The Internet sent me a big box yesterday. Once the kids were down, I unpacked this beautiful creature, did some inspection and a little grime-fighting, and put it back together. The serial number and components suggest it’s a 1996 Trek 970SHX, featuring a Shimano LX/XT drivetrain, RockShox Quadra 21R fork, and Trek System components (mostly made by Bontrager I believe). I did a quick photo shoot on the way into work this morning, take a look.

Gimme the left profile… thaaat’s it… perfect.

12 years old and It’s in almost-showroom condition. I think there’s some scratches on the decals, but other than that it’s pristine. I can’t wait to take it apart, clean off the little bit of road grime on it, and give it some fresh grease. It’s gonna shine.

Alright now show me the drive side… oh you know you got it goin’ on.

The 970’s an outstanding steel hardtail frame. This particular year isn’t as collectible as some of the others (like f’rinstance 1992, The last year of the lugged frame, with a 1-1/8″ threadless headset), but it’s still a great bike. Folks who bought it new typically paid between $1000-$1200 for it, and most of them give it 5 stars (or, in this case, chilis) after thousands of miles of riding. I feel like I walked up to the eBay craps table and hit a yo on the come out roll. One hundred sixteen dollars and fifty freaking cents, and eighty bucks to ship it. Win.

True Temper’s triple-butted OX III Comp tubing, lovingly welded in the U.S. of A.

The triple-butted True Temper OX III Comp tubing (comparable to Reynolds 853) is strong, light, durable, and has great ride characteristics. The steel was made in America, and the bike frame was made in the U.S. too. Waterloo, Wisconsin I believe. What’s more American than that?

XT Derailleur, little bit of road grime, otherwise perfect condition.

The drivetrain’s in near-perfect condition. The teeth are perfectly shaped, the chain’s in great shape, the cassette barely looks broken in. The XT rear derailleur looks like it’s been out of the box for less than a hundred miles, other than some dirt the finish is still newish. There’s not a single chip anywhere on the chrome of the front derailleur.

Not a scratch!

You can see a little bit of road grime on the chainstay from the degreasing I did this morning. Otherwise, not a scratch on it, no chainsuck scars, nothin’. Unbelievable. I’ve seen showroom demo bikes with more scars on the chainstay. The pads on the LX cantilever brakes look like LX metal refillable shoes, and I’m pretty sure the pads are original, and barely worn. The seat is a Bontrager Plus 10, it’s not bad, and I chuckle when I see “plus10″ on it, reminds me of “Dan Rather, plus three”.

Grip Shift X-Ray shifters, Trek rubber grips, Trek System bar ends by Bontrager

Even the grips don’t show any signs of wear or nicks or anything. The bar-ends are comfy and perfect, they have a few scratches on them from leaning on things, but no serious nicks from falls or hits. The rims need truing, but not much, and the hubs are in great shape. Oh, did I mention that it came with a cyclometer?

I was up until about 1:30 am last night putting it back together. This morning, I made a couple adjustments here and there, threw some Wellgo studded platform pedals on it and let it run the commute. The ride was outstanding, so much fun. I left the big-ass Psycho II offroad tires on it, so it’s kind of a tractor on the road, makes that whirring sound of pavement being eaten up by knobbies when it gets up to speed. But every time I left the road to climb a hill or cut across dirt or grass, the ride became Cadillac-esque, I mean just superb. And the steering is quick.

[Update]: Updates and modifications were made this weekend to civilize this beast a bit and dial it in:

• Trued both wheels and replaced the tractor-like Psycho II’s with WTB All Terrainasaurus tires, which have a smooth centerline but plenty of knobs to handle unpaved surfaces.
• Replaced the rock hard, taint wrecking Bontrager saddle with an oh-Lord-this-is-good WTB Laser V.
• Replaced the flat stem and bars with a higher rising Salsa stem and some CroMo riser bars to gain about 3 inches of height and give the bars some comfy rear sweep.
• Replaced the GripShift shifters with an old set of Deore XT 8-speed Rapidfire shifters.
• Replaced the stock DiaCompe brake levers with Deore XT two-finger brake levers.
• Replaced the old bar ends and rubber grips with new bar-ends and bar-tape.
• Replaced all the brake and shift cables, replaced housing where needed and re-greased all of it.

Getting to wrench on it for several hours was good for the bike and good for my soul in and of itself, but the improvements have been dramatic. I rode in this morning with a huge smile on my face. Not only is this thing happy to be eating up trails and meadows, and better behaved on pavement, but the cockpit improvements, riding position, saddle and tire upgrades all contributed to significantly increased yields of Woohoo!.

[Update Again]: Photo of Clovis with new cockpit, saddle, and tires. Steel springs to replace elastomers in the fork are on their way straight from the Internet. Neat.

Clovis, sporting upgrades

[Update Again Again]:

Out with the old…

Old rotten elastomer springs

…in with the new.

New awesome steel springs

Everything I know about mountain bike racing would fit in the unused neurons of a common garden slug, but there are some folks I enjoy reading that know lots about it.

FatCyclist is posting his race report (a bit at a time) of the epic Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race in Colorado, which he did on a freakin’ single-speed. Much like the Great Divide Race article I posted on earlier, it’s inspiring and it’s making me hungry for trails.

Linked from there was this short video documentary of 7-time Tour De France winner Lance Armstrong and 5-time Leadville 100 winner Dave Wiens pushing each other way out in front of everyone else. Great photography, commentary, and soundtrack, plus Lance Armstrong admitting at the end that he told Dave Wiens to go on without him when he ran out of gas. Ever think you’d hear Mr. Armstrong saying, “I can’t do it.” and mean it? Crazy-ass superhumans, they are, both of ‘em.

My friend Carl and I used to ride from up to Ojai from the beach in Ventura, and then up into Matilija Canyon along the creek. He still rides that GT Avalanche, I haven’t seen my beautiful old Trek 970 in probably 14 years. But I can remember vividly, like it was last week, climbing those trails, flying down the fire roads, rear end drifting precisely around the turns, hopping from one tractor rut to the other at high speed, coming around a turn into a meadow and resting on a boulder next to the burblin’ brook.

Good times, maybe something I’ll get to enjoy again, but clearly nothin’ like the mayhem they were stirring up in Leadville. Check out Fatty’s race report and then watch a couple freakish superhumans go at it in the Colorado Mountains.