RE: [CR]My Trek 610 - Heresy , you say?

(Example: Framebuilders:Chris Pauley)

From: "Mann, Dave" <damann@mitre.org>
To: Rich Pinder <rpinder@usc.edu>, classic <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2008 08:50:47 -0500
Subject: RE: [CR]My Trek 610 - Heresy , you say?
Thread-Topic: [CR]My Trek 610 - Heresy , you say?
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Rich Pinder wrote:
> Take a look - and tell me if I've committed a truly unforgiveable sin:
> http://www-hsc.usc.edu/~rpinder/trek610.html

One could argue that the "sin" that was commmitted was by the Trek art department as they moved away from a) the original Trek decal and b) from the cheaper 2-toned wrap around decal that at least retained the original Trek font. Those mid/late 80s fonts like what were on your bike originally always left me cold.

I'm almost to the point that so long as the frame is on the road and being ridden, what happens with the paint and decals is secondary. Perhaps some product manager at Trek will see your pics and a light bulb will go off in their brain leading them to revive their long tradition of lugged steel sport touring bikes. I happen to think the early TX Treks and the later 510, 710 and 610 models still are among the nicest production sports tourers ever made. Of these, the 610 (I owned one for over a decade and loved it dearly before I crunched the frame) was sort of the last hold out, utilizing pre-made mangalloy stays and forks to keep the production costs in line. IMO, by putting the older decals on the bike, you're pointing back to the older sources, which are the source for that lineage. If it's a sin, it's very, very forgivable. It serves the purpose of pointing back to the bikes that Trek should be reproducing.

Note, I'm pretty biased. Here's mine: http://home.comcast.net/~pinnah/dirtbag-bikes/510.html

-Dave Mann, Boston, MA ------------------------- THE BIKE GEOMETRY PROJECT A community effort to document and compare bike geometries http://home.comcast.net/~pinnah/dirtbag-bikes/geometry-project.html -------------------------