Trek 2300 Dating

I said:

I'm about to go check out a bike a friend is thinking of
buying. It's a Trek 2300 (bonded carbon/aluminum) with
Shimano 105 componentry. It has 7 speeds and downtube
shifters.

I'm thinking early '90s. When did Shimano introduce
105 8-speed?

Also, from the (poor quality) picture I've received it
appears as though the brakes may be dual pivot. When were
these introduced?

And while we're at it, googling turned up some info
regarding galvanic corrosion in the bonded joints of early
2300s. This was supposedly cured by bonding a layer of
fibreglass between the carbon fibre and the aluminum lugs.
Does anyone know when Trek implemented this fix, and how to
identify these later 2300s?

jeverett3<AT>earthlink<DOT>net
home.earthlink.net~jeverett3Open ↗

John Everett said:

When did Shimano introduce 105 8-speed?

When I bought a bike in 1993, the bike shop told me that
1993 was the first year that 8-speed was available in the
105 group. They also offered a down-tube shifted 7 speed 105
group that year according to the shop. I'm not sure I
believe that second bit of info, but it is certain that a
bike with 7-spd 105 was 1993 or earlier.

That bike was a Specialized carbon fiber with Al lugs. The
frame eventually corroded. It appears that Specialized
didn't have that problem figured out for the 1993 model
year. Sorry, I don't know about Trek.

Hope this helps.

--
Dave dvt at psu dot edu

John Everett said:

I'm about to go check out a bike a friend is thinking of
buying. It's a Trek 2300 (bonded carbon/aluminum) with
Shimano 105 componentry. It has 7 speeds and downtube
shifters.

I'm thinking early '90s. When did Shimano introduce
105 8-speed?

Also, from the (poor quality) picture I've received it
appears as though the brakes may be dual pivot. When were
these introduced?

jeverett3<AT>earthlink<DOT>net
home.earthlink.net~jeverett3Open ↗

Dear John,

Carbon-dating isn't accurate for dating within living
memory. Besides, Trek may kill their bicycles and store the
carcasses years in advance of actually attaching wheels and
selling them to the public, so the carbon-14 content
analysis would not--

Oh, you mean something else.

This site might help decode a serial number into a date:

vintage-trek.comSerialNumbers.htmOpen ↗

Carl Fogel

Quoted message said:

When did Shimano introduce 105 8-speed?

I've got a 1991 2100 which was equipped with 105 7s downtube
shifters. As I recall the 1991 2300 had Shimano 600
components.

Quoted message said:

Also, from the (poor quality) picture I've received it
appears as though the brakes may be dual pivot. When were
these introduced?

The 105 brakes on the 1991 2100 were dual pivot, but I never
liked the feel of these brakes.

Quoted message said:

Does anyone know when Trek implemented this fix,

and how to identify these later 2300s?

I haven't had any problems with the bonds on this bike,
although I haven't ridden it much in the last 4 years.
Against the advice of several posters I crammed a 130mm rear
hub in the rear triangle (which was spaced at 126mm) in 1994
to allow an upgrade to 8s and then to 9s and I haven't had
any problems.

Cheers,

Chip

Quoted message said:

And while we're at it, googling turned up some info
regarding galvanic corrosion in the bonded joints of early
2300s. This was supposedly cured by bonding a layer of
fibreglass between the carbon fibre and the aluminum lugs.
Does anyone know when Trek implemented this fix, and how
to identify these later 2300s?

Having sold quite a few thousand three-tube-carbon TREKs,
I'm not aware of a galvanic corrosion problem that caused
failures of the carbon tube/aluminum lug joint. Regarding a
fiberglass sleeve, it was my impression that was implemented
from the very first ones off the line.

I have seen a tube separate from the lug, but it wasn't from
any sort of corrosion; rather, it appeared to have been
caused by too-tight a fit between the two, causing the
adhesive to squeegee out. All corrosion I've seen has been
on the outside of the lug, particularly where the lug
interfaces with the headset cups.

TREK warrants all of their frames for life, but only for the
original owner. Thus, if it's a bike you purchased new, I
wouldn't worry much about it. But if you're buying a used
bike from someone, the lack of a warranty is definitely
something to consider.

--Mike Jacoubowsky Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com IMBA, BikesBelong, NBDA member

"John Everett" <[email hidden]>
wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I said:

I'm about to go check out a bike a friend is thinking of
buying. It's a Trek 2300 (bonded carbon/aluminum) with
Shimano 105 componentry. It has 7 speeds and downtube
shifters.

I'm thinking early '90s. When did Shimano introduce 105
8-speed?

Also, from the (poor quality) picture I've received it
appears as though the brakes may be dual pivot. When were
these introduced?

And while we're at it, googling turned up some info
regarding galvanic corrosion in the bonded joints of early
2300s. This was supposedly cured by bonding a layer of
fibreglass between the carbon fibre and the aluminum lugs.
Does anyone know when Trek implemented this fix, and how
to identify these later 2300s?

jeverett3<AT>earthlink<DOT>net
home.earthlink.net~jeverett3Open ↗

John Everett said:

I'm about to go check out a bike a friend is thinking of
buying. It's a Trek 2300 (bonded carbon/aluminum) with
Shimano 105 componentry. It has 7 speeds and downtube
shifters.

Check the aluminum rear seat lug. These can crack eventually
on the carbon/aluminum 3-tubes TREK 2300 bikes.

ece.ubc.caP1010058.JPGOpen ↗

- Don Gillies San Diego, CA