Bling Build: Gernot's Trek 970 Singlespeed

This isn't the first bike that we've featured that was born out of an idea of a bike and a few parts that were kept around for years.  Gernot, like many of us, likes the idea of a simple singlespeed built around a 90's mountain bike frame.  And what's not to like about a simple bike that's fun to ride, makes the easy trails hard, and makes us all think of fun times with lots of cnc'd parts and colorful anodizing? 

Eventually he found a frame that would suit his purposes–an old made-in-usa Trek 970–and started filling out his parts stash with components that would match its purple graphics.  In came a purple Wolf Tooth seat clamp and chainring bolts, purple alloy nipples, and an old purple-anodized aluminum bottle cage. 

To complement the dark gray color, he went with Polished Paul Component WORD rear and High Flange front hubs and Love Levers (he's still waiting on Paul brakes to become available, and for the moment, the shiny-silver Shimano BR-M739 V-Brakes work just fine).  A final  it of Paul kit is the set of black Chim Chims barends–complete with some matches for...well for whatever you need matches for on a bike ride.

The wheels are a pretty cool part of the bike with a lot of creative license taken in the form of the miss-matched hubs and spokes.  The high-flange front hub is laced with black DT Swiss Revolution spokes to the Velocity Cliffhanger rim.  The rear, however, uses Paul's low-flange WORD hub laced with silver Revolution spokes.  Both get purple nipples and matching purple DT Swiss spoke stickers though.  This is how we get to see the whims of the builder, and we love it!

To make the frame–which has vertical dropouts, as you might expect–into a singlespeed, Gernot picked up one of Phil Wood's Philcentric bottom brackets, which offsets the bottom bracket spindle, allowing you to tension your chain in a super-clean way.  Because he wanted to maintain the overall feel of the parts, but had to use a 24mm bottom bracket spindle to work with the bottom bracket, he went with an older Race Face Deus XC crankset.  Its silver arms look like they came right off of the CNC mill, making it a great complement to the overall look of the bike.

With all of the Paul parts, and the Phil Wood bottom bracket, it's only fitting to put a White Industries headset and freewheel on the bike and round-out the made-in-California aspect of its parts.

To round the bike out, the seatpost and stem are handled in classic fashion by Thomson Elite bits, and it's even got a WTB SST Ti saddle on it.

SPECS

• Frame: Trek 970
• Fork: Vicious Cycles steel
• Stem: Thomson Elite
• Headset: White Industries EC34
• Front hub: Paul High Flange front hub, 36 hole, polished
• Rear hub: Paul WORD rear hub, 36 hole, polished
• Spokes: DT Swiss Revolution, silver rear, black front
• Rims: Velocity USA Cliffhanger, black, machined sidewall
• Freewheel: White Industries ENO Freewheel
• Cranks: Race Face Deus XC
• Bottom bracket: Phil Wood Philcentric
• Pedals: Shimano XTR PD-M9120
• Seatpost: Thomson Elite
• Brakes: Shimano BR-M739
• Brake Levers: Paul Love Levers, polished
• Handlebar: Surly Torsion Bar, black
• Bar ends: Paul Chim Chims, black
• Tires: Bontrager (soon to be replaced with something more capable)
• Seat clamp: Wolf Tooth QR, purple
• Grips: Oury
• Saddle: WTB SST 98

Do you have an older bike that you want to take up a whole bunch of notches to make something special?  One of the many great things about the parts that we sell is that there are lots of them that will help you adapt older bikes to newer standards, convert to single speed, or help with many other types of conversion.  Head over to avt.bike to get started today.