After some time, road bikes may look a little worse for wear and the value in them may be hard to see, however, by following some simple techniques, they can restored to their former glory. In this video, Sam Gupta saves a Trek 1.2 road bike and goes through the entire process of restoring the frame and then building it back up to once again to be fully useable.
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00:00I saved this road bike from the bin and I'm going to restore it to its former
00:05glory. Now it does need quite a lot of work to get it right but I have a good
00:10feeling that it will actually shape up pretty well. I don't have too much
00:15information on what this bike is but I believe that this is a Trek 1.2 from the
00:20late noughties maybe 2009 maybe 2011 but before any components can be attached to
00:29this bike I need to make sure that this frame is safe straight and solid and not
00:36to mention this headset definitely needs replacing. So my first port of call was
00:44to go and see the legends over at Velo Atelier and most importantly that man
00:49being Lee Prescott and that's because I wanted him to take a look at the frame
00:53and make sure that the frame was actually safe and to ensure that it
00:58hadn't been in a crash. So the very first thing that we did was that he got
01:02his frame alignment tool out and then checked to see if everything was straight.
01:07Now you do this both sides to make sure that essentially the seat stays haven't
01:12been hit and that the frame itself hasn't been in an impact and then you
01:17compare it to the other side and make sure that they line up and happily Lee
01:20said that actually this was within a millimeter of perfection and something
01:25that he would be happy to see come off one of his jigs. He also went to the
01:29trouble of checking the dropout alignment as well to make sure they were
01:32straight and as you can see they too were also dead on. Now that we worked out
01:37the frame itself was actually in really good shape we then cracked on with
01:41changing the bottom bracket. Now I have no idea how many miles this bottom
01:44bracket had done in fact it did actually feel pretty smooth but my thinking was
01:49if I'm gonna be building this thing up I think it would be really good to start
01:52it from fresh. So we pulled out the old one and as you can see it all needed a
01:57bit of a cleanup so our first job was to clean those threads and make sure that
02:02there was nothing in there. We also then decided that we'd face the bottom
02:05bracket shell again to make sure that when we fitted a new bottom bracket it
02:09was going to be mating perfectly to the surface of the frame and going in
02:14completely flush. When it comes to facing a frame you tend to go at it one side at
02:19a time and in this instance it gave a really good opportunity to actually
02:23remove all of the paint that was still sat on the frame from when it came out
02:26of the factory. Then once we removed all of that paint you could see a perfectly
02:31finished metal surface which is eventually what the new bottom bracket
02:36will set against and of course once you've done one side you then move on to
02:40doing the next side and oh there was so much paint that came off of this frame
02:44that it resulted in a really really good finish. Once the shell itself was
02:51prepared it was then ready to actually put some grease in there ready for the
02:55new bottom bracket and Lee being ever the professional made sure that
02:59everything was fully clean and then injected the grease into the shell and
03:03then wiped it around to ensure an even coverage and then he screwed in both of
03:07the cups before finally getting the tool on it to tighten it up correctly and
03:12then there we have it we have a fully faced bottom bracket shell with a brand
03:17new bottom bracket. Lee also actually had the forethought to have a look at the
03:22seat tube which is something that I hadn't really thought of but I'm really
03:26glad that he did because it was actually very gritty inside so he cleaned off the
03:30seat post and then he got his drill with an attachment and then cleaned out the
03:34inside of the frame before re-greasing the seat post and then sliding it back
03:39inside the frame. Next up it was the headset and when I tell you that this
03:45headset caused us some issues that is really really an understatement I mean
03:49to quote Lee he was saying that this is one of the worst headsets that he's had
03:53in a very long time. Those cups I think might have been in there since the bike
03:59left the factory because the galvanic corrosion holding those cups in place
04:04was really really strong. The bottom cup wasn't as bad as the top because the top
04:10cup really took a lot of time to knock it out of place. We did have to use a
04:16blowtorch in the end just to warm up the metal just so that you can kind of
04:20create that space but finally finally we did get both cups out and then we could
