Benjamin Weiner wrote:
>Doug Goncz <
[email protected]> wrote:
>> It would be really hard to respace an aluminum frame without cracking a weld, but with the right
>> combination of spacers including a thingie to straddle the opposing chain/seat stay, a trained
>> pressman could do it. He'd block the stay near a weld, then press outwards near the frame
>> diamond, say an inch or two from the weld. Then he'd flip it, and block from the inside......
>
>> Oh, hell, call it impossible and be done with it.
>
>To respace a steel frame, you have to pull the dropouts farther apart than the desired spacing,
>since they spring back. Quite a bit farther actually. Basically you have to take the stays past the
>plastic yield point. It is quite likely that doing that to a welded aluminum frame would damage it,
>probably eventually cracking a weld at the chainstay or seatstay bridge. I'd expect you'd also have
>undone the benefits of the heat treating. It would also be really difficult on an old Cannondale as
>they had very fat stays.
>
>On the other hand, if you just take a 130mm wheel and spring the dropouts just far enough apart to
>get the wheel in there, you're only moving the stays a tiny amount and not plastically deforming
>them. I bet that this does not run much risk of damaging the frame. I have done this and it seemed
>to work, although it's now running 126mm since I had a spare 7s wheel. Sheldon has said that he's
>done this without long-term problems. Spring the frame, but don't cold set.
I've been doing this for a few months on my 126mm spaced Cannondale. It's a pain mounting the 9sp
rear wheel compared to a frame with 130mm spacing, but you'll get over it.