Trek 930 Singletrack Project,...

[Carbon]

Back when I was doing a lot of mountain biking in the mid 90's I started out on a used Trek 820 Mountain Track which was pretty much baseline. I went shopping for a new mountain bike yesterday and nearly pulled the trigger on a 2015 model GT Ricochet, but I just don't have confidence in aluminum frames, I've gone and looked at 2 in the last week, GT and Specialized that had cracked headtubes due to cold,... well I always wanted an upgraded Singletrack model Trek, this one is a near pristine 1996 model, Chromoly 18" frame hand made here in the good ole USA. I found it on c-list yesterday and bought it for pocket change. I pretty much replaced nearly everything, both shifters, the original for the rear derailleur wouldn't do anything, all new cables, headset and upgraded to a nice suspension fork. I also replaced tires, tubes stem and bars, grips, Redline sealed bearing pedals, seat, it came with laser straight Mavic sealed bearing double walled wheels, I converted it from center pull brakes to cantilever to run this fork. I put in about 5 hours of labor into it last night, bike rides amazing and shifts smooth, quiet and fast, super happy with the way it turned out, got in a couple hours of ride time with my little man today on it. So much more satisfying to have built this rather then having shelled out 400 bills on some new cookie cutter throw away bike. Here she is as received yesterday afternoon,...


Here she is as of now,...

 

[user 135]

those single tracks are nice frames. Nice bike.

 

[Carbon]

Thanks man, I've always liked them. I have made a few refinements to it since this pic, super nice bike and great in the trails.

 

[SILVERKINGPC]

Cool bike that will ride-on forever!

 

[Carbon]

Thanks, I do like the Specialized FS bike I just picked up but this one is still my favorite, she's a lot closer to who I really am.

 

[vpc66]

Nice job on the bike, could you post a pic of how you route the brake cable at the rear V brake. I just pick up a 13" 930 for my 12 year old daughter and not sure I want her running canti brakes, figure would need to use a Jag Wire mount or something like. I run canti brakes on my vintage Specialized singlespeed for the looks but prefer the stopping power of the V brakes on my old Barracuda geared bike which was easy to reroute. Like you I seem to hold on to the bikes of my younger years..have set my wife and kids up with vintage mtb plus vintage road.

 

[us56456712]

I have a 930 single track, all original except pedals and handlebars. It rides as well as the new ones , shifts better too. It could use a new fork but the existing one is adequate for me as I ride a lot of rigid MTB. I am always looking for another one.

 

[Carbon]

vpc66, you may be able to use your same cable housing, I used the same housing for the rear but had to insert a longer cable into it, on the front I had to cut a longer cable and housing. You can buy the linear pull style v-brake setup, arms with curved cable guides and everything as a kit on ebay, I had an older GT that I robbed them off of.

 

[vpc66]

Thanks for reply, but from that picture my guess is your frame is a later model than the one I bought for my daughters build. You have a cable stop on the top tube before the seat tube which makes the use of V brakes easy, where as my daughters frame has a noodle weld to the seat tube that directs the cable to center behind seat tube so it lines up with the yoke on a canti brake set. Guess she will ride old school canti brakes for her first MTB, will make brake up grades that much nicer for her down the road !

 

[Carbon]

The canti brakes adjusted with fresh pads do still work well, I have a mint 96 GT Talera with all new arms and pads, work great.

 

[vpc66]

Been thinking about trying different pads on the canti brakes I have on my old Spesh I modified into a single speed. Been thinking about some duel purpose Kool Stops, may change my mind about canti brakes if they work better.

 

[The Black Monark]

Cantilever brakes can work very well. A common mistake when setting up cantilever brakes is setting the pads too close to the arms...they never work well this way and often barely stop.
Shimano supplied a set of plastic set-up tools to align the arms/pads/cables/angles. These worked great, but many mechanics thought they new better and didn't use them...and the braking was terrible on their builds