[CR]Mid-life crisis for classic bike

(Example: Production Builders:Pogliaghi)

From: Donald Gillies <gillies@cs.ubc.ca>
Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2004 13:10:32 -0800 (PST)
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]Mid-life crisis for classic bike

Mavic Open Pro rims are available in 36H in many places around the 'net. It seems they have fixed the loosening nipple problems and you should look no further for a light (425g) new set of rims. MA3's (470g) are also available in 36H aluminum flavor, very similar to MA2.

If a bike is a "rider", i personally favor spreading it to 126 mm. Factory replacement axles for your nuovo record hubs are available from loose screws, or from renaissance cycles, or generic ones for $5 from your local bike shop through wheels manufacturing or whatnot. so don't trash your hubs - just upgrade them to 6/7 speed. Sunrace makes some nice inexpensive 7 speed freewheels that work great. Suntour 7 speed freewheels show up all the time on ebay at outstanding prices, and they never wear out.

There was a discussion that I initiated last summer about running a cassette on a 120 mm rear axle. impossible (EXCEPT if you can find the elusive campag 7-speed cassette hub, one's on british ebay right now.) however, it's fairly easy to run 8 speeds (1 cog removed from a 9 speed) on 7-speed cassette hubs that are still available. Harric Cyclery has some nice shimano 105 cassette hubsets for 126 mm.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/hubs.html#road

The consensus last summer was that it was not a good idea to cold set or otherwise bend a 120 mm frameset to run 130 mm spacing.

- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA