vintage trek models

A note about Trek road bike model numbers: in general, higher model numbers mean higher original prices. This is especially true of models within a particular year.

1993+ RETAIL PRICES FOR TREKS

Suggested retail prices for Treks from 1993 to current are included in the specifications at BikePedia.com . These are listed under "Sugg Retail" for each bike. This database is a great resource.

The Trek Bike Archives , covering 2003 and newer Treks, also contains suggested retail prices.

LISTING OF TREK RETAIL PRICES BY MODEL AND YEAR

Visitors to this site have submitted the following pricing information for various Trek models at the time they were new. The prices are a combination of list prices and selling prices. (If you have any pricing on Trek steel road bike models, please send it along so it can be added here.)

WHAT IS MY USED TREK WORTH? (If "PRICELESS!" is not sufficiently accurate for you.)

eBay.com is the best practical guide. It can tell you what similar bikes recently sold for on eBay. Try search/ advanced search/ check "completed items only". This way, you get the final prices paid. Search for words like "Trek road" with words to exclude "aluminum carbon". You also can search more specifically, such as for "Trek 400". You might need to try for a few weeks to find a bike similar to yours, if it is not a common model.

To compare a local sale to an eBay sale, you should add the cost of shipping to the eBay price. A low value bike can be hard to sell on eBay for top dollar if the bike is to be shipped, as that can add $50 or more to the price.

Craigslist.org can provide some information about current prices. However, these are asking prices, not the actual price for which the bike was sold. One can search by region on the Craigslist.org site. One can search for an item on Craigslist overall (not just by region). Use a search engine (Google or Yahoo etc.) and include "Craigslist" as the first keyword. Follow this by what you are looking for. For example "Craigslist Trek 760".

A very rough measure of current selling price is to multiply the original selling price by a percentage. See the price information above for prices of many Treks when new. For bikes 1976 to about 1983, one can use a range of 40% to 70% for a bike. For bikes from about 1984 to 1990, one can use 33% to 50% of the original selling price. This is for bikes with good to excellent paint and in good to excellent overall condition. Condition is very important. A bike in mint condition will sell well above these ranges, perhaps at or above the original price when new. A bike in poor condition, especially one with significant rust inside and out, has little value.

The percentage for selling frames is higher than for bikes because the frames are less outdated than old components. For frames 1976 to 1983, one can use a range of 40% to 100%. For frames from about 1984 to 1990, one can use 33% to 80% of the original selling price. This is for frames in good to excellent overall condition.

The bike values above are useful only if the potential buyer is a person who appreciates a vintage lightweight or specifically, a vintage Trek. A vintage road bike offered at a garage sale might never be sold, even for a ridiculously low price, because it is unlikely the right buyer will come along. See Selling Suggestions for help in finding the right buyer.

Value can vary by season . Road bikes typically sell for more money and more quickly in the Spring and early Summer. An exception is for local sales in regions that don't have cold or rainy Fall and Winter seasons. Another exception is high end collector bikes, which tend to be season independent.

SMALL VINTAGE LIGHTWEIGHT BIKES SELL FOR LESS?

Smaller vintage road frames/bikes often do not sell for as much as a larger version of the same frame. This is true of the 21” (54cm) size and especially the 19” (48cm) frames. Nineteen inch frames/bikes can sell at a discount of up to 40% over their larger brethren. The lesser value is easily demonstrated; for example, by looking at eBay selling prices. (An exception to this general rule is for classic French and Italian bikes, which are highly valued by [older] Japanese collectors.)

Why would this be? Certainly Trek sold bikes of these sizes to willing buyers in the late 1970s and early to mid 1980s at the same price as for larger bikes. There must have been the right number of smaller men, women and kids to buy them. Are Americans that much bigger now? A recent scientific study says no. Certainly most kids, as they grow up and need larger bikes, will pass through these size ranges.

I believe older bikes are bought and kept by people interested in fixing or working on them. These owners need a bit of expertise to get the bikes properly back on the road or keep them on the road (or even just to keep them in a collection). It also takes effort and knowledge to locate replacement parts. New riders tend to buy new bikes and only slowly (if at all) learn how to repair them. For parents to buy a used bike for their (smaller) children, requires that the parents be bike savvy, which eliminates lots of potential small bike users. Bike repair and maintenance generally do not interest women (there are major exceptions to this rule), who are a major fraction of people who would use the smaller bikes.

Even if a person wanted to have a shop maintain their classic Nuovo Record, Super Record, or SunTour Superbe-equipped bike, the shops with that knowledge are rare and the parts cannot be bought from their typical suppliers.

