This 1990 Trek has a 68mm BB shell, but the seller had put in a mountain BB flipped 180° (but very well greased). Remarkably, inside the shell is in near perfect shape, and I had the right BB with the same spindle length! Went in like it was a new frame!

In a resto-mood

1990 Trek Antelope 800 bike in front of my shed

So here it is! I purchased my first old bike to modify. This one doesn’t technically need much of anything because the seller pretty much cleaned it and gave it a tune up. I didn’t even get any dirt on my fingers during my detailed inspection once I got it home. Everything seems to be original except for the consumable parts and the grips/shifters, and the rack is obviously an addition (but it is Bontrager, which feels at least consistent).

I want this to slowly morph into my “second ride of the day” bike - for comfortable cruising when I’m going out to dinner.

What Do We Have Here?

According to the seller (and consistent with what I found in Trek’s 1990 catalog), this is a 1990 Trek Antelope 800. It’s the bottom version of the Antelope series, but the frame is still Tange Cro-Mo (even if the fork is hi-ten) and the complete bike feels lighter than I expected. Here’s what I’m starting with:

  • Shimano 200GS drivetrain (I think this became Altus?). 7-speed freewheel on the back, 3 chainrings up front, but they’re the kinda crappy pinned chain rings on 175mm arms. Crappy pedals.
  • The original thumb shifters and grips have been replaced by grip shifters.
  • I think the cantilevers aren’t the original 200GS brakes. Looks like nearly brand new set of Altus brakes (but an older version?).
  • I don’t think the brake levers are original either, but they’re some really nice Dia Compe control levers that feel great. They look like they were designed to nestle up against grip shifters, but as long as they don’t look goofy I could see keeping these on the future form of this bike.
  • Steel seat pin with guts seat clamp and a replacement cushy saddle. I think I’ll keep the saddle for now because it’s comfy and wide enough for the riding position I want on this bike.
  • Araya rims with 36 spokes and some Shimano low-end hubs that none-the-less spin for-eh-vurrr. Wrapped in some generic 44mm tires that have loads of tread and enough grip to ride the chunky gravel in my alleyway.

In general, everything is working great. The wheels are true enough, rust is surface level, and there are no dents or cracks. Plenty of chips (especially where there used to be a kickstand), but nothing terrible. Graphics and paint are mostly in terrific shape for its age, and I love how it looks. I can seriously ride this bike as it is. For how clean, tuned up, and immediately usable it is, I feel happy with the $75 I paid, even if it is the 800 Antelope.

Short Term Plans

  • I want to replace the crappy pedals. Thankfully, I happen to have some decent composite platform pedals with pins, and they’re a neon green that should go well with the bike’s graphics.
  • I want to replace the cranks and chainrings. These 175s are a bit longer than I’m comfortable with, and I have the 170s that came with my Space Horse. They’re some FSA thingies with a weird 120/90 BCD, but I can just put the 42T ring back on there and run it 1X for a while. Some of the teeth on the cheapo chainrings are busted, but I don’t notice it while pedaling.
  • I already have some Uncle Ron’s Ortho bars that I want on this bike, but if I use them I need a longer stem. Something like a Technomic that can give me both the length I need and plenty of height adjustment.
  • If I switch the current stem, I’ll also need a cable stop for the front canti brake since the current stem has one built in. I’ve already ordered a thin, cheap-o stem spacer cable stop, and I seem to have a regular spacer on the headset already that I can swap out.

Eventually…

  • I would like to try converting this puppy to 650b. I’ve seen success stories on Reddit from folks that did as much with Antelopes of this vintage, even squeezing in some 48mm tires! So that would mean building up some wheels.
  • Building new wheels or not, I think I’d like a bigger cassette—and an actual cassette—in the rear. It’s a 7-speed freewheel at the moment, and I just don’t want to mess with that.
  • All of this also probably means spreading the rear dropouts a little. They’re currently around 126-ish millimeters, but if I want a QR hub that’ll fit a modern HG freehub, I think I need something closer to 130 at least?

