I’ve just gotten hold of a 2007 Trek Equinox 7 frame which I’m building up for my first IM at the end of the year.
It’s the white frame as pictured, and I’m going to build it with red and white accents. I think it’s going to look pretty nice - for an Alu bike that is, and better than it came std…
Can someone pls tell me which style of BB this frame takes?
I’m planning to build it up using mainly a SRAM rival drive train. I’ve found a carbon FSA crankset I’m pretty keen on - Would the FSA chainrings mesh perfectly with the 10sp chain, or would I be better sticking with SRAM right through? Is it likely that SRAM rings would be a direct fit to the FSA cranks or does each manufacturer match their rings to cranks?
I nearly got that bikes as my first tri bike. I think it’s a great frame design for an aluminum bike. A little heavy though.
Your bike has a standard english threaded bottom bracket shell. the current crankset on that bike has an 73mm external bottom bracket.
FSA cranks work pretty well with both SRAM and Shimano components. I wouldn’t even bother messing around with crank rings at this point… but the answer is yes, you can switch chainrings on many models.
If you do buy the crank, check to make sure that you have a compatible bottom bracket. With external BB’s it’s usually a good idea to use a BB from the same manufacturer of the crank.
caution…
While just about any crank will work with this bike, you just need to make sure that the new FSA crank is NOT meant for a BB30 bottom bracket shell. BB30 is quite different from the standard bottom bracket design and is not compatible.
I like the idea of the E7 pjorn thread Brad. There must be some up spec ones out there. I’m building on a budget though so mine might lack a little in high-end bling bits. What color is yours mate? Have you got a pic?
This is how it looked as purchased (off the ST classifieds. Thanks GMAN19030).
Since then, I’ve swapped out the crank (FSA-SLK crank with <200 km on it that a buddy gave me), dropped some spacers and got a lower stem. As I said before, I just got a used Felt TTR-2 wheelset (again, off the ST classifieds. Thanks Hammydad).
Now, I’m looking for a cockpit upgrade (Vision maybe… Of course, I’m watching the ST classifieds) and a wheelcover (Rats, I hate paying full price for anything…).
A bottle cage on the aerobars and it’ll be way fast enough for my purposes… (and not all that expensive)
I’m also putting a Trek Equinox together. I bought the frame and some parts from fellow STers. It’s my first build and I’m a little intimidated by the internal cable routing but am willing to take a kick at it. My ride is orange (should make it easy to spot in transition!) with white lettering so I’m thinking of white bar tape, saddle and cables or perhaps just stick with black.
Looks like you could slow the spin of the earth down with that! thats the 2nd beutiful bike I have seen today on here! its truely a bike porn day. awesome.
I’m also putting a Trek Equinox together. I bought the frame and some parts from fellow STers. It’s my first build and I’m a little intimidated by the internal cable routing but am willing to take a kick at it. My ride is orange (should make it easy to spot in transition!) with white lettering so I’m thinking of white bar tape, saddle and cables or perhaps just stick with black.
Good luck and keep us updated.
Cheers.
Did you buy the one Steve Fleck was selling? That was a GORGEOUS bike!!! If it were my size, I’d have been all over it. Have you done the cable routing yet? I found it to be a pain in the butt; so did the guy at my LBS after I gave up and brought it to him! You should get some pics up if you’re finished with the build. I’ll try to add some of my own in the next day or so.
Just in case any of you Equinoxers decide in a moment of insanity to dump a Large frame/fork…consider it sold unless it’s red. I have wanted a black/white Large Equinox for 2 years, but Trek went on this candy apple red kick and seems stuck on it. Great looking rides!
First, thanks for the comments about my bike, I really appreciate the support. I built this up with mainly parts from the parts bin, so it was lucky I had (a few years back) nabbed a bunch of white parts from a friend.
