Trek 520 2007 Model

Richard's Trek 520. © Richard Spurling. All Rights Reserved.

Love at First Sight

Late in 2006, I decided the time had come to buy a new bike. No, I couldn't afford one but did have some savings and decided to dip into them. Then began the search for the 'right bike'. This included Surly, Velosmith, Llewellyn and all the usual brand name candidates. It involved investigating rebuilding my beloved but ancient Europa with modern components but that would have involved some frame modifications more extreme than just widening the rear fork ... and the old girl's frame is a tad large anyway. Then there was the aluminium vs steel consideration and the availability of the latter and my innate prejudice against the former.

Eventually, after much angst, many bike ships and not a few catalogues, I walked into Revolution CycleCentre on South Road here in Adelaide. I'd been in there prior to beginning this search and had always been impressed with them and their willingness to listen to you, your needs and wants, and to dig out catalogues if they don't have it on the floor. Well, this time, they did ... have it on the floor, right by the front door - a nice, shiny, Trek520 ... about three sizes too small for me.

Introducing the Trek520

Steve, the salesman who worked with me during the drama to come, reckons he can still remember the way my face lit up when I saw it and how that smile just broadened as I looked closer. You see, the Trek520 is Trek's touring bike. Okay, I'm not into long distance hauling, but tourers also make darned good utility bikes, which is what I wanted - a randonneur.

She's got a steel frame. That's right, a genuine steel frame. She's set up to take front and rear carriers ... even comes with a useful carrier as standard. Ahh, but what about the components? Typical touring bike dog's breakfast. Trek have put more than a little thought into this beast.

The wheels are Bontragers, as are many of the components - good stuff. In this case though, the rims are the Bontrager Maverick, proper touring rims with collets under the head of every spoke to prevent rim splitting under load. The wheels are 700x32C and fitted with slicks. Although I won't be riding her on trails, nearly every ride around here features either rough bitumen or gravel tracks - I don't want to ride on razor blades. The hubs are Deore LX - that's right, mtb hubs, the same quality as the Ultegra road hub but with greater strength and better dust resistance.

She comes with a granny gear - needed where I live, especially with my lack of condition. That was a must on the shopping list. To cope with the extra chain length this entails and to ensure clean changes under all conditions, the rear derailleur is again, the Deore LX. However, the front derailleur is 105, working over Ultegra cranks. As standard, they have DuraAce bar end shifters (we are only getting the US model here in 2007), however, I asked the shop to replace these with Ultegra Shifters/brakes.

Ahh, the brakes. She has V-brakes on her, those overly powerful brutes you usually see on flat bar bikes. Hey, when you're trying to stop a heavily loaded bike, power is good. To mate them with the Ultegra levers, the shop needed to install some cams to the braking system, you can see them in the photo (yes, the rear cable will be shortened). The result is a pair of brakes that stop you dead ... but with excellent feel so you can modulate the power with all the finesse of fingertip stopping. They are brilliant.

Drop bars of course. You didn't doubt that did you? And that colour. Black. She looks stunning ... until it rains or a layer of dust builds up. What on earth possessed Trek to paint their touring bike black? And it was the Ford-T choice - you can have any colour you want as long as it's black.

Anyone for Soap Operas?

On that first day, they didn't have the right sized 520 in the shop, just the small one. The small one told me all I needed to know about the bike itself, but didn't answer the question - would it suit me. So Steve dragged out one of the racing bikes on display. Hang on, you'd think, that's not the same bike. Well, it wasn't. However, armed with the geometry figures for the 520, a couple of rulers and a spirit level, he mounted that racer in a stationary training stand and set it up so that pedals, seat and bars were all in the same position as they'd be on the 520 and I was able to 'ride' the 520 in my size. This took him a good fifteen minutes - that's the sort of effort they invest in their customers.

I felt at home, and asked them to see if they could get in a 520 that was the right size. They had a chat with Trek - yes, a 23" was in stock, yes I could have a play with no obligation either to me or the shop. Not a problem ... until they couldn't find the darned bike - it was on their books but they couldn't find it.

"Not a problem," says Trek. "The 2007 bikes will be here in ten days, we'll send a 23" through then." Two weeks later, the bikes were on the docks, in customs. Two weeks after that, the bikes are out of customs and lost in the system somewhere.

A week later, the bike is in 'transit'. By now, Steve's calling me the 'patient Richard Spurling'. And, of course, it turned up ... nearly a week late. Hooray, I could finally get to see my new bike. And ride it. Love at first pedal stroke. Mind you, at that point it was in standard condition, still had the bar end shifters, which was fair enough as I hadn't said I'd buy it at that point. But it didn't take much to say "I want it," and hand over a scarily immense pile of money ... okay, this a modern fairy tale, I sat down at the boss's computer, logged onto the internet and transferred the money into their account - not as romantic as handing over a wad of cash but not as painful either.

