatpost and stem.

A similarly-specced Trek 1420 from the 1991 Trek Catalog, courtesy of BikeRebuilds.com

Deore DX 7spd rear derailleur with a long cage.

Crisp Shimano Deore triple crankset -- I don't know if I've ever seen a crank of this age without the logo rubbed off.

The full drive train. Look at that chainstay guard -- no corrosion whatsoever!

I posted a question on a "Vintage Trek Bikes" Facebook group, asking what groupset originally came on this bike, and from the answers that I received, the 2000 originally came with either Dura Ace or Tricolor -- it was "dealer's choice." Or, shops could build from frame-up based on frame and customer-requested spec.

The gentleman that I purchased the bike from mentioned that the original owner of the bike was either the mom or dad in a family, meaning they were probably middle-aged. They also weren't too serious in the sport, and likely wanted this bike to cruise around on. 

I suspect that they could have wanted a lighter aluminum frame in the 2000 for easy acceleration and hill climbing, while also having the comfortable and wide gear range offered from the Deore DX 3x7 groupset.

Because of how insanely minty this bike and its components are, I doubt that these are aftermarket -- I think they came on the bike.

The gentleman who got the bike from the original owner believes the parts are original, too.

Sadly, I'll never be able to confirm this assumption. 

My next, and only other problem with the bike came in the form of some weird black splotches of something...

Because these marks are on the seat tube and bottom of the downtube -- a place where most debris gets kicked up by the tires, I assume that it's spray from an incredibly-fresh repavement of road. The original owner probably thought they were going smoothly glide through...

Anyway, I had my work cut out for me. The markings were incredibly hard to remove, even when using a potent foaming degreaser and microfiber cloth.

It made me think of crayon drawings that kids mistakenly make on the walls of their houses -- super fun to make, but those poor parents scrub and scrub to take off the lines of wax.

It got me thinking: hairdryers are often useful in that application, so maybe they will for the bike. It would also decrease the odds that I scratch the frame.

I called up Dorothy -- a Little 500 cyclist on the Novus team -- and asked to borrow her hair dryer (my head is shaved for half the year... why would I have one!?). Thankfully, she said yes. I picked it up from her house (made a pit stop to the Cutters house to talk shop and look at their shipment of Kenda Tendril Tires) and got to work at taking of the black marks.

I made super quick work, and soon enough, the frame was looking clean again -- probably the first time in 30 years.

With that problem solved and noted, I invite invite you to LOOK at the rest of these sweet photos.

Some sweet old LOOK pedals.

Sorry... bad joke.

I'll keep this one short and cap it off with the other unmentioned components.

Shimano 600 headset, Shimano 105 aero brake calipers, some sweet downtube shifters (there's something pretty romantic about the way you have to shift on these bikes...)

The Trek 2000 frameset is built with Easton tubing, made from 7000 double-butted aluminum. Frame is a size 54cm.

Some super cool vintage Trek bottles -- one of them still had water in it... 
I topped the build off with a newer (1994) Selle Italia TransAm Gel Flow saddle and a handmade Tourbon saddle bag.

So what am I going to do with this bike?

I already have a rest day, coffee-getter, putter-around-town bike in my Trek 660, so I really don't have a use for it... other than to look.

Some people buy paintings for more than $150 just to admire... why can't I?