There should be a caveat thrown in here: regardless of Sheldon's research and knowledge, cyclists and techs on several forums have thought they had bent or broken axles after using a wider wheel in an older frame without cold-setting the frame and aligning the dropouts. I don't know any of the extenuating circumstances, but it seems one should be cautious about doing this. With my NR hubs, I am reluctant to break or stress any original axles.
On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 5:36 PM, jeff holt <jefflaw@msn.com> wrote:
>
> Back in the late 70's/early 80's when 6 & 7 speed freewheels & 126mm hub
> spacing started appearing, we'd routinely install these newer wheels in
> older frames with 120 mm rear spacing without any ill effects.
> Below is a quote from Sheldon Brown's website to that effect.
>
>
> "Ideally, the frame spacing should exactly match the hub spacing. This
> makes for easiest wheel replacement. In practice, however, there's a
> fair amount of latitude in fit. In fact, when the first 130 mm 8-speed
> hubs were introduced, they had locknuts with beveled sides, so that you
> could "spring" apart the rear triangle of a frame made for the
> then-standard 126 mm spacing.
>
> In general, you can safely go up one size in spacing this way, just
> springing the frame apart. I can't give you an absolute guarantee that
> this won't cause damage, but the odds are very much in your favor."
>
>
> Jeff Holt
> West Deptford, NJ
> USA
>
>
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> _______________________________________________
>
--
Ken Freeman
Ann Arbor, MI USA