04:27crack on with getting that head tube faced. As with the bottom bracket shell it
04:34was very much a case of removing a lot of the factory paint just to expose that
04:38nice clean metal surface underneath. Now the really good thing about doing a head
04:42tube is that you've not only surfaced the actual tops of the tubes but you
04:46also do the inside of it as well so it just ensures that when you put some new
04:51cups in you've got a brand new surface on every single level. After that the
04:56frame was done and it was over to me to complete the rest of the build so we'd
05:01had a new bottom bracket shell in, we'd checked that the frame hadn't been in a
05:04crash and was all still fully aligned and we had a perfectly prepared head
05:08tube. So my first port of call when we got back to our own workshop was
05:12actually to give the frame a bit of a clean because it hadn't been cleaned
05:15since I retrieved it from the bin. Now that the frame had a whole lot less dirt
05:20on it the first job that I needed to do was fit that new headset. Now take this
05:24as a word of warning this is by no means a how-to on how to fit a headset because
05:29I really did break quite a lot of rules but of course the first thing that I did
05:35was grease up the cups and also put some grease on the inside of the head tube. As
05:40you can see the tool that I'm using isn't actually a headset press this is
05:44actually a pretty rudimental Park Tool bottom bracket press. Ideally with a
05:49headset press you'd have some alignment tools which means that the headset cups
05:54go into the frame completely straight. So obviously when I did this job I was
05:58having to pay incredibly close attention to ensure that those cups were
06:03going into the frame straight and weren't at an angle. Happily after quite
06:09a few attempts I did manage to get them in and they did go in straight which was
06:12great but of course this was by no means the correct way to do the job and you
06:17should definitely always be using the right tools for the job. Once I'd done
06:23that bottom cup I then moved on to doing the top cup in that very same dodgy
06:27process and of course I guess the only good thing that I did do was making sure
06:33that all of the logos were lined up on the head tube itself but I mean arguably
06:37that's a very small detail. After that I wanted to prepare the fork so I grabbed
06:41some isopropyl alcohol and then cleaned it all off from all of the old grease
06:45and debris. I then added a little bit of grease to the bottom of the crown and
06:50then also the bearings that were going to be sitting within those headset cups.
06:54Once all the bearings were in place it then did give me the opportunity to see
06:58how it was going to fit with the stem and also see how much excess stearotube
07:03I had. From there I then just marked out how much I could lose and then started
07:08to cut off the the excess stearotube. Basically the main reason why I did this
07:14is because quite frankly I just didn't need the excess so there was no real
07:18need to keep it and plus personally I just think that it looks a little bit
07:22better rather than having a bit of a chimney on top of your stem. Of course
07:27once that bit of stearotube was removed I had the job of just cleaning up the cut
07:31and removing all of the burrs. It was quite an easy job to do but there's one
07:36extra part that I then had to do was also fit a brand new star nut to the
07:41stearotube itself and then I could do a little test fit with the stem and it all
07:45lined up perfectly. From there it was very much a case of just getting
07:49everything bolted onto the frame so that included popping in the bars and
07:53yes I have decided to go with some straight bars just to make it more of a
07:57hybrid run around town kind of bike. That was then followed by the brake levers,
08:02the gear shifter because I'm gonna be running a 1x11 setup on here and then I
08:08also bolted on the saddle and the rear derailleur. Next up was fitting both of
08:12the brake calipers and then I also followed that with the chainset as well
08:16so again just needed to lube that up a little bit with a bit of grease and
08:19spread that over the spindle before then sliding it into place through
08:23that brand new bottom bracket, torquing up the bolts and then making sure to
08:28remember to put that little plastic clip down on the non-drive side crank. Again
08:33to match with the hybrid nature of this bike which I don't know if it will stay
08:37like this forever but for the time being I thought actually putting some flat
08:40pedals on here does make quite a lot of sense just so you can hop on and off
08:44quite easily. I then popped in some wheels now these wheels actually came
08:48from my winter bike which to be honest has kind of ended up on the wall
08:52because these wheels just haven't really been being used so I thought let's
08:56utilize these because quite frankly they weren't doing anything else. It was at
09:00this point that I decided let's start cabling up so I did the front brake