Second… the internal cable routing wasn’t nearly as hard as people made it out to be… once I figured out the trick. There are a lot of ‘tricks’ that people on bike boards propound regarding cable routing, but none quite as simple as the one I am about to propose. When you uncoil your cable, note that it has a natural ‘cast’. ‘Cast’ is what people in the wire industry call the natural ‘arc’ of the wire. There is also helix (a more obvious naming of what it measures) and twist. But importantly here, note the cast of the wire and don’t necessairly try to straighten it (you won’t be all that successful). When you thread the cable down the entry points, aiming for the exit points, just feed it down there until you see it (or hear it) with a flashlight through the exit hole (just look for movement). Then, when you know it is at approximately the right length down the tube, use the remaining housing extending out of the entry point and twist it. This twisting causes the natural ‘cast’ of the wire to effect a fair amount of lateral and vertical movement toward the end of the housing (the end that is in the bike). Twist it around (it usually only took me 15-20 seconds) until you note the end of the housing slide around to the exit point. The housing won’t just pop out (it is a bit too rigid to make that much of a corner that easily), so take a paper clip with the end bent into a right angle, and poke the clip into the housing to guide it out the exit point. Then… push the cable through the bike just a bit more, guiding it out the exit point with the paper clip… viola! all done. This solution leverages the ‘pain-in-the-ass’ aspect of the housing that usually makes it so damn hard to route (the stiffness, the cast, etc), and applies it toward achieving the goal in a simple way. Since building my bike up, I was in the local bike shop watching a mechanic struggle with internal cable routing… gave him a quick ‘how-to’ and he was finished with the last 3 cables faster than it took me to check out with my tube. Hope this helps!
Gorgeous looking bike. I almost picked up an E9, but ended up finding a TTX. Absolutely love that bike, the all white and the oval base bar makes it look like a superbike.
I’m also putting a Trek Equinox together. I bought the frame and some parts from fellow STers. It’s my first build and I’m a little intimidated by the internal cable routing but am willing to take a kick at it. My ride is orange (should make it easy to spot in transition!) with white lettering so I’m thinking of white bar tape, saddle and cables or perhaps just stick with black.
Good luck and keep us updated.
Cheers.
Did you buy the one Steve Fleck was selling? That was a GORGEOUS bike!!! If it were my size, I’d have been all over it. Have you done the cable routing yet? I found it to be a pain in the butt; so did the guy at my LBS after I gave up and brought it to him! You should get some pics up if you’re finished with the build. I’ll try to add some of my own in the next day or so.
Yes I did buy it from Steve Fleck. Looks gorgeous so far.
I think I have everything I need but am having a heck of a time with the internal cabling specifically the deraileurs. I have routed them internally without much trouble but am having problems with tension. I don’t have any type of cable stops where the housing enters the top tube and once I pull the cables through the deraileur it pulls the housing that comes out of the aero bars and greatly reduces the turning radius (to like 0). I checked out an Equinox at the Trek store and the one on display did not have stops either. The guys at the shop are not very helpful. Can you shed some light on what I might be missing here? Pics of your top tube/cable housing set up would be grand. Also did you use 1) bare cables through the frame, 2) cable housing all the way through the frame or 3) some type of cable sleeve to route it through.
I have cable housing running all the way through the frame. One piece of housing starts at my shifters, runs into and back out of my aerobars, into the frame at the top tube and down through the frame. It then exits around the bottom bracket and runs to the cable stop (either the one for the FD or the one for the RD). I think that one cable stop should keep the housing from being pulled into the frame all the way back up around the top tube/aerobar section. I can snap some pics tonight if you need them. I was going to try to take a pic of my bike anyway just to throw it up on the thread.
Looks like my problem might be not running the cable housing all the way through the frame. I did run it for the rear brake but didn’t have enough housing to do the deraileur cables and the Trek store guys told me it should be fine bare. I’ll pick up some more cable housing and try your suggestion. I look forward to seeing your build. I’ll definately post some as soon as I’m done. Thanks for your help.
Alright, I finally snapped a pic of my work-in-progress. It’s just about complete now. Almost everything came off the classifieds from here and BT.
56cm 2008 Trek Equinox frame
Drivetrain is Ult/DA mix: Ult FD and cassette; DA RD, chain, and shifters
Crankset is a FSA Gossamer, but I might change it out for something else eventually
Brake calipers are Shimano 105
Cockpit is full Vision (except a Ritchey WCS stem) with Red Fizik bartape
Saddle is Profile Design TriStryke; I’m still deciding if it’s the one for me or not
Front Wheel is Zipp 404 clincher with a Kenda Kaliente 700x20 tire
Rear Wheel is a wired Powertap hub on a Mavic Open Pro; the training tire is on in the pic, but my race tire will be the same Kenda as the front tire
Still looking to add a disc cover for the rear
Bottle cages don’t show up well in the pic, but they’re Specialized plastic in matching Red/Black color. They look really nice with the frame for those of you that have this black E7.
