Don, I also have '78 Trek TX 700 and I think the workmanship of these early frames is excellent. It's also a 22.5" frame with lots of tire clearance and a supple fork with plenty of rake. Makes for a great allrounder/randonneur bike suitable for dirt roads and a great way to get away from car traffic in Hill Country (no National Forests nearby).
Jim Sikking
SA TX USA
> From: donald gillies <gillies@ece.ubc.ca>
\r?\n> Subject: [CR] Inventment cast one piece headtube and lugs
\r?\n> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
\r?\n> Date: Monday, January 24, 2011, 5:03 PM
\r?\n> A friend of mine in 1982 told me that
\r?\n> TREK was trying to be innovative
\r?\n> and save time in their frame manufacturing. In 1985 I
\r?\n> bought a TREK
\r?\n> 500 bicycle which not only had the 1-piece I.C. headtube,
\r?\n> but also had
\r?\n> a pretty cool bottom bracket that routed the cable into the
\r?\n> bottom
\r?\n> bracket shell and then inside the right chain stay and out
\r?\n> of the
\r?\n> dropout plugs, through a cable, straight to the derailleur
\r?\n> - no
\r?\n> rusting for the last 30 inches of cable run, and no
\r?\n> needless friction
\r?\n> either! Also those bikes had a cinelli-copy 1-piece
\r?\n> seat cluster, too!!
\r?\n>
\r?\n> A few years ago I got a like-new 1984 TREK 510 for $150
\r?\n> with the full
\r?\n> victory gruppo and 501 tubing. This bike had regular
\r?\n> (on topic,
\r?\n> prugnat-like) lugs on the head tube, but the workmanship
\r?\n> was the
\r?\n> finest I had ever seen on any frame of mine and they even
\r?\n> looked as if
\r?\n> they were profiled, as they had only about a 2mm shelf on
\r?\n> the seat and
\r?\n> down tubes. The brazing on this lowly TREK outclassed
\r?\n> hand built
\r?\n> Schwinn Paramounts and Raleigh Team framesets of only a
\r?\n> decade
\r?\n> earlier.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Maybe the focus on automation is why TREK is still a going
\r?\n> concern and
\r?\n> both Schwinn and Raleigh have died at least twice since
\r?\n> 1984. I
\r?\n> presume that the lugs were investment-cast and they were
\r?\n> probably
\r?\n> brazed with the automatic brazing machines (1983 according
\r?\n> to
\r?\n> http://www.vintage-trek.com) that TREK was using for some of their
\r?\n> joints in
\r?\n> the mid 1980s.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> BEGIN OT STUFF
\r?\n>
\r?\n> TREK went on to make a very early bonded aluminum
\r?\n> frame from Tru
\r?\n> Temper (TREK 2000), and an 1987 an early (but not
\r?\n> earlier than ALAN
\r?\n> or Vitus) bonded carbon frame (TREK
\r?\n> 2500/2300/2200/2100 series),
\r?\n> before making the all-carbon frame 5000-series frame
\r?\n> in 1989. The
\r?\n> last year for the bonded 2000-series carbon frames
\r?\n> was 1998, and I
\r?\n> owned a TREK 2300 (one of my sweetest rides ever)
\r?\n> from 2000-2004.
\r?\n> The 2300 was rated as one of the most compliant
\r?\n> framesets in the
\r?\n> Damian Rinard's frame deflection tests.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> http://www.vintage-trek.com/
\r?\n> http://en.wikipedia.org/
\r?\n>
\r?\n> END OT STUFF
\r?\n>
\r?\n> - Don Gillies
\r?\n> San Diego, cA, USA