A day needed to fit the Ultegra shifters ... and she'd be mine. Hah. The Shifters went on alright, but to remove the sponginess you get when fitting brifters to V-brakes, they needed a special cam installed. Not a problem, they'd be here tomorrow. How about we set the bike up? So we did (see later).

Two days later, the cams arrived ... but were the wrong ones. Phone calls to distributors, more apologies from Steve. Next day, the right cams arrived ... and I could collect my new bike.

What I haven't described is the fitting process. Once Steve had reached a rough set up for the bike, we got stuck into some serious measuring and observing and fiddling. The fitting process took over an hour. Seat height first - not just checking for rocking of the hips but also how my ankles extended at the bottom of the stroke. Seat fore and aft position. Pedals - clipless pedals so the cleats had to be set in the right position fore and aft but they also fitted gadgets with long pointers to the pedals so they could observe whether my feet pronate or not, so that they could set the cleats in the centre of the pedal's free play. Handle bar height and angle. Bar reach. Brifter position and angle. Believe me, it took an hour of fine tuning, that's after the initial guess which I'd been riding on the road with. But boy is it good, and the numbers are all recorded and kept at the shop so we can set her up again in a few minutes - obviously, any changes made to the fit will also be recorded.

The whole process has been a mix of the rewarding and the frustrating. Finding a bike that seems to be ideal. Having delivery delayed - that actually was good as I was able to visit darned near every shop in Adelaide and test the market to see if I actually was getting what I needed. I certainly am. But the delays. One after another. Grrr. But she's home now. The photo above was taken in my driveway.

So what do I think of her?

We've done 600 kms now and the love affair continues.

The roads and bike paths around here are fairly typical of the fare we Australians have to suffer these days - anything from smooth to horrid, ancient bitumen bike paths turned into mountain ranges by tree roots, and we can't forget a liberal sprinkling of broken glass can we. She rides all with aplomb and determination. The frame feels tight and springy - you can feel the frame working, you don't get rammed up the bum. It's a fantastic ride.

Power? You put the power on and she rockets away.

Loose surfaces don't faze her, she just keeps on tracking. One of my regular routes has a short, very steep section that is loose gravel - no problems going up or down. Recently, I found myself cruising at 35km/hr on a dolomite surfaced bike track, with nary a hint of unease.

The gears are brilliant, despite their mixed ancestry - silent, smooth, fast and positive and, despites bicyclewa's assurances to the contrary **pokes out tongue**, they have maintained their adjustment. I've found I spend most of my time on the centre chainring. A flick of the fingers takes me up or down the freewheels in an instant - you don't notice the gears changing, they are that smooth. There is no trim adjustment on the front derailleur but it isn't needed - the full cassette is available on the middle chainring.

Shifting to the large chainring is clean and smooth, though you do need to be positive and hold the shift lever across while it does it's job. Once there, you can use all but the two largest freewheels without scraping the derailleur cage. Apart from chain angle considerations, you don't need those bottom two freewheels as there is enough overlap with the middle chainring to render them pointless. And top speed? I've passed 70 km/hr and wasn't pedalling particularly quickly so yes, I'm happy with the top speed.

The small chainring, the granny gear, is a 30 tooth job - you may want lower for heavy weight touring, but for normal road work, it's fine (and we've got some nasty hills around here). The change onto and off it again needs a positive press and hold of the levers but if you are positive, there are no dramas, even under load. Once again, you can access all but the two smallest freewheels without the front derailleur cage scraping - I've never felt any need to use more than the four largest freewheels while on the granny gear.

The rear cassette is a 9 speed job and provides a broad range of ratios from high speed to pulling stumps. The seven top freewheels are close ratio offering you the right gear at any time - I can adjust my cadence by 5 revs simply by changing gear, and the rear derailleur just skips over them as though by magic. There is a larger step down to the second largest freewheel, followed by a close shift to the largest.

I find the entire gear system perfect for my needs - general purpose riding on the flat and around a very hilly area.

As I said earlier, the brakes are fantastic. The Ultegra levers fit into my hand beautifully and have a good, chunky feel to them. My hands aren't overly large but those with small hands may find them oversized. I spend most of my life riding the hoods and emergency stops are a breeze from there, as is fine modulation of braking power.

The brakes have been adjusted so that there is a lot of play before they begin to bite. The 'braking zone' is quite broad, a result of the brifter/V-brake/cam set up but this allows you a tremendous amount of feel. I recently had to stop very quickly from 70 km/hr with a heavy load on the back and a busy road in front of me - I could feel the rear lighten but such was the feel that controlling the amount of lift was more of interest than a concern. The large amount of play allows me to ride the hooks with my fingers on the brake levers but no braking in force - a great comfort when belting down a steep hill, especially as this allows you to change gears without releasing the levers.

I bought this bike to be a workhorse, to take me training, to take me cruising, to play boy racer with my son and to dawdle along with my girlfriend, to ride light but be able to carry a load if needed. A randonneur. The Trek520 fills that role to perfection. Sure, she's pricey but I'll be loving her for many years and she'll still be filling that role.

Richard poor but happy