Bicycle Mechanics - ****NOOB!!***Trek 2001 Conversion 7sp. to 9 sp.

Picked up a 1990s-era TREK 2001 composite road bike this week, IMHO for a steal....it came with the 7-sp, freewheel Shimano 105 gruppo (FC-1055 series). I bought the bike for the sole purpose of buiding it up into an entry-level road bike to use as I get into the sport. Been trolling e-bay and other bike part retailers (pricepoint, nashbar, ect.) and I want to keep the Shimano 105 setup, but bump it up to a 9sp./5500 series.

I have found all the parts I need (ft/rear der.,double crank, STI levers/shifter, cassette, cables, housings, ect.) but I do have a few ?'s about compatibility. These may be obvious to more seasoned riders/bike enthusiasts, but please bear with me...don't want to shell out $$$ for a.) the wrong parts or B.) into an effort that is not doable...

any help ya'll can provide will be GREATLY appreicated......

1.) can I still use the bottom bracket that is for the FC-1055 crank if I switch to a 5500 model?
2.) the trek 2100 is setup w/ a downtube shifter (7 sp.) how can i route the cables/housings from the dereillurs to the STI lever/shifter setup and have it work?
3.) want to put a carbon fork on the bike, but the only aftrmarkert ones I have seen are threadless and built for an integrated headset....is there a way I can put a carbon fork onto a standard headset?

Even though you didn't ask, IMHO, just change it to a 9 spd and leave the rest as it is.

You can keep the crank that came with the bike, it will work fine.

You can also probably keep the front and rear ders., the only thing you will need are brifters, and 9spd 105s are cheap as NOS and even cheaper on E-bay.

There is a cheaply available set of stops that go on the downtube bosses for conversion to brifters.

sorry, another NOOB thing.....what are "brifters" ??

sorry, another NOOB thing.....what are "brifters" ??

Brake/shifter combo.

thanks.....

You are missing a big one here. 7 speed road bikes have 126mm rear drop out spacing, 9 speed have 130mm.
You are going to have to change your freehub to a 8-9-10 speed compatible one and re-space the rear axle to 130mm and re-dish the rear wheel (or get a new wheel). Being a composite frame, you will need to spread the drop-outs every time you install the rear wheel, I'll leave others to argue whether its going to damage your frame to do that.

The 2100 Trek that I believe you have was built with carbon fiber main tubes but the rest of the frame is aluminum. The 5000 series Treks are all carbon fiber except the dropouts. There is no way to make a 5500 out of a 2100.
What is the rear hub dropout spacing? 9-speed requires 130mm.

I had a 1994 Trek 2300 composite 7-speed upgraded to 7-speed STI. It was a good compfortable bike.

Al

The 2100 Trek that I believe you have was built with carbon fiber main tubes but the rest of the frame is aluminum. The 5000 series Treks are all carbon fiber except the dropouts. There is no way to make a 5500 out of a 2100.
What is the rear hub dropout spacing? 9-speed requires 130mm.

I had a 1994 Trek 2300 composite 7-speed upgraded to 7-speed STI. It was a good compfortable bike.

Al

I think he means the 5500 series Shimano Crank.

The FC-1055 used a square taper BB, the FC-5500 is OctaLink or something simular. So the short of the answer is, no.

I'd leave as much 7sp gear as you can on the bike (that is in good condition), and get some Kelly Takeoffs to move the downtube shifters up next to the brake levers. You should still be able to find the Takeoffs new on ebay or maybe through Kelly.

I think he means the 5500 series Shimano Crank.



Yeah, guess you're right, my mistake.

You are missing a big one here. 7 speed road bikes have 126mm rear drop out spacing, 9 speed have 130mm.
You are going to have to change your freehub to a 8-9-10 speed compatible one and re-space the rear axle to 130mm and re-dish the rear wheel (or get a new wheel). Being a composite frame, you will need to spread the drop-outs every time you install the rear wheel, I'll leave others to argue whether its going to damage your frame to do that.

I was planning on getting a new freehub/cassette wheelset and scrapping the freewheel setup I have...regarding the dropouts, that part of the frame is aluminum. But with that said, will spreading out the frame from 126mm to 130 mm still cause damage to the bike?

another ?'s -- if I leave the FC-1055 2x ring crank and keep the Shimano105 7 sp. ft/rear dereillurs, while changing the freewheel setup to a 9 sp. freehub/cassette and changing the 7sp. downtube shifters to this Shimano 105 STI "brifter" setup. . .

http://cgi.ebay.com/Shimano-STI-105-black-9-speed-shift-levers-BNIB_W0QQitemZ110066953449QQihZ001QQcategoryZ36140QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

while using the housing stops/downtube boss cap from Harris Cycles to run the shft cables....will I be okay.

sorry . . . these are the housing stops/downtube boss caps from Harris I was talking about...
http://harriscyclery.net/itemdetails.cfm?catalogld=39&id=1738

OK, I'm joining in late, but I'm going to bring up what is (to me, anyhow) a very basic question:

Why bother going to all the trouble to add the additional two gears to the bike in the first place?

As of this writing, my garage consists of two five-speeds, one six, one seven, and one nine. While the nine speed (Fuji Finest running Shimano Ultegra) is a really nice setup (brifters and all), it's not significantly better than my Rossin six speed with a SIS Dura Ace setup - the downtube shifters are the only really noticeable difference, I like the Rossin frame better (of course, it's high end for it's day, the Fuji is bottom of the line). The biggest difference is that I don't see all that much difference between the three extra gears. If I put brifters on the Rossin (no other changes), I might as well sell the Fuji for as little as I'll be riding it.

My advice is that you seem to have one heck of a nice bike there, as is. Ride it as it's currently run and save yourself the money. If I've noticed anything since getting back into the sport, it's that there's a lot of seeming status on how many rear cogs you've got.

Utter bollux in my mind.

I was planning on getting a new freehub/cassette wheelset and scrapping the freewheel setup I have...regarding the dropouts, that part of the frame is aluminum. But with that said, will spreading out the frame from 126mm to 130 mm still cause damage to the bike?



Go ahead and measure the rear dropout spacing. Trek changed their frame specs in the early '90s. It would not suprise me one bit if your frame was spaced at 130mm.

I did a similar upgrade to a Trek 1220 that I bought new sometime in mid-90's or so that had about 10K miles on and was getting pretty tired out. BB did fit, replaced the whole drive train with Ultegra 9spd. Figured out the hub mis-match half way through and so ordered new wheel set (Ultegra hubs/Mavic Open road rims). No problem with dropout spacing.
A bit later I did the forks and did switch to carbon integrated. Just had to use a 1" fork, and bought a Chris King No-Thread headset. Only problem I had was seating the baseplate on the fork steerer tube. You need a crown race setting tool to do. If I had to do over again I'd take to a shop and have them do it. (I cluuged together a slide hammer to do same, but was more calories than is worth unless you live in boondocks)
As others have pointed out, this is a lot of work and money, but I've learned lots and would do it all again.