Pre-Trek Lemond Team Z Bicycle
Early 90’s pre-trek Lemond Team Z road bicycle. 60cm Columbus Cromor Italian frame built by the popular Billato Brothers. Built up with various Shimano 600, 105 and Ultegra components. I bought this for a decent price…..I think I paid a couple hundred for it. I see these Lemond Team Z replica bicycles every now and then in better condition but they are always to small. This one being a little larger, I decided to purchase it. This particular Lemond Team Z bike has a weird “sherbert” colored paint job. Although I think maybe it being in the elements took it’s toll on it. I have another Pre-Trek Lemond bike that is absolutely in magnificent condition that I was lucky to find. However, the only downfall is that it didn’t have the “Z-Poofs” on it…this one does. Therefore, I wanted one.
Weights:
Fork=835g
Shimano BB-5500 70mmx109.5mm=259g
Columbus Cromor frame=2220g
Left Ultegra Crank Arm=230g
Right Ultegra Crank Arm=464g
Shimano 105 front brake with shoes=162g
Shimano 105 rear brake with shoes=159g
Handle Bar with Quill Stem=550g
Shimano 600 RD=224g
Shimano Ultegra FD=96g
Frame, Fork, Headset, Derailleurs, Shifters
The Team Z needed a good cleaning. It’s obvious that somebody got some use out of it! Everything was reusable though except for a few items. I stripped the whole thing down and tried to sand off spots of surface rust with a Dremel. I then proceeded to clean the frame and fork with mild soap followed by 4 coats of turtle wax. Headset still worked great, I just added new grease and bearings. The STI Shimano Shifters were gunked up. I sprayed the insides with wd-40 to clean it out and rinsed it with Isopropyl Alcohol. They work great now, just need to re-lube them though. Rear and front Derailleur cleaned up nice as well. The bottom bracket wasn’t salvageable though. I had to buy a new one which I thought was a little spendy….I think it was 40 dollars. Sorry for the bad pics. I need to buy a new camera.
Bar Tape, Chain and Everything Else!!!
The older STI Shifters kind of crowds the cockpit. I’m not a fan. I’m not even sure I routed the cable and housing correctly. I guess I can deal with it though. I pretty much looked at similar bikes to choose the best option possible to route them.
I included a picture above of the stamping underneath the bottom bracket. The pre-trek Lemond bike has the size and the tubing material. In this case it’s 60cm and “C” for Columbus Cromor. From my understanding, the frame was built by the Billato Brothers in Italy and then painted and assembled by Ten Speed Imports out of Florida.
As for any issues with this project, there weren’t too many. The only real issue I had was cleaning the STI shifters. Here’s RJ the bike guy showing how it can be done. I watched another one of RJ’s youtube videos on cleaning the rear derailleur as well. The retention spring that bolts into the rear dropout was not functioning properly making the shifting horrible to say the least. I was prepared to just get a new derailleur but after watching this video by RJ and performing the same treatment on mine, the shifting worked perfectly! I’m guessing the retention spring slipped out of position, cause it didn’t seem dirty. All I know is when I cleaned it and put it back together again it worked.
In summary, I really like the look of these pre trek Lemond bicycles. There’s a lot of little details that make the eye wander. The handful of engravings on the frame are pretty cool. Also the paint scheme and decals are impressive to, especially the Z poofs!! I plan on riding the hell out of this bike so I’m excited for spring to arrive! Thanks for reading.
Updated 01/01/2019