The good news, for those of us built close to the ground, is that we can buy vintage lightweight bikes at favorable prices.

Brochures | Price Lists and Values | Trek History | Trek Timeline | Serial Numbers Component Dates | Gallery | Contact | Buy/Sell Suggestions Refurbish/Upgrade | Bike Resources | Home

*Trek is a trademark of Trek Bicycle Corporation, Waterloo, WI

All copyrights in the TREK brochures, pricelists, owner's manuals and photographs displayed on this website are the sole property of Trek Bicycle Corporation, Waterloo, Wisconsin.

All materials in this site not copyrighted by others are Copyright © 2001-2014 Skip Echert Web Associates , All rights reserved.

Vintage Trek Catalogs

Table of Contents

Here you can find all the Trek catalogs from 1976 up to 1999. If you’re looking for a specific model for a specific year, you can find them further in the article.

Trek Catalogs

• Trek Catalog 1976
• Trek Catalog 1977
• Trek Catalog 1978
• Trek Catalog 1979
• Trek Catalog 1980
• Trek Catalog 1981
• Trek Catalog 1982
• Trek Catalog 1983-1
• Trek Catalog 1983-2
• Trek Catalog 1984
• Trek Catalog 1985All-Terrain
• Trek Catalog 1985Trek2000
• Trek Catalog 1985TrekRacing
• Trek Catalog 1985TrekSport
• Trek Catalog 1985TrekTouring
• Trek Catalog 1986
• Trek Catalog 1987
• Trek Catalog 1988
• Trek Catalog 1989
• Trek Catalog 1990
• Trek Catalog 1991
• Trek Catalog 1992
• Trek Catalog 1993
• Trek Catalog 1994
• Trek Catalog 1995
• Trek Catalog 1996
• Trek Catalog 1997
• Trek Catalog 1998
• Trek Catalog 1999

History and Iconic Models

Trek started out in 1975 by providing only frames. In 1976 they would supply entire bicycles.

For many people Trek is most famous for sponsoring Lance Armstrong’s U.S. Postal team during the late 90’s up to his retirement.

But Trek already pioneered the use of carbon fiber in 1989 with the Trek 5000.

It would result in the short-lived but daring design of the Y-Foil, introduced in 1998. One of the few bikes that is designated with something more than just a number.

They were also early adopters of the mountain bike craze, with the Trek 850 launched in 1983.

Their early foray in using carbon fiber would be later used with the introduction of the iconic Y33 and Y22 models. Mountain bikes with a monocoque carbon fiber frame. Although it used the suspension technique URT ( unified rear triangle ) which would turn out to be rubbish, the original design was considered iconic.

If you’re interested in learning more about vintage Trek bicycles, please visit vintage-trek.com .

Trek Models

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Vintage Trek Bike, the 500; Better than a Peugeot?

Other Vintage Bikes , Vintage Bikes

Video Review Below:

Clash of the 501’s

I recently posted a blog about the Peugeot PH501 , though it doesn’t feel recent. It was actually in January, before the pandemic began and when normal, mask-free life was taken for granted. It seems another world, even though I’m posting this just 6 months later. These are strange days indeed, and especially now that I’m visiting America, right in the eye of the storm . The love of bikes doesn’t stop, however, and I’ve been lucky enough to restore this vintage Trek bike, a 500; it’s interesting to compare it to the Peugeot.

The opportunists

The story of Trek is impressively bold and audacious: in 1976, two Americans decided to take on the big European bike brands and win the share of the mid-range US bike market. Failure had a big part to play in the birth of the Trek brand; Dick Burke and Bevil Hogg owned 2 bike shops the previous year, but they folded and their vision of owning a nationwide chain of shops quickly ended. But great ideas can be born in the ashes of failure; instead of giving up, they decided to build their own bikes, creating hand made frames to take on the Europeans.

European Quality

I’ve owned quite a few Treks , a 410, a 500 Tri Series, a 520, a 620 and 300 Elance. I’ve been impressed with all the Treks I’ve owned, and I think I can say that the quality of all these bikes matched the Peugeots and Motobecanes I’ve also possessed. This 500 was a mid-range bike worth around $400 in 1983/84, around the same price as a Peugeot Ventoux or PH501. Trek bikes of this era are always more understated than their European counterparts, they were never flashy or ornate, but they were nevertheless handsome bikes.

What to Look For

I really like the head badge. It’s an icon of classic Trek bikes, handmade steel frames built in Wisconsin between 1976 – 1983. But you don’t find Trek bikes with half-chromed forks or stays; are there any? Neither do you find stamped fork crowns or ornate lugs on these mid-range bikes. Trek built a culture at this stage that seemed to focus on simplicity and modesty, perhaps as a deliberate contrast to the flair and é lan of French bikes.

A Mid 1980’s Peugeot Mont Cenis

American Engineering..

American engineering, specifically in transportation, always seem to be driven by the attitude that  bigger is better.  Every time I arrive on American shores, I’m struck by the size of the cars, the trucks, the motor bikes, the RVs. Classic American cars always seem to be huge, gas-guzzling monsters. Wasn’t it Enzo Ferrari who said “Jeep is America’s only real sports car”? But when it comes to a road bike, all that aggrandising goes out the window; a road bike has to be light, sleek, made with the least raw materials possible and ultra-efficient. America had no real tradition in making these machines, no distinction or identity within this field; the modesty of Trek bikes of this era seem to express a certain humility, a deliberate and respectful acquiescence, to this fact.

Brand or Bland

Prestige and patriotism count for a lot in the cycling world. I remember how I dreamed of owning the Peugeot that Robert Millar rode in the mid 1980’s when I was at school. I also wanted a TI Raleigh Team bike, because it was British and it had won the Tour de France . You can deny it all you like, but these are heavy influences on the brand of bicycle you will choose, especially if it’s a road bike. So, with this in mind, a Peugeot would have been my choice without hesitation . I’d never even heard of Trek in Britain in the decade of Millar, Sean Kelly and Bernard Hinault.

Japanese Parts

Japanese engineering has developed a great reputation over the decades. I remember, back in the 1980’s, that when something was “made in Japan”, it generally produced the reaction that it was more reliable than a British product. I don’t think this bike technology shows anything but the same story; the Japanese brand Suntour had succeeded in building their versions of Simplex, Huret and other European components, but at a cheaper cost. Trek chose to put the cost-effective first, this was their brand philosophy in this mid-range market. But I’d choose French parts, like Simplex and Stronglight, over these SR and Suntour components on this bike.

So Which One?

Personally I would go with the Peugeot. Yes, this one above hard a bent fork, but one in the same condition as the Trek would be my choice. Perhaps the Trek is the slightly better bike for the quality of the frameset and paintwork, but there’s no doubting that the Peugeot was a fine machine in it’s day. I just think it comes down to two things: aesthetics and tradition, which must make Peugeot the winner. Oh, and I nearly forgot: I prefer the French components, too.

The 70s and early 80s Suntour components outperformed and weighed less than their Europen counterparts, by miles. The only thing “Cheap” about a pre-1984 Suntour derailleur was the stigmatizing price point. The Suntour ARX is one of the smoothest shifting, durable, problem-free, mid-range, mass bike derailleurs of the early-mid 80s. There’s no comparison to performance with an equivalent Simplex SX610 or early 80s Huret Rivals. I’m saying this as someone who is also a purist and has maintained Simplex derailleurs on Peugeots in working order for years. I can disassemble, rebuild, grease, and tension one in fifteen minutes; but Simplexes have never functioned completely right without user servicing, and the mechanical knowledge of disassembly, cleaning, greasing, and tensioning of both spring bolts, even when they came new on the bike. There were serious racers in the 70s and 80s who ditched their Campagnolo rear mechs and threw a Suntour into their Campy group set, because Suntour Vs, ARXs, Superbe Pros, and even their low midrange offerings outperformed and outlasted highly overrated for the cost, pre 90s Campy derailleurs. Suntour was one of the best performance secrets in bike components for people in the know, willing to get past a Europhile bias. It’s time to admit, as beautiful as old school Euro mech is to look at on classic steel, steed, by the early 80s, Suntour and Shimano were killing them with better performing derailleurs for the price value.

I agree with you on some points, Suntour and other Japanese parts overtook most European rivals in the early 1980’s, as far as functionality is concerned. I disagree with you, however, about the Simplex criticism; I’ve always been a fan of the SJ and SX series, my experiences have always been positive with this series, much less with the plastic delrin versions. Most of all, though, is the aesthetic difference: the Simplex SX and SJ are just far more attractive than their Japanese rivals of the day. This is very important in the realms of this vintage bike culture otherwise, lets face it, we’d all be riding highly functional modern bikes with their bland but efficient mechs.

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I like old Reynolds steel Treks...

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http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250750552326&category=98084&_trksid=p5197.c0.m619 If I had the extra cash, I'd be all over this. The guy wants $135 shipping on top of whatever it'd sell for. Full DuraAce and Reynolds 531 tubes. I had an old lugged Reynolds Trek from the 80s. It was basic, simple, well-crafted. Nothing frilly. It was a well-balanced, smooth bike. I sold mine a couple years ago and have regretted it ever since.  

