I've looked at the Trek Hilo and also the Equinox.
First off, when the Hilo came out it struck me as a somewhat tongue-in-cheek, underhanded stab at the Quintana Roo Kilo.
The Kilo was arguably the first "real" triathlon specific bike (after that 80 degree seat tube angle one, what was that called?) designed for use with aero bars primarily by Dan Empfield, founder of Quintana Roo (now owned by ABG after being sold by Hyde Athletic [Saucony]who bought it from Dan E. if I have my story straight). I thought that was, well, kind of tacky and of questionable intention or integrity. Trek seemed to have done the "Def Leppard" thing: Ever notice that "Def Leppard" and "Led Zeppelin" have similar pentameter and vowel/consonant configuration? That was purposeful on the part of Def Leppard's record label- they hoped to foster some subliminal association between the two. I think Trek was attempting the same thing by calling their triathlon bike the "Hilo" when Dan's was called the "Kilo" (because the early versions weighed 2.2 pounds). IMHO that's lame.
Secondly, the Hilo had the oddest geometric configuration per frame size- I couldn't get any of the sizes to fit anyone very well. It was just "weird". Even the huge sizes had 650c wheels. The small sizes had impossibly high head tubes and, if I recall correctly, there was something weird about the top tube lengths too- I think they were all way too long per frame size unless you had a phenomonally long torso (in which case then the head tube was still too high). The proportions were just all wrong on the darn thing.
Trek took a year off from triathlon bikes. I was told by a rep they did this to "Spend a year studying triathlon bikes and what the triathlete needed" and that they were going to come back with something "Very special and well thought out". Boom, the Equinox.
Well, I looked at the Equinox too since its introduction. Now, in fairness, I should point out that I own a bike shop that sells some Trek products (Fisher and Lemond bicycles) but I don't sell the Trek brand. I like the OCLV road bikes. When I looked at the Equinox my first reaction was "This is Trek's 'well thought out' contribution to triathlon bike technology?" I was dramatically underwhelmed. The proportions and angles continue to be weird. Trek seems to have done the political thing and built it with a mitigated "kind of steep, but not too steep" seat tube angle so you could argue both sides of the steep/shallow issue. It's a fence-sitter. Like anything when you try to please everyone, you often don't please anyone. The Equinox seems caught in that "no man's land" of not quite a tri bike, not quite a road bike. Also, I thought the cable routing was, well, rough. The whole project looked "banged out". It didn't look like much thought went into it. It looks like the kind of bike for the Trek rep to go into a big Trek dealer and say, "Hey, look at what I have for you to sell to those triathloner people who are spending all that money- a genu-ine, died in the wool triathloner bike. Now you don't have to keep talking to all those ABG/Felt/Cervelo people! You can buy all your bikes from Trek! Now, what can we do to get those Bell and Giro helmets out of your store and bring in a couple hundred Trek helmets to get you to the next wholesale buy-in program level?"
So, in short, the Equinox was disappointing considering Trek's capabilites. I thought a (comparitively) minor player like X-Lab (with their interesting new Mach 2) and Guru and Argon 18 and a bunch of others had more technically credible triathlon offerings at Interbike this year. The Equinox struck me as lip service to the tri market.
If I were Trek, I would be more worried about how to stay on the brand awareness radar after Lance's sixth tour win in 2004 and his subsequent retirement from the sport. Then Treks won't be featured in Subaru, Britol Meyers Squibb, OLN, and all that other lucky "co-branded" advertising they hit the jackpot with. The Trek/Lance juggernaut has been awesome, effective, powerful and raised awareness of the sport of cycling with some good bikes under a great team supporting a truly amazing athlete with a compelling story. The question in Trek marketing right now has got to be: "What are we going to talk about in 2005?" It can't be half-baked "tri" bikes with 700c wheels and 76 degree seat tube angles.
Just my .02 cents. I was hoping for more from them.
Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com