I rode my TREK 510 to work today. Frankly, the brazing on this bike is beautiful. nicer than all raleighs and my paramount and carlton. The lugs are extremely clean and taper to a nice uniform point as if they were hand filed italian masterpieces. and this is on a low-cost 501 frameset. this one is a 1984 with imitation bocama lugs, and in fact, they look better than the bocamas on my raleigh gran sport. they look better than the bocama blanks in my garage.
This is not a model with a "cast" head tube or "cast" seat cluster (like a masi 3V), rather, it's a regular tubes & lugs frameset. I also have the 1985 model and that's when trek started casting lots of things. This bike was a $110 ebay bargain (full campy triomphe including shield logo hoods in good condition), in almost NOS condition, save for a few nicks in the sparkly imron blue paint.
TREK graphics used to be considered bland and unimpressive, but after 20 years, these low-key decals are starting to grow on me and now i'm thinking these bikes look more and more classic every year.
- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA