The goal was cheap, and this beauty was only $35. I opted for no suspension rather then insanely cheap old suspension.
First thing that had to go was that damn seat.
Not a great saddle but enough to rest on, and with no suspension how much weight can I keep on the seat anyways?
Next was the tricky part. I had a pair of 8 speed sora shifters from when I upgraded my road bike to 105's. The trek is an old 7 speed, and mountain bike cassette... but cable pull seems to be the same, it shifts propperly into all gears, with the last gear click on the shifter being locked out by the derailer's limiting screws.
Given this I ordered a pair of drop bars from Amazon. $10 part, $8 shipped... And while its not a race piece it seems strong, and doesn't have much weight to it.
They were a bit hard to slide through the old school threaded 1 piece stem, but eventually popped into place.
"Finished" (until it breaks).
This thing is actually damn fun. The shifting works perfect, the hoods are great grips for climbing and help to distribute your weight over the front hill much better when your going steep enough to want to lift it. The bike slightly small for me so I can still easily get my weight over the back for downhill, and it handles surprisingly well as long as you don't lean too close to the edge of the tread pattern.