Me too. My first road bike was a purple steel Trek in '86. I believe the bike was an '85 model. If I ever find another I would buy it no matter the cost.  

I like those vintage steel Treks also. I like it that even their earliest catalogs gave you all the details on the frame geometry and build. And you knew who built it. I have a TX700 that I ride in Brevets and double centuries. It is very responsive and fairly light. It is kitted like a 714, with Suntour Vx and Dia-Compe 500G brakes. I have a friend at work that uses a 520 Cirrus for riding between buildings! Best of luck finding a good deal on a vintage Trek - they are still out there. Jim  

To give the ebay seller some credit, he is selling a high demand bike in a popular size in good condition. For my money, the "value" for a 531 trek is in the sport touring categories. I have a '83 614. It will fit 35mm tires, or 28s with fenders, and the 44cm chainstays and 55mm fork rake (yes, 55) make this thing the limo of my fleet.  

I havea nice 78 tx700 in a54 that rides beautifully. They are great old bikes.  

I bought an all original 87 Pro Series 560 exactly as pictured 2 years ago off CL. It's my primary ride. Because the Matrix rims had developed cracks, I had new wheels built on the existing hubs by Peter White this past summer. The ride improved significantly. These vintage Treks are wonderful frames. Have fun with it.  

Very nice bike - my first 'real' road bike was 531.  

I rode my TX700 on an 80-mile, 4500 ft vert training ride this past weekend. Now it is sitting behind me in my office at work doing the daily commute. Its a bike that is capable of doing anything well although not a quick and lively as some of my other bikes it is a bike that begs to be ridden all day (and all night). It is a good brevet bike. I would like the chance to compare it to something like that 560 Pro or a Tx900 (which I have never had the chance to ride). Best regards and keep up the vintage Treks Jim  

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‘Star Trek’: Long-Lost Original USS Enterprise Model Finally Makes the Voyage Home

The model was used for the pilot and credits of the original 'Star Trek' series.

The Big Picture

• The original USS Enterprise model has been found in a storage locker after going missing for decades.
• The model was used for the original unaired pilot and opening credits of Star Trek: The Original Series .
• Rod Roddenberry plans to restore and display the iconic starship model in a museum for public viewing.

The original model of the USS Enterprise from Star Trek: The Original Series has been located, after spending several decades missing — not in some distant region of space, but in a storage locker. The model has been returned to Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry , the son of original Trek creator Gene Roddenberry . ABC News reports that the three-foot-long model was given to Gene Roddenberry after the original Trek series ended in 1969, and graced his desk for several years before he loaned it to the makers of 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture . The model disappeared shortly afterward and remained missing until it turned up on eBay last year. It had been discovered in a storage locker by parties unknown, who contacted action site Heritage Auctions. Although the model would fetch an enormous price at auction as a one-of-a-kind pop-cultural artifact, an arrangement was made between the finders and Roddenberry, whose father died at 70 in 1991.

The model in question was the first finished model of the iconic starship; it was used for the series' original unaired pilot episode, "The Cage," which was later incorporated into a two-part episode , "The Menagerie," before it was released in full in the 1980s. It was also used for the shots of the Enterprise seen in the show's opening credits. A larger model was later created for the rest of the series; that model is currently on display at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum . Roddenberry intends for the original model to find a permanent home, as well:

"This is not going home to adorn my shelves. This is going to get restored and we’re working on ways to get it out so the public can see it and my hope is that it will land in a museum somewhere."

What Is the USS Enterprise?

The flagship of the United Federation of Planets' Starfleet, the USS Enterprise is a Constitution-class starship from the 23rd century. It was originally captained by Robert April, who appeared on Star Trek: The Animated Series before appearing in live-action for the first time in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds . April later passed on command to Christopher Pike , whose adventures are currently being chronicled in the prequel series Strange New Worlds . After Pike was promoted to fleet command, James Kirk was given command of the ship, taking it on a five-year mission that kicked off one of science fiction's most enduring franchises.

In Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , then-Admiral Kirk stole the Enterprise to journey to the unstable Genesis Planet and reunite his friend Spock's mind with his body; during that adventure, Kirk had the ship self-destruct to prevent it from being seized by the Klingons. It was later replaced by a near-identical ship, the Enterprise-A ; many subsequent Federation ships have borne the name, up to the rechristened Enterprise-J in the series finale of Star Trek: Picard .

The son of Roddenberry and actor Majel Barrett , Rod Roddenberry is the chief executive officer of Roddenberry Entertainment. He currently executive produces the latest generation of Star Trek series, including Discovery , Strange New Worlds , Picard , Lower Decks , and Prodigy .

