Old Trek 1000 Gearing Help

bsharp77

Morning everyone,

A mate asked me to have a look at his bike last night as he wants some easier gears as he's struggling on hills.
After searching through the Trek archive this morning, I've found its a Trek 1000 Discovery Channel edition from 2007.
http://archive.trekbikes.com/us/en/2007 ... 00/details

They list it as having a n 8 speed sora setup, with a 52/42/30 triple chainset, but after a quick look last night theres definitely only 2 cogs up front and they look very much like 52/42.....no wonder he's struggling :shock:

Cassette looks like a 25 or 28, so I guess I could bump it up to a 32 or maybe even 34 which would make a bit of difference, but this might need a new longer RD running into more money and compatibility problems depending on what is even available, so really it would be much better to stick a new chainset on there if I could.

Problem is, its so old I don't know what will work with it now - can't find out any info on the BB - he doesn't want to spend a fortune on it, so hoping to help him out if I can.

If anyone has any suggestions as to what the cheapest way to get some easier gearing on here would be i'd be very grateful.

pirnie

That BB looks very much like a square taper, unless its been upgraded in the past, so the easiest thing might be to get your hands on a compact (50/34) chainset for it, something like an FSA Vero should be pretty cheap, even cheaper second hand on ebay. All you'd need to switch it is a crank puller and maybe a chain tool to take a few links out the chain.

bsharp77

pirnie wrote:

That BB looks very much like a square taper, unless its been upgraded in the past, so the easiest thing might be to get your hands on a compact (50/34) chainset for it, something like an FSA Vero should be pretty cheap, even cheaper second hand on ebay. All you'd need to switch it is a crank puller and maybe a chain tool to take a few links out the chain.

Thanks a lot for the reply and the info pirnie - maybe something like this??

https://www.tredz.co.uk/.Shimano-FC-A07 ... FEALw_wcB#

Mad_Malx

bsharp77 wrote:

pirnie wrote:

That BB looks very much like a square taper, unless its been upgraded in the past, so the easiest thing might be to get your hands on a compact (50/34) chainset for it, something like an FSA Vero should be pretty cheap, even cheaper second hand on ebay. All you'd need to switch it is a crank puller and maybe a chain tool to take a few links out the chain.

Thanks a lot for the reply and the info pirnie - maybe something like this??

https://www.tredz.co.uk/.Shimano-FC-A07 ... FEALw_wcB#

That looks ok, but you really need to look at his bike to check - if it's no longer a triple the bb might have been changed too, although they might have simply taken the small front ring off. It's pretty simple to spot the difference. Square tapers have an internal BB (all the cup screws into the bottom bracket shell on the bike). Most more recent BB are external - you will see large knurled rings (usually silver or black) on the outside of the shell.

Don't want to turn this into a money-pit, but if the chain & cassette are old you may be advised to change these too (or at least check them), probably another £35 total, plus tools.

pirnie

Yeah, I think that should work. The main things to watch out for are that it is the original square taper BB on the bike and it hasn't been changed to something else, and that it's not the triple in the specification with the inner chainring removed or something weird. If you post photos here I'm sure people can sanity check them to make sure it would work.

If it is a sq taper double then the only other potential pitfall is the length of the BB spindle. Personally I'd try it and if it works then don't worry. If there are chainline issues you might need to switch the BB for a new one, but a Sq taper BB shouldn't be much more than a tenner.

Mad_Malx

^Thinking about this, using the FSA compact suggested and a new BB (of the correct size) is probably the best way to go anyway. A new BB will last him for many years.

bsharp77

Thanks a lot guys, very helpful.
Yes, ill go and have a closer look tonight to see what the setup is, its definitely square taper as I remember seeing the telltale bolt hole through the middle, same as the stock photo on trek's site.

I don't know if it was originally a triple or whats happened, ill have a look at the shifters - the 2 front cogs are definitely quite big and not that different from each other, so could be 53-39, or the original triple 52-42-30 with an inner ring missing.

If I'm still in bother working out whats going on with it ill take a couple of photos this evening and post them up here.

Looks like a new chainset and BB is the easiest way to go without spending too much money, as mentioned, it would be easy to let it start getting out of hand, at which point id just tell him to upgrade the bike!

Thanks again for the really quick and helpful replies.