Today I picked up my Trek 520 bicycle from Mello Johnny’s bike shop.

I’ve decided to refurbish/retrofit my existing bikes rather than start with a new one. The wheels were already new from my wheel building class. However, the rest of the drive train was well worn. For example, they told me the derailleur pulleys had as sharp teeth as they’d seen and I knew the rear derailleur wasn’t quite shifting down any more. I also ended up replacing bottom bracket, middle chain ring and my chain as well as putting in a new cassette.

One new toy that went with my dynamo hub in front was a USB port that threaded through the top tube. Hopefully this holds up well as would be nice to charge some USB devices on the road.

Overall was pleased with how the retrofit went and took a weekend 75 mile round-trip overnight ride down to San Marcos to try everything out. This bike has perhaps ~15,000+ miles on it and overall was pretty comfortable ride across Russia so happy to retrofit it again.