The original model of the Enterprise is now back in the Roddenberry family. Viewers can see it in action in Star Trek: The Original Series , which can be streamed on Paramount+.

Star Trek: The Original Series

In the 23rd Century, Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise explore the galaxy and defend the United Federation of Planets.

Watch on Paramount+

The Moskva-2 was a sophisticated rollfilm camera with coupled rangefinder . It was a self-erecting folding camera for type No. 120 film rolls. Its opening button released the front door as well as a two-frame Newton-type viewfinder . Its solid sturdy metal body was covered with soft black leatherette. The camera supported two formats by means of an optional small format frame and a back with two red windows .

The camera had a rangefinder setup similar to that of German Ikonta rangefinder cameras. The special trick to couple it to the focusable lens in the folder's front standard was that its movable part was separated from the rangefinder's body on top of the camera. This separate optical part was mounted on the front standard and had to be unfolded after having unfolded the camera. The little wheel of that separate rangefinder front lens had to be used to adjust distance setting while looking through the rangefinder's ocular . The camera had a 110mm f4.5 lens in a "Moment" shutter for speeds 1 to 1/250 sec plus B mode. The shutter had to be released by pressing the button beside the film advance wheel. The button was locked after exposure until the advance wheel was turned again.

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Original ‘Star Trek’ Enterprise Model Is Found After Being Missing for Decades

The 33-inch model surfaced on eBay after disappearing around 1979. An auction house is giving it to the son of Gene Roddenberry, the creator of “Star Trek.”

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By Emily Schmall

The first model of the U.S.S. Enterprise, the starship that appeared in the opening credits of the original “Star Trek” television series , has been returned to Eugene Roddenberry Jr., the son of the creator of the series, decades after it went missing.

“After a long journey, she’s home,” Mr. Roddenberry wrote on social media on Thursday.

For die-hard Trekkies, the model’s disappearance had become the subject of folklore, so an eBay listing last fall, with a starting bid of $1,000, didn’t go unnoticed.

“Red alert,” someone in an online costume and prop-making forum wrote, linking to the listing.

Mr. Roddenberry’s father, Gene Roddenberry, created the television series, which first aired in 1966 and ran for three seasons. It spawned numerous spinoffs, several films and a franchise that has included conventions and legions of devoted fans with an avid interest in memorabilia.

The seller of the model was bombarded with inquiries and quickly took the listing down.

The seller contacted Heritage Auctions to authenticate it, the auction house’s executive vice president, Joe Maddalena, said on Saturday. As soon as the seller, who said he had found it in a storage unit, brought it to the auction house’s office in Beverly Hills, Calif., Mr. Maddalena said he knew it was real.

“That’s when I reached out to Rod to say, ‘We’ve got this. This is it,’” he said, adding that the model was being transferred to Mr. Roddenberry.

Mr. Roddenberry, who is known as Rod, said on Saturday that he would restore the model and seek to have it displayed in a museum or other institution. He said reclaiming the item had only piqued his interest in the circumstances about its disappearance.

“Whoever borrowed it or misplaced it or lost it, something happened somewhere,” he said. “Where’s it been?”

It was unclear how the model ended up in the storage unit and who had it before its discovery.

The original U.S.S. Enterprise, a 33-inch model, was mostly made of solid wood by Richard C. Datin, a model maker for the Howard Anderson Company, a special-effects company that created the opening credits for some of the 20th century’s biggest TV shows .

An enlarged 11-foot model was used in subsequent “Star Trek” television episodes, and is now part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum , where it was donated by Paramount Studios in 1974.

Mr. Roddenberry, who said he gave the seller a “reward” for its recovery but did not disclose the terms, assembled a group of “Star Trek” production veterans, model makers and restoration specialists in Beverly Hills to authenticate the find.

The group included a “Star Trek” art supervisor, Michael Okuda, and his wife, Denise, an artist on “Star Trek” television series and films, and Gary Kerr, a “Trek x-pert” who served as technical consultant for the Smithsonian during a 2016 restoration of the 11-foot model.

“We spent at least an hour photographing it, inspecting the paint, inspecting the dirt, looking under the base, the patina on the stem, the grain in the wood,” Mr. Roddenberry said.

“It was a unanimous ‘This is 100 percent the one,’” he said.

Gene Roddenberry, who died in 1991 , kept the original model, which appeared in the show’s opening credits and pilot episode, on his desk.

Mr. Kerr compared the model to 1960s photos he had of the model on Mr. Roddenberry’s desk.

