Hey,

I have an old '95 Trek 820. It needs quite a bit of work and I was thinking of turning it into a cruiser. It has cantilever brakes, completely hard, 8/24 speed.

The rear brake is broken and rides the rim once activated. The grip shifters are fine, the sprockets/gears all look fine. They need cleaning but no bends or stretches. The front brake is fine.

Should I try and recover this bike? I was thinking of throwing on a cheap fork <$100 (possibly swapping out my manitou six on my GF and get that a pilot/duke), new rear brakes. Maybe new rims. New tires definately. New chain same gears. I have a little expereince working on bikes, swapping gears bleeding brakes but never replaced a fork. I want to change the fork since I hop on curbs a lot.

Is it worth trying to do this or should I just go buy a cheap front suspension for riding around town?

There comes a time when you have to cut your losses. The time & money involved can be best spent on a new rig.

It might be worth having as an around-town beater. A rear brake can be had for less than $10, so that's no big deal. I'd recommend a rigid fork over a cheapo suspension in most cases, unless you decide to use the one off your GF's bike (since that would essentially be a free fork). You can also talk the the LBS's in your area to see if they have any old forks sitting around gathering dust that they'd let go cheap.

With this bike you're not so much looking at upgrading as you are just finding a way to possibly keep it alive for use as a beater.

If its a '95 820 you probably have a 1" threaded steerer tube if I remember correctly, so no go on using a new suspension fork. I think the Manitou lineup still has one 1" fork available but its pretty scarce. Marzocchi makes a few but they are to the tune of $400 from QBP.

Why don't you just singlespeed the bike and slap on a rigid fork? You shouldn't need a suspension fork for hopping curbs and cruising around town... suspension forks (especially cheap old 1" models) are heavy and inefficient. My cruiser is fully rigid with a 44x20t setup for light trail use, or a 44x18t for commuting. Its an old steel Peugeot and rides like butter even when I'm bunnyhopping a curb or dropping down a flight of stairs.

If you do decide to keep the bike, you should probably replace the drivetrain. Forgive me for assuming this but from the way your post is worded I would guess that the cassette has never been changed. Putting a new chain on an old cassette, often times even if it "looks good" is a bad idea since the cassette and chain tend to wear together.

The 820 is a pretty nice steel frame so I would hang on to it and slap something rigid on the front. Wheels you can go with something cheap and fairly durable like the Mavic X139's for under $100 from most online retailers. The brakes can be easily replaced, might want to consider getting new levers and going over to V-brakes... typically easier to setup and more stopping power.

Heres a picture of my POS townie/mud/campus bike:

Hey

Thanks for the info. Yeah the cassette has never been replaced. Looking at the forks I don't think they will work for replacement.

I was thinking of upgrading to a shock so I could practice tricks and what not working on technique.

Thanks

i was tempted to ditch a bike i found a few years ago when i couldn't for love nore money get the BB off, everyone just said "why bother?" but i've grown attacted to it, and today while at work i finaly got the BB off with the help of a 3' braker-bar and a modifed ParkTool.
the point i'm making is if you like your old Trek then have fun with it upgrading, why not

single it! fun to do, won't run too much $$, and you can see if you like SS. worst case scenario, you get a townee/beater bike out of it. leave it rigid. a $100 sussy fork will not be worth the $$.

go here to read more....

http://www.mtbr.com/faq/ssfaq.shtml