Phoenix Project mkII - Part I - The Frame

Being cooped up in COVID quarantine in the summer of 2020, I took advantage of the inflated prices for used bikes and sold my beloved mid-80s Trek 520 (slightly undersized) and 10 year old Trek something-or-other road bike (slightly forgettable.) As others were perfecting their stay-at-home sourdough starter, the long-distance touring bike bug got me, and as such was able to find a Long Haul Trucker in my size in stock at my LBS. It's been a great all-arounder, and I look forward to many many more years and many many more miles. But, I miss the old steel lugged Trek for how it made me feel, and the something-or-other for hopping on and sprinting with nothing but it, me, and the wind.

I had known I've wanted to build my next bike -not buy it- for some time. And I knew I wanted it to be a great-to-exceptional tubed steel bike, something with Reynolds or Columbus in the name. The old 520 was Reynolds 501, but I really hoped to find something better. The Trek 720 beckoned, as mythical things tend to do, but one in my size never would pop up and in any case they were always likewise mythically priced. And if I was going to spend that kind of money, I'd be calling Grant Peterson and putting my name on the waiting list for a Rivendell Roadeo. I'm not, and wasn't, necessarily set on an early Trek, but they were steel and they were lugged, and to my eye they were beautiful. More importantly, they were relatively plentiful.

Having a 520 previously, I knew the x20 lineup went from 420 (fine) to 720 (great). What I had never really looked at was the somewhat forgotten, but outfitted in beautiful Reynolds 531, 620. A craigslist email alerted me to a new posting, and apparently the seller didn't have a camera, or really hated taking photos; the posting was a sparse "Trek 620 for sale" kind of posting, but at least it listed the size; my size, 22.5". Although listed separately, I talked the suspendered kid into including the Shimano 600 (Ultegra predecessor) triple crankset at his asking price, as well as the brakes and bottom bracket that were left on the bike. I don't want this bike to run three rings, but these are nice examples of Reagan-era Shimano, and I'm sure me and eBay can find them loving homes.

My new frameset was of the 1985 vintage, the final year of this model. Even better, the 1985 model inherited almost everything from it's big brother the 720 (including geometry.) Only the rear triangle of the 620 retained the Reynolds 501 steel, whereas all other tubing matched the 720s full 531C outfit. I'm no weight weenie, my cycling frame or my human frame, so I choose to look at the slightly beefier rear triangle as a blessing. In '84 they shed the absolutely stunning early-80s motif, so this one wore the much more late-80s graphics; it's growing on me. Truly, as old steel frames go, this one was pretty darn close to my unicorn.

Now, this is the part of the story in which my wife and my wallet weep. There exists a just jaw-dropping series of blog posts from over ten years ago (on blogspot, yuck) by an author I have yet to identify; calling himself Fuji Otaku, he titled the series "The Phoenix Project." In it, the author builds an identical-to-mine 1985 Trek 620 with a John Hammond-esque "spare no expense" mentality, or in his words "with bucketloads of heart-throbbingly cool kit." It is this bike and this series of blog posts which have inspired my own spare-nearly-no-expense build and my own series of postings (what you're reading now.) Not everything he chooses matches my sensibility, or my budget, but it's close enough that I feel calling this project "The Phoenix Project mkII" to be in homage to him. He's a better writer, so please read his posts in their entirety before looking at mine -or maybe not lest my writing be compared to his. In either case, consider this whole project to be a sequel of sorts, and as with any good sequel, I will be "borrowing" liberally from the ideas of the original. My apologies in advance to Mr. "Otaku"

Gear Ratings

Shameless ripoff numero uno, the authors subjective and creative ratings of all parts and components. These will make more sense as it goes on.

Gizmo Lust measures the attractiveness of an item on its ingenious design, quality of execution and physical attraction. A Rohloff Speedhub has a very high Gizmo Lust rating - while not without flaws, it is cleverly designed, produced with German neurosurgical preciseness, and is really shiny. Gizmo Lust is measured in units of leathermans and, in my book, the Rohloff gets the maximum of 5 leathermans.

Street Cred measures the proven effectiveness and battle honors of both the item and the company which produces the item. Sugino XD2 cranksets are an example of an item with a rating of five trench knives on the Street Cred scale. The XD2 has proven its utility over and over, while Sugino has been duking it out for decades, through times thick and thin.

Tweed Factor indicates the likelihood of an item showing up on a Riv or on a bike with a Riv-curious owner. It should be noted that this is no indication of the item's main constituency, the item may have a much broader user base and designers who are oblivious to its totemic worship in a parallel universe. Shimano 105 hubs are a great example of an item with a perfect Tweed Factor score of 5 ponchos.

Phony Accent is a multivariate rating that roughly assesses the form over function ratio. It awards extra points for the form being a tribute or outright copy of vintage items. Further points are awarded if the vendor has no discernable connection to the original item and has just recently jumped on the retro bandwagon. Rather unfairly, even the type of people who buy the item are fair game. Though I'm a sucker for them, hammered fenders that Rene Herse couldn't tell from the originals rolling out of Taiwanese factories where the paint isn't even dry yet clearly score 5 berets on the Phony Accent scale.

Crimethink measures an item's departure from conventional sensible cycling dogma. I don't want to give too much away about this project but I do know one thing we won't be doing. So, bringing, say, carbon handlebars into consideration would clearly result in a Crimethink grade of 5 quislings.

Finally, Lily Gilding indicates the extent to which money is spent on ephemeral qualities of an item when a lesser amount on a similar item would clearly suffice. I'm happy to report that, while we won't be striving for it, we will relish the occasional item that has a maximum Lily Gilding rating of 5 faberges.

Gizmo Lust: Not going to lie, I'm a sucker for the Treks old enough to have a 401k. Simple lugs, great steel, and still made in America. Doesn't have the sexiness of a French or Italian bike of the era, but it's as beautiful as anything else coming from Wisconsin. ⊛⊛⊛⊛

Street Cred: Little brother 520 is perhaps the touring frame still built today, and few bike manufacturers have stood the test of time as well as Trek has, as well as winning the Tour multiple times (depending on how you count). ⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛

Tweed Factor: Maximum, of course. The is the poor-mans Rivendell, or it's certainly my Rivendell, and I'm poor. ⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛

Phony Accent: Plain and utilitarian, this aspires to be nothing but itself.

Crimethink: They'll be plenty of time for this in the coming chapters, but when considering the frameset only, nothing outside-the-lines on this.

Lily Gilding: Used bike prices have been bonkers for a couple of years, so a similar frame in a different city or different circumstances might have halved or doubled the selling price. For $200 less the price of what I can get for the components that came with it, I consider a win. ⊛

Running Build Spec Sheet:

Running Tally of Costs:

(probably a bad idea to write these numbers down…)

Shortly before embarking on this money sink, I spotted a mid-90's Specialized Hard Rock literally in the scrap metal heap at the local landfill. Having just lectured my son on the importance of "recycle, reduce, reuse," it seemed a no brainer to save this guy from the earth. I should have perhaps kept it for my son to do something with in 5 years time, but I didn't and so there's a $50 credit to start this project. The 600 chainset and other pieces will likely go to auction, so I'll include that in the tally when it happens.

The nice folks at Sacramento's The Bicycle Business applied a layer of Frame Saver so this frame will last another 37 years.

Up next:

Part II - The Drivetrain