“The wood grain matched exactly, so that was it,” he said on Saturday.

The model went missing after Mr. Roddenberry lent it to the makers of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” which was released in 1979, Mr. Maddalena said.

“This is a major discovery,” he said, likening the model to the ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz,” a prop that was stolen in 2005 and recovered by the F.B.I. in 2018, and that Heritage Auctions is selling.

While the slippers represent hope, he said, the starship Enterprise model “represents dreams.”

“It’s a portal to what could be,” he said.

Emily Schmall covers breaking news and feature stories and is based in Chicago. More about Emily Schmall

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Moskva-Class Cruisers

Separate design teams often attempt to meet a set of ship specifications with completely different, although equally valid, strategies. To fulfill the requirements issued in April 2169 for the successor (NX-223) to the Daedalus class, which was introduced at the end of the Romulan War, Prosser & Ankopitch proposed a ship with an extremely large, spherical command hull attached to a nearly vestigial engineering hull. The proposal from the Mikoyan-Tupolev-Dassault Bureau used a long narrow command hull with a minimal frontal silhouette counterbalanced by an equally long engineering hull.

The engineers at Tezuka-Republic decided that the division of ship's functions between a command/crew hull and an engineering hull was arbitrary and unnecessarily restricted design options. Therefore, rather than gathering all the specified facilities in a single hull, their design TR-223A spread them across two hulls, as in Daedalus , and segregated the SSWR-IV-C warp core to a "bustle" at the extreme aft end of the secondary hull. This bustle could be separated easily and quickly from the rest of the engineering hull in the event of a warp core breach. The now-unpowered warp nacelles would then be shed. In this way, the demands of safety would be met without warp dynamics being degraded either by an excessively large frontal silhouette or by longitudinal warp field imbalance.

Although the Ship Specifications Review Board praised Tezuka-Republic for its creative solution to the problem of admittedly contradictory requirements for extreme safety and improved warp performance, they were forced to disqualify design TR-223A for not precisely meeting contract specifications. Therefore, in October 2171, construction contract NX-223 for Starfleet's new cruiser was awarded to Prosser & Ankopitch for what would become the Wasp class .

However, almost no one was happy with the new Wasp ships. Even before the contract was awarded, voices within Starfleet and within industry had strongly criticized the specifications of April 2169. These critics charged that they would lead to a mediocre, albeit safe, fighting ship. Two separate classes were needed, not a single class that was neither a proper explorer nor a proper warship. When Wasp was finally launched in 2173, her performance during precommisioning trials clearly showed that the critics had been correct. Although the performance problems were related in part to the continuing unavailability of the more powerful Tezuka-Republic Hiryu ("Flying Dragon") mark III warp nacelles, Wasp was obviously not the ship Starfleet had hoped for.

In a second attempt to obtain a reliable and capable warship, new specifications (NX-374) were issued in September 2175, little more than a year after USS  Wasp had entered service. Adding to this sense of urgency were intelligence reports suggesting that the Romulans had either developed or otherwise acquired matter/antimatter (M/AM) reactors. This time the specifications put less emphasis upon safety. The original requirement for completely separate command and engineering hulls was eliminated; instead, any hull configuration was allowed as long as the warp core could be quickly separated from the rest of the ship. Furthermore, requirements for speed, acceleration, and maneuverability both under impulse power and under warp power were increased, as were performance levels for target acquisition, tracking, and servicing.

These new specifications were a clear, albeit belated, admission that the critics had been correct all along: one class could not be expected to serve as both an explorer and a main battleship. In fact, starship technology was not considered sufficiently mature for a single ship to adequately fulfill both mission profiles until 2245, when the Constitution -class heavy cruiser was launched. (The controversy continues even today in the wake of the problems of the Galaxy -class explorer.)

Luckily, the designers and engineers at Tezuka-Republic had not been idle since their disappointing loss of the Wasp contract in 2171. Instead, they had spent their time refining design TR-223A so that their new entry (TR-374A) was markedly superior to what had been submitted 5 years earlier. In particular, the new SSWR-V warp reactor allowed the bustle to be made smaller, lighter, and even more easily separable. Therefore, it was hardly surprising when in November 2176 Tezuka-Republic was awarded the production contract over designs from Shimata-Dominquez, Prosser & Ankopitch, Mikoyan-Tupolev Dassault, Monarch R&U, and Thornycroft/Ebisu for what was to become the Moskva class.