Wrapping Up

I’m thrilled to have a new project, even more so that it’s a bike I can start enjoying as I improve it. I’m not rushing it since I have rideable bikes already, and I’m not planning to go nuts on any particular parts. It’s the perfect bike to spend time collecting/hunting for parts where I can find good deals on well-loved bits that clean up well.

I leave you now with a tighter shot of those tight graphics!

<img src=“https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/149855/2026/img-8090.jpg" alt=“close up of the frame graphics on the 1990 Trek Antelope 800. The word Antelope is on the top tube and TREK on the downtube.”>

Okay, gonna write a little more about this tonight, but update: Marketplace bike purchase was a success! I’ll include some photos, details, and my short/long term plans.

Movie Memory Addendum

For the past few years I had thought the last movie I watched in theaters before COVID was the execrable Rise of Skywalker. What a way to enter a cinema-going hiatus on a downer. I was reminded today, however, that Uncut Gems was released in 2019 as well. I now recall watching that at The Byrd Theater with my friend over the holidays. So at least I saw a movie that was actually worth watching before getting stuck at home, though the infinitely rising tension really set the stage for the year ahead in a way I couldn’t have imagined.

Kind of unreasonably excited about my first potential vintage #bike pickup. If it all works out, I will post giddily about it tomorrow 😁

One Battle After Another: awesome. Tense. Great characters. Sean Penn’s best performance in ages. What a dang killer score from Greenwood. Chase Payne? I hope her career really tales off after this.

Look, drivers, you know I love you (no I don’t). But did you know that you don’t have to pass me super close on my bike just because there’s another vehicle approaching from the other direction? Did you know you have a whole second pedal for something called “brakes”?

So broadcast frame rates really are just a result of a given region’s electrical frequency, huh?

Really wish YouTube had a way for me to indicate “It’s not that I don’t like this channel, I just don’t want to subscribe and also don’t want 80% of my recommendations to be from this channel just because I watched 2 gawt dayum videos.”

Did you know that you can post positive—even joyful—things online without always prefacing your words with an acknowledgment of how shitty the world is right now?

Prometheus’ punishment for Stephen Miller, but instead of an eagle and his liver, it’s children from his least favorite countries destroying his endlessly regenerating testicles with a claw hammer.

a sticker on a sign post of a stick figure holding a sign that reads "im just Happy to be Here!"

Me too, little buddy. Me too.

Cowboy Tomi with his first vid in a while, doing up a tandem #bike real nice for some of his friends: www.youtube.com/watch

Still sick. It still sucks.

The weather in Richmond is gonna be pretty nice for January 2nd, but I’m staying off the #bike because I’m pretty sure I’ve got a head cold. I’d rather miss one day of good weather than make it worse and miss several days of any weather.

Happy new year, clowns.

Spending New Year’s Eve as befits a man of my age: barely staying awake while browsing Marketplace for old bikes and listening to my wife snore.

Spending New Year’s Eve as befits a man of my age: barely staying awake while browsing Marketplace for old bikes and listening to my wife snore.

And now both sensors! That was so fun and gratifying to fix some electronics. And reckless; it’s pretty dry in my house and I’m wearing a fleecy jacket, so I’m lucky I didn’t fry either of them with static :-P

Just successfully replaced my first Switch joycon stick that had drift issues with a Hall effect sensor stick (now that we have a Switch 2 😝). Gonna work on some more!

Yesterday my kids misheard me saying “Schwinn” as “Shween” and now it’s the only way to say it in our household.

The past few days I’ve been enjoying a super delicious coffee brought by my best friend for Christmas - the Costa Rican Las Lajas from Square One in Lancaster, PA. I finally dialed in my V60 grind and it is phenomenal.

Obligatory stop at Christmas on Wendhurst for their final year.

Two wood cutouts of snowmen. One has thin sticks for arms and a word bubble reading, “Whoa Frosty you been working out?” While the other has thick sticks for arms

Really delighted to discover that our existing Switch pro controllers work with the Switch 2.

How could I ever buy a Pillsbury crust again? Homemade crust was so much better and really not that hard the night before.

Currently: brewing more coffee while the pork loin takes a sous vide bath for a few hours.