1984 Trek 890

I've been poking around trying to find a sweet Mtb for my buddy Brian, and I thought that today might be the day. I picked up this '84 Trek 890 for 40 bucks and thought it was a pretty sweet score until I got it home and was checking it out. For some reason I gave the top tube a little tap with my fingernail and I heard this strange sound, a hollow cold thud, not like the sweet bell ring ring I was expecting. I then started feeling around under the tube and discovered a huge 8" long crack running the length of the tube. Bummer! I guess it's just another one for my pile of broken frames that I might fix if I ever learn how to use a torch.
There are relatively few pics of this frame out there on the web, and it's a weird one for sure. It was made as a kind of city bike built around 26" rims. It is very similar to the 830 from '84. The front fork is much narrower at the crown than the fork on the 830 and it has adjustable horizontal drop outs instead of vertical drop outs. It also uses a clamp-on cable stop on the down tube. Other than those things it's the same as the 830, same tubes, Reynolds 501 AT, and same style of decals and placement.

As I got it:

Twisted SR crank is original
The long drops w/ really messed up adjusters:
Nice pointy lugs:

The cable stop:
I believe the Stronglight headset is original:
Cheapie "EM" Shimano shifters
The strange fork:
Interesting old tires. I think the same tire is just called the Pasela now. This is a 1.5"

Looking up to bummer city. I've never seen that before! I guess that this is seamed tubing and that the crack is on the seam. Thankfully it was cheap, but it's always sad to see a cool old bike broken like that.