However, engineering prowess may not have been the only factor in Tezuka-Republic's winning of the contract. There were accusations that the delay in delivery of the Hiryu warp engines was an attempt by Tezuka-Republic to prevent Wasp from reaching her designed performance levels. While no conclusive incriminating evidence has come to light, the delivery of the long-awaited engines shortly before the scheduled launch of Moskva in December 2177 is certainly suspicious. Tezuka-Republic maintains that if their submission of 2169 had been selected, its performance would also have not have met design specifications without the Hiryu engines. However, critics charge that TR-223A was not as reliant as Wasp on the type of engine used. Furthermore, once the Wasp contract was awarded, and even after Wasp was launched, Tezuka-Republic certainly made no efforts to accelerate delivery of Hiryu.

These controversies were soon rendered moot as the new Moskva class was recognized as a significant advance in starship design. The most important new feature was Moskva's discoid primary hull. Earlier designs had chosen a spherical primary hull for reasons of economy. Simple geometric relationships dictate that a spherical hull has the smallest surface area for a given volume. Therefore, construction costs are lower and shields are more efficient. Furthermore, institutional inertia had led nearly all exploratory cruisers originating until that time from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the United States Astronautics Agency, the United Earth Space Probe Agency, and its successor organizations to have spherical hulls.

The designers of USS  Moskva employed a biconvex disc for several reasons. Their initial motive was to increase hull volume while minimizing both frontal and lateral silhouettes. A warship with large frontal and lateral silhouettes would be at a greater disadvantage in most tactical situations than would be a ship with an increased superior silhouette. However, the discoid hull allowed the traditional radial layout of command hulls to be retained.

More important than these tactical advantages were functional advantages. As was shown with the Wasp class, warp field geometry would have been awkward if a spherical hull with its relatively large frontal area had been used. The discoid hull was also found to channel warp field flow across its upper surface towards the bussard ram scoops of the warp nacelles. This channeling effect improved field efficiency at all power levels and speeds. As the understanding of warp field mechanics was refined, the trend towards saucer-shaped primary hulls would be intensified in later Starfleet vessels.

In most respects, the Moskva class continued design and engineering trends established in the Comet and Daedalus classes introduced at the end of the Romulan War. As in these classes, ship functions were clearly divided between a command/crew hull and an engineering/propulsion hull. The bridge was returned to its customary position atop the command hull and the shuttlecraft bay was again placed in the secondary hull. The fusion reactor was centered along the longitudinal axis of the ship, and impulse thrust ports exited immediately in front of the warp bustle detachment seam.

Weaponry was the then-standard mix of fusion-warhead missiles and lasers. New to this class was an early type of ultraphased pulse laser cannon, two of which were mounted in the chin of the primary hull. Although the on-target energy output of this new weapon approached that of early phasers, its power requirement was higher and its range was substantially less. However, subsequent refinements lead to steady improvement and, ultimately, to the development of true phasers in 2202. Although Moskva -class ships were the first to be fitted with phasers in 2204, lasers were still carried by the Moskva class and later classes until the 2220s. Finally, warp capability was supplied by the long-awaited Hiryu mark III drive units.

The first ship of the new class, USS  Moskva (NCC-374), entered service with Starfleet in April 2179. An additional 30 ships (NCC-375 to NCC-404) joined the fleet through 2183. Moskva -class ships gained immediate popularity with officers and crews. First, total laser firepower was increased some 75% over that in the preceding Wasp class. Second, because the ship's mass was more equally distributed along the longitudinal axis than in the Wasp class, Moskva was significantly more maneuverable at both sublight and warp speeds. Finally, the more warp-dynamic design allowed greater cruising and maximum speeds.

The Moskva class had an outstanding safety record. No ships were lost because of mechanical failures. However, an incident occurred aboard USS  Johannesburg in 2186 when a faulty nacelle flow monitor falsely indicated a runaway positive feedback power loop within the plasma flow governor. Believing that a catastrophic warp core explosion was imminent, Chief Engineer Roberta Bocharnikov ordered the warp nacelles and warp bustle to be separated. Although unnecessary, these maneuvers were successful in causing the separated warp core to initiate its automatic shut-down routine. The warp core, nacelles, and the rest of the ship were towed to Starbase 13, where they were successfully re-mated. Despite her supreme embarrassment, Bocharnikov oversaw the reassembly and relaunching of Johannesburg and retained her position as chief engineer.

Although most ships of the Moskva class had left front-line service by 2215, some continued to serve as auxiliaries and training vessels until the 2240s. After retirement from active duty, Moskva -class ships were used as testbeds for many emerging technologies owing to the similarities of their layouts to those of succeeding classes. USS  Moskva was the site of the first successful ship-to-surface transport of a Human being in 2206, and USS  Gato was the first ship to fire photon torpedoes in 2214. In addition, Taurus -class tugs, which entered service in 2182, and Sanford -class repair tenders, which entered service in 2185, were derived from the Moskva class and used the same primary hull and warp drive assembly.

