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1992 Trek 400

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Trek 400

Frame: True Temper RC2 CroMoly Steel

Size: 57cm

Color : White / Red decals


I originally got this bike from craigslist a few years ago. It started out as an original 1992 trek 400 complete with Suntour blaze components. This was trek’s only full steel road bike offering that year.[except for the 520 which was a touring bike] The frame is trek’s true temper cro-moly tubing which isn’t super high end, but still rides great and has ample tire clearances. I like running larger tires for performance and comfort reasons so having up to 35mm clearance is big plus for me, especially in on older frame set.

The first change I made to this bike was adding vintage Shimano 600 [ultegra] tri-color group set. It’s one of my favorite Shimano group sets of the late 80’s and performs great.

After a couple years of riding that setup, I decided to change it up again with a ground up rebuild, this time using mostly modern components. I also wanted to focus this build on bike fit. Doing so made sure I got the right stem, seat post and crank arm length for my body type. This made the bike much more stable and comfortable to ride.

As with any retro-mod build their were a few issues that came up but all in all it went together pretty smoothly. As for the parts I went with, I’ve added a full list below. All the components are newish except for the frame, stem, handlebars and seat post.

Update 2021* I’ve had a few people ask me about fitting a modern hub in older frames. For almost all vintage steel frames, you need to adjust the rear spacing outwards, within reason, to accept modern hubs. In my case, the frame was already spaced to 130mm when I bought it. I’ve heard of many people simply opening the frame by hand when installing modern hubs. This can work, although I would recommend cold setting the frame if possible. Sheldon Brown has a great article on this subject, which I would recommend reading if you’re looking to retro-mod a vintage frame.

Build List:

Bar Tape- Cinelli Mash Parallax Volee 

Brakes- TRP RG957 long reach 47-57 

Brake levers- SRAM Force doubletap Brake & Shifter

Bottom Bracket- SRAM GXP  

Casette- SRAM  PG 1070 12-28t

Chainrings- CX Power Glide 46-36t

Crank- SRAM S900 GXP / 172.5

Front Derailleur- SRAM Apex

Handlebars- 40cm Sakae CT C410

Headset- Origin8 Pro Thread 1” Threaded Headset

Hubs- DT Swiss 350

Pedals- Shimano Deore XT PD-M8000 

Rear Derailleur- SRAM force WiFli 10 speed Medium Cage

Rims- H plus Son TB-14 / 32h

Saddle- Brooks c15

Seatpost- SR-Laprade 27.0 

Stem- 90mm Nitto Quill Stem 

Tires- Soma Supple Vittesse SL 700c x 33mm