09:03first followed by the rear shifter. Now eagle-eyed viewers amongst you might
09:07have noticed that I've made a bit of a mistake so drop it in the comments if
09:10you can see what I've done at this point. It was then very much a case of just
09:15threading the cable through the frame, popping it through the rear derailleur
09:18and I'd already set the limit screws so the derailleur was itself in shape. It
09:24was now just a case of getting the cable tension correct. One of the few things
09:28that I did spend money on was a brand new 11 speed chain. Of course you don't
09:33really want to be using secondhand old chains but that also meant that I had to
09:37measure the chain as well. Now I tend to go for the method of getting the chain
09:42on both of the biggest sprockets and then adding three links. I've always
09:46found that that's worked for me and in this case it worked once again. I then
09:51popped the quick link in and then I just needed to snap it into place which is
09:54pretty easy to do. Next up I just wanted to go through and make sure that
09:59everything was kind of aligned so I worked on the compression of the stem to
10:03make sure that there was no play in the headset and then I worked on the angle
10:06of the brake levers. Now you will notice that the rear brake has not been cabled
10:11up and as any good home mechanic will know you often end up not having all of
10:15the parts right when you need them so I needed to go and get myself a new rear
10:19brake cable so I could complete the job on the following day which is why now
10:23you can see that the lighting's changed and yes I have come back on another day
10:27to finish the job once I had all of the parts that I needed. So I got myself a
10:32brand new rear inner cable and some outers and then once they were all cut
10:36to size I then threaded that through the frame and got them all lined up. Now
10:42that those brakes were cabled up I could go about the job of making sure that the
10:45pads were aligned and were feeling nice and grippy. Finally I could get towards
10:50some of the finishing touches like fitting the grips. So again use the
10:54little bit of isopropyl alcohol just to make them slide on nice and easily
10:57because again of course that fluid will essentially evaporate off and then
11:01they'll be on there nice and solid but again viewers can you spot the mistake
11:05that I made? So eagle eye viewers amongst you will have noticed that I put the
11:12shifter on the wrong side of the brake lever so what I did is I quickly slid
11:17off the grip and then moved the shifter to the other side of the brake lever and
11:21then everything basically fell into place. So there we have it that is pretty
11:25much my bin bike to now salvaged hybrid bike. I'm really excited to start riding
11:31this thing and seeing how it performs out on the road. I did give it a little
11:35spin around the car park and it does feel really nippy. The stem might be
11:39ever so slightly too long for me I think maybe I could do with one which is about
11:4310 or 20 mil shorter. What this project really allowed me to do was to save a
11:48lot of the components that I'd kind of had built up and were kicking about.
11:51There are only a few things that I had to buy from new. Those being the headset,
11:56the bottom bracket, the chain, those brake levers and the handlebars.
12:02Everything else I either already owned or I was able to get for an amazing
12:06price from Facebook Marketplace. I think in total I don't think I spent more than
12:10a hundred pounds on this build so I'm really happy with the amount of money
12:15that essentially I've been able to spend to save this bike. One thing that did
12:20really surprise me was just how light the bike was. Despite not using any real
12:23high-end components apart from maybe that Ultegra rear mech, everything was
12:28pretty basic and the weight of the bike came in at just 7.8 kilos. Now that has
12:35got me thinking that actually I could probably save quite a lot of weight off
12:38of this build so I'm gonna have a little hunt around for some maybe some carbon
12:43tubular wheels and perhaps maybe some carbon finishing kit if I can find
12:49anything for a really good price. To be honest I'm really happy that I've been
12:53able to create this bike and save this bike and I think it just shows how easy
12:57and pretty accessible it is to do. Sure you might need a mechanic to help you
13:01out with some of the more complex jobs like fitting a bottom bracket or a
13:05headset but I think a lot of the other things especially on these older frames
13:09cabling things up it's really easy to learn how to do and there's so many
13:13resources online that allow you to learn how to do these things with some fairly
13:18basic tools. So let me know what you think of this build down in the comments
13:22below. If you enjoyed the video then please do drop it a like, subscribe to
13:25the channel for more content and I will see you again very soon.