Author Topic: Respacing a frame for a wider hub  (Read 2987 times)

Respacing a frame for a wider hub
« on: 04 February, 2017, 01:10:05 pm »
I've got a 135mm hub wheel, a 130mm spaced steel frame, and an ability to get almost any simple mechanical job wrong.

Is someone in South/Central London willing to show me how to respace a frame?

The bike isn't worth buying a new wheel for. I could replace the hub but that seems like a job that I'm even more likely to get wrong.

Re: Respacing a frame for a wider hub
« Reply #1 on: 04 February, 2017, 04:03:53 pm »
Haggerty F, Haggerty R, Tomkins, Noble, Carrick, Robson, Crapper, Dewhurst, Macintyre, Treadmore, Davitt.

Re: Respacing a frame for a wider hub
« Reply #2 on: 04 February, 2017, 04:24:39 pm »
You can probably just spring the frame apart and fit the wheel without cold setting. Not perfect but as the bike's low value why worry?
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Re: Respacing a frame for a wider hub
« Reply #3 on: 04 February, 2017, 05:29:32 pm »
I had a go at springing the frame apart. Looks like it would work fine if I had 4 sets of hands!

Any suggestion for a tool or jig to hold it open while I line up the axle and dropouts?

On a related note, don't do a Google search for "spreader bar" on your work PC  :o

Re: Respacing a frame for a wider hub
« Reply #4 on: 04 February, 2017, 06:02:59 pm »
Go and purchase a small threaded bar from the DIY shop or a long bolt, 10mm or whatever, and some nuts to thread on.
Put nuts onto bar and screw them up until they are less than width of rear dropouts.
Insert bar between rear dropouts and screw nuts out towards dropouts until they are 'snug'.  Measure and it will be 130mm.
Start screwing nuts to force frame out (splayed) and increase the spacing and keep going until you can't suffer the worry anymore.
Release the nuts and watching the frame 'Spring back' to 130mm!
Keep doing this, praying, sweating and worrying until you splay the frame enough to create permanent deformation of the frame and you get the spacing you desire.

An old 531 frame I had was splayed out to 195mm in order to take it from a spacing of 125mm to achieve something like 128mm to enable me to fit a 130mm spaced axle.  I was very nervous and sweating about doing that!

At least with the threaded bar and nuts it is more refined than just putting your foot on one chai stay and pulling the other.  You can also move each bolt if you think that feels better!

Torslanda

  • Professional Gobshite
  • Just a tart for retro kit . . .
    • John's Bikes
Re: Respacing a frame for a wider hub
« Reply #5 on: 04 February, 2017, 07:26:48 pm »
To get a 135 wheel in a 130 steel frame first invert the bike, engage the locknut on the non-drive side in the dropout then pull the drive side out while pushing on the end of the cassette until the locknut engages. After that it's a wiggle and a smack before doing up the skewer . . .
VELOMANCER

Well that's the more blunt way of putting it but as usual he's dead right.

Re: Respacing a frame for a wider hub
« Reply #6 on: 04 February, 2017, 07:57:06 pm »
One of my steel bikes has a 130mm rear spacing and a 135mm wheel. I just pull the dropouts apart by hand when I put the wheel in. Quite easy, 2.5mm each side.
I am often asked, what does YOAV stand for? It stands for Yoav On A Velo

Re: Respacing a frame for a wider hub
« Reply #7 on: 04 February, 2017, 09:28:50 pm »
Cheers. I'll give it one more go this way! Advice much appreciated.

Chris N

Re: Respacing a frame for a wider hub
« Reply #8 on: 04 February, 2017, 09:31:52 pm »
What hub is it?  You might be able to respace it to fit the frame.

Re: Respacing a frame for a wider hub
« Reply #9 on: 13 February, 2017, 09:59:34 am »
What hub is it?  You might be able to respace it to fit the frame.
I've done this. Just removed the washers from the hub (deoreXT), ground them down, got the hub width down to a smidgen over 130mm.

You can't take the same off both side, or you end up with sprockets hitting chainstays. Take more off the non-drive side.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Re: Respacing a frame for a wider hub
« Reply #10 on: 13 February, 2017, 11:44:47 am »
I've got a bike with a 126mm dropout that I fit a 130mm wheel in. I just spring it out with my hands and tap the wheel in. The wheel is a permanent fixture but when I have had a puncture [I get a lot] I've found it gets easier each time. I assume the permanent stretch is "learning" the chainstays to widen.
Nothing left to prove. http://adenough1.blogspot.co.uk/

LittleWheelsandBig

  • Whimsy Rider
Re: Respacing a frame for a wider hub
« Reply #11 on: 13 February, 2017, 12:24:37 pm »
I'd be surprised if the frame is actually creeping.
Wheel meet again, don't know where, don't know when...

Gattopardo

  • Lord of the sith
  • Overseaing the building of the death star
Re: Respacing a frame for a wider hub
« Reply #12 on: 13 February, 2017, 12:56:05 pm »
Still need a hand?

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Respacing a frame for a wider hub
« Reply #13 on: 13 February, 2017, 06:53:31 pm »
What's the frame made from?  Steel can be respaced at home, other metals can't.  For a 5mm difference you should really get the dropouts parallel to each other when you're finished.  This is most important for internally-geared hubs but you should try and do it for all types of hub.

I've done this several times; 126mm to 130mm was relatively easy, 110mm to 120mm a bit less so (and I absolutely had to tweak the dropouts for that one).
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Respacing a frame for a wider hub
« Reply #14 on: 13 February, 2017, 07:35:05 pm »
I'd be surprised if the frame is actually creeping.
I must be getting more powerful then :-\
Nothing left to prove. http://adenough1.blogspot.co.uk/