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
06:18should 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 and
07:31removing all of the burrs. It was quite an easy job to do but there's one extra
07:37part that I then had to do was also fit a brand new star nut to the stearotube
07:41itself and then I could do a little test fit with the stem and it all lined up
07:46perfectly. From there it was very much a case of just getting everything bolted
07:50onto the frame so that included popping in the bars and yes I have decided to go
07:55with some straight bars just to make it more of a hybrid run around town kind of
07:59bike. That was then followed by the brake levers, the gear shifter because I'm
08:04gonna be running a 1x11 setup on here and then I also bolted on the saddle and
08:09the rear derailleur. Next up was fitting both of the brake calipers and then I
08:13also followed that with the chainset as well so again just needed to lube that
08:17up a little bit with a bit of grease and spread that over the spindle before
08:21then yeah sliding it into place through that brand new bottom bracket, torquing
08:26up the bolts and then making sure to remember to put that little plastic clip
08:30down on the non-drive side crank. Again to match with the hybrid nature of this
08:35bike which I don't know if it will stay like this forever but for the time being
08:39I thought actually putting some flat pedals on here does make quite a lot of
08:42sense just so you can hop on and off quite easily. I then popped in some
08:46wheels. Now these wheels actually came from my winter bike which to be honest
08:50has kind of ended up on the wall because these wheels just haven't really been
08:54being used so I thought let's utilize these because quite frankly they weren't
08:59doing anything else. It was at this point that I decided let's start cabling up so
09:02I did the front brake first followed by the rear shifter. Now eagle-eyed viewers
09:06amongst you might have noticed that I've made a bit of a mistake so drop it in
09:10the comments if you can see what I've done at this point. It was then very much
09:14a case of just threading the cable through the frame, popping it through the
09:17rear derailleur and I'd already set the limit screws so the derailleur was
09:23itself in shape. It was now just a case of getting the cable tension correct. One
09:27of the few things that I did spend money on was a brand new 11 speed chain. Of
09:32course you don't really want to be using secondhand old chains but that also meant
09:36that I had to measure the chain as well. Now I tend to go for the method of
09:40getting the chain on both of the biggest sprockets and then adding three
09:45links. I've always found that that's worked for me and in this case it worked
09:49once again. I then pop the quick link in and then I just needed to snap it into
09:53place which is pretty easy to do. Next up I just wanted to go through and make
09:58sure that everything was kind of aligned so I worked on the compression of the
10:02stem to make sure that there was no play in the headset and then I worked on the
10:06angle of the brake levers. Now you will notice that the rear brake has not been
10:10cabled up and as any good home mechanic will know you often end up not having
10:15all of the parts right when you need them so I needed to go and get myself a
10:19new rear brake cable so I could complete the job on a following day which is why
10:23now you can see that the lighting's changed and yes I have come back on
10:27another day to finish the job once I had all of the parts that I needed. So I got
10:31myself a brand new rear inner cable and some outers and then once they were all
10:36cut to size I then threaded that through the frame and got them all lined up.
10:41Now that those brakes were cabled up I could go about the job of making sure
10:44that the pads were aligned and were feeling nice and grippy. Finally I could
10:49get towards some of the finishing touches like fitting the grips so again
10:53use the little bit of isopropyl alcohol just to make them slide on nice and
10:57easily because again of course that fluid will essentially evaporate off and
11:01then they'll be on there nice and solid but again viewers can you spot the
11:05mistake that I made? So eagle eye viewers amongst you will have noticed
11:11that I put the shifter on the wrong side of the brake lever so what I did is I
11:16quickly slid off the grip and then moved the shifter to the other side of the
11:21brake lever and then everything basically fell into place. So there we
11:25have it that is pretty much my bin bike to now salvaged hybrid bike. I'm really
11:30excited to start riding this thing and seeing how it performs out on the road. I
11:34did give it a little spin around the car park and it does feel really nippy.
11:38The stem might be ever so slightly too long for me I think maybe I could do
11:42with one which is about 10 or 20 mil shorter. What this project really allowed
11:46me to do was to save a lot of the components that I'd kind of had built up
11:50and were kicking about. There are only a few things that I had to buy from new
11:54those being the headset, the bottom bracket, the chain, those brake levers and
12:01the handlebars. Everything else I either already owned or I was able to get for
12:05an amazing price from Facebook marketplace. I think in total I don't
12:09think I spent more than a hundred pounds on this build so I'm really happy with
12:14the amount of money that essentially I've been able to spend to save this
12:17bike. One thing that did really surprise me was just how light the bike was
12:22despite not using any real high-end components apart from maybe that
12:25Ultegra rear mech everything was pretty basic and the weight of the bike came in
12:31at just 7.8 kilos. Now that has got me thinking that actually I could probably
12:37save quite a lot of weight off of this build so I'm gonna have a little hunt
12:41around for some maybe some carbon tubular wheels and perhaps maybe some
12:47carbon finishing kit if I can find anything for a really good price. To be
12:51honest I'm really happy that I've been able to create this bike and save this
12:55bike and I think it just shows how easy and pretty accessible it is to do. Sure
13:00you might need a mechanic to help you out with some of the more complex jobs
13:03like fitting a bottom bracket or a headset but I think a lot of the other
13:07things especially on these older frames, cabling things up it's really easy to
13:11learn how to do and there's so many resources online that allow you to learn
13:16how to do these things with some fairly basic tools. So let me know what you
13:20think of this build down in the comments below. If you enjoyed the video then
13:24please do drop it a like, subscribe to the channel for more content and I will
13:27see you again very soon.