Hi-
I recently acquired a 1983 Trek 730 from Craigslist, and was hoping to get a bit of background info on it. I've done extensive reading at vintage-trek.com, and now have a few questions that the site cannot answer (I even emailed the Skip Eckert, the webmaster).
The bike is one of only 50 made that year, 25 each of two frame sizes, mine's a 24". It's full Reynolds 531c (fork, main tubes, and stays), and the components are a mix, some of which are the same as the previous year's 736 (which was offered as a frameset under model 730). On the serial number page on vintage-trek.com, there is a small production run right after my bike's run that is noted as "track frames for the 7-11 team" and it has been suggested that the 730's made in 1983 were made for the 7-11 team.
My questions are: does anybody know if my bike was made for the 7-11 team, and if it wasn't, how can I determine if it was sold as a complete bike or a frameset? The fact that only some of the components (e.g. the campy Nuovo Tipo hubs) match up with the 1982 736 makes it difficult to know, since it could have been sold as a frameset and built up with popular components of the day (some of which coincidentally were the same as what came on the previous year's) or somebody could have bought the complete bike and upgraded some stuff. Also, does the fact that there were only 50 produced make the bike a collector's item?
Thanks for your help.
Cheers,
Jonathan Shapiro
Tucson, AZ, USA