The Moskva -class cruiser USS  Aurora (NCC-377), a participant of the Battle of Eohippus IV, is on display at the Starfleet Museum.

Standard displacement: 67,750 t

Crew complement: 160 (27 officers + 133 crew) Weapons: 8 Type VI laser turrets (8 × 1 mounts), 2 Type VII laser cannons (fixed mounts), 2 missile launchers with 36 Spartak missiles Embarked craft: 4 medium cargo/personnel shuttlecraft, 2 light personnel shuttlecraft, 5 fighter/scouts Warp drive: SSWR-V-A spherical cavity M/AM reactor with 2 Hiryu III nacelles Velocity: wf 4.0, cruise; wf 5.0, supercruise; wf 5.2, maximum Units commissioned: 31

Original USS Enterprise model from ‘Star Trek’ returned to creator’s son

The first model of the USS Enterprise, the starship that appeared in the opening credits of the original “Star Trek” television series, has been returned to Eugene Roddenberry Jr., the son of the creator of the series, decades after it went missing.

“After a long journey, she’s home,” Roddenberry wrote on social media Thursday.

For die-hard Trekkies, the model’s disappearance had become the subject of folklore, so an eBay listing last fall, with a starting bid of $1,000, didn’t go unnoticed.

“Red alert,” someone in an online costume and prop-making forum wrote, linking to the listing.

Roddenberry’s father, Gene Roddenberry, created the television series, which first aired in 1966 and ran for three seasons. It spawned numerous spinoffs, several films and a franchise that has included conventions and legions of devoted fans with an avid interest in memorabilia.

The seller of the model was bombarded with inquiries and quickly took the listing down.

The seller contacted Heritage Auctions to authenticate it, the auction house’s executive vice president, Joe Maddalena, said Saturday. As soon as the seller, who said he had found it in a storage unit, brought it to the auction house’s office in Beverly Hills, California, Maddalena said he knew it was real.

“That’s when I reached out to Rod to say, ‘We’ve got this. This is it,’ ” he said, adding that the model was being transferred to Roddenberry.

Roddenberry, who is known as Rod, said Saturday that he would restore the model and seek to have it displayed in a museum or other institution.

He said reclaiming the item had only piqued his interest in the circumstances about its disappearance.

“Whoever borrowed it or misplaced it or lost it, something happened somewhere,” he said. “Where’s it been?”

It was unclear how the model ended up in the storage unit and who had it before its discovery.

The original USS Enterprise, a 33-inch model, was mostly made of solid wood by Richard Datin, a model maker for the Howard Anderson Co., a special-effects company that created the opening credits for some of the 20th century’s biggest TV shows.

An enlarged 11-foot model was used in subsequent “Star Trek” television episodes, and is part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, where it was donated by Paramount Studios in 1974.

Roddenberry, who said he gave the seller a “reward” for its recovery but did not disclose the terms, assembled a group of “Star Trek” production veterans, model makers and restoration specialists in Beverly Hills to authenticate the find.

The group included a “Star Trek” art supervisor, Michael Okuda, and his wife, Denise, an artist on “Star Trek” television series and films, and Gary Kerr, a “Trek x-pert” who served as technical consultant for the Smithsonian during a 2016 restoration of the 11-foot model.

“We spent at least an hour photographing it, inspecting the paint, inspecting the dirt, looking under the base, the patina on the stem, the grain in the wood,” Roddenberry said.

“It was a unanimous ‘This is 100% the one,’ ” he said.

Gene Roddenberry, who died in 1991, kept the original model, which appeared in the show’s opening credits and pilot episode, on his desk.

Kerr compared the model to 1960s photos he had of the model on Roddenberry’s desk.

“The wood grain matched exactly, so that was it,” he said Saturday.

The model went missing after Roddenberry lent it to the makers of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” which was released in 1979, Maddalena said.

“This is a major discovery,” he said, likening the model to the ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz,” a prop stolen in 2005 and recovered by the FBI in 2018, and that Heritage Auctions is selling.

While the slippers represent hope, he said, the starship Enterprise model “represents dreams.”

“It’s a portal to what could be,” he said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .

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Nbc news now, 'star trek' uss enterprise model found on ebay after nearly 50 years.

The original USS Enterprise model used in the introduction of the show "Star Trek" was found after being missing for nearly 50 years. The model went missing in the 1970s and was found being sold on eBay with a starting bid of $1,000.  April 26, 2024

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