Respacing rear hub

Quoted message said:

Hello,
I would like to buy a new wheelset for my commuter. I found some nice
wheelsets for sale on ebay for less than a hundred euros, but my bike
has a rear spacing of 130mm instead of the now standard 135mm.
Is it possible to respace a rear hub (say, Shimano Deore) from 135mm to
130mm? Is it possible to do so without re-dishing the wheel?
Thanks,
Federico Cozzi

Keep looking for a correctly sized wheelset. 130 is road standard 135
is mtb and most touring and hybrid bikes. Some frames are 132.5mm
spaced and can take either. You could spread the frame if it's steel,
but that's extreme to just save a few Euros.

Quoted message said:

Hello,
I would like to buy a new wheelset for my commuter. I found some nice
wheelsets for sale on ebay for less than a hundred euros, but my bike
has a rear spacing of 130mm instead of the now standard 135mm.
Is it possible to respace a rear hub (say, Shimano Deore) from 135mm to
130mm? Is it possible to do so without re-dishing the wheel?
Thanks,
Federico Cozzi

Reducing the spacing on a current Deore or any other Shimano hub with a
large external contact seal on the left side won't work since the width
of the seal covers the entire distance between the left side of the hub
shell and the locknut, and then usually a bit further. The right side
locknut's protrusion from the cassette lockring generally won't give
you any room to spare there either (on almost all cassette hubs at
least, probably including all Shimano ones). Hubs with conventional
axles that don't have working "Parallax style" contact seals (ie, most
other cup and cone hubs, cup and cone hubs that have Parallaxy-looking
rubber chunks that do little or no actual sealing, and cartridge hubs
that use non-proprietary axles) can all be respaced down to 130. Some
cartridge hubs with shouldered axles with threaded ends would enable
this too, but AFAIK there aren't very many 135 hubs like that (and I
haven't done this). Another thing to watch out for with reducing the
spacing on 135 hubs is that some (not a lot but some) will have wider
flange-to-flange spacing then any 130 hub you'll find, meaning that
when you take 5mm off the left side, you'll have a wheel with worse
spoke tension disparity than the worst "130-native" hubs would give you
(since the left side flange will be abnormally close to the locknut).

Reducing spacing without re-dishing the wheel is only possible if you
can take equal amounts of space off both sides of the hub. Cassette
hubs don't give you adequate room to spare for this on the right side.

I assume that by naming 135 as "now standard" you mean to say your bike
is a 130-spaced MTB (130 is still the size for road hubs). If the bike
is a pretty typical steel 130-spaced MTB that actually measures 130 or
higher, just putting in the 135 hub is fine. If it's aluminum, it's a
bit more of a judgement call but it's still almost certainly fine. The
alignment of the derailer hanger is affected when one does this and
re-alignment for the new position is sometimes necessary. The main
potential issue with either of these IMO is if a bike already has poor
dropout alignment, which is never good but will be made just a bit
worse by cramming in the wider hub, potentially causing dropout or axle
failure eventually. Getting the dropout alignment checked and corrected
for its native spacing is a pretty good idea in these cases. Spreading
the frame is an option if it's steel, but it's not necessary if you
want to keep time and trouble to a minimum. One benefit of doing this
is that you can conveniently align the rear triangle perfectly at the
same time.

landotter ha scritto:

Quoted message said:

Keep looking for a correctly sized wheelset. 130 is road standard 135
is mtb and most touring and hybrid bikes. Some frames are 132.5mm
spaced and can take either. You could spread the frame if it's steel,
but that's extreme to just save a few Euros.

Thanks for the advice.
The problem is, I can't find ready-made "commuter style" 130mm rear
wheels (i.e. 36 spokes, fairly wide rim); it seems the only 130mm rear
wheels available are "racing style".
I reckon I could go with a hand-made wheel with a road hub and a
touring rim, but I am afraid it would be well above my intended budget.

Bye,
Federico

Hello Nate,
thanks for the extremely detailed reply!

Quoted message said:

I assume that by naming 135 as "now standard" you mean to say your bike
is a 130-spaced MTB (130 is still the size for road hubs). If the bike

It's a trekking bike actually (700c wheels) with MTB components.
I could use road wheels, but I am afraid they are not suitable for my
intended usage (36 spokes for peace of mind, fairly wide tyres for
comfort).

Quoted message said:

is a pretty typical steel 130-spaced MTB that actually measures 130 or
higher, just putting in the 135 hub is fine. If it's aluminum, it's a

The frame is steel. As you say, I would like to keep time and trouble
at a minimum, so I am not considering spreading the frame. Even
re-aligning the dropout sounds scary!
On the other hand, dropout or axle failure sounds even worse.
I am still not convinced that buying a 135 wheel is trouble-free
enough...

Thanks,
Federico

[email hidden said:

"]landotter ha scritto:

Quoted message said:

Keep looking for a correctly sized wheelset. 130 is road standard 135
is mtb and most touring and hybrid bikes. Some frames are 132.5mm
spaced and can take either. You could spread the frame if it's steel,
but that's extreme to just save a few Euros.

Thanks for the advice.
The problem is, I can't find ready-made "commuter style" 130mm rear
wheels (i.e. 36 spokes, fairly wide rim); it seems the only 130mm rear
wheels available are "racing style".
I reckon I could go with a hand-made wheel with a road hub and a
touring rim, but I am afraid it would be well above my intended budget.

Bye,
Federico

If you are in the USA I can build you a wheel based on Ultegra FH-6600 36 spoke and Velocity Dyad rim ..... all new.... with Sapim Race 14/15 DB spokes and Sapim Polyax brass nipples at a very reasonable price. If you are in the Chicago area you can pick it up and save the shipping.
dave at ornee dot net

Quoted message said:

Thanks for the advice.
The problem is, I can't find ready-made "commuter style" 130mm rear
wheels (i.e. 36 spokes, fairly wide rim); it seems the only 130mm rear
wheels available are "racing style".
I reckon I could go with a hand-made wheel with a road hub and a
touring rim, but I am afraid it would be well above my intended budget.

Off-the-shelf 36 spoke touring wheels shouldn't be hard to find. Just at
a glance, Nashbar has one for $120 at <http://tinyurl.com/vj8oe> and
Harris Cyclery has one for $100 at
<http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/wheels/622.html>.

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hello Nate,
thanks for the extremely detailed reply!

Quoted message said:

I assume that by naming 135 as "now standard" you mean to say your

bike

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

is a 130-spaced MTB (130 is still the size for road hubs). If the

bike

Quoted message said:

It's a trekking bike actually (700c wheels) with MTB components.
I could use road wheels, but I am afraid they are not suitable for my
intended usage (36 spokes for peace of mind, fairly wide tyres for
comfort).

Quoted message said:

is a pretty typical steel 130-spaced MTB that actually measures 130

or

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

higher, just putting in the 135 hub is fine. If it's aluminum, it's

a

Quoted message said:

The frame is steel. As you say, I would like to keep time and trouble
at a minimum, so I am not considering spreading the frame. Even
re-aligning the dropout sounds scary!
On the other hand, dropout or axle failure sounds even worse.
I am still not convinced that buying a 135 wheel is trouble-free
enough...

Thanks,
Federico

I have 2 bikes that I switch between 126mm and 130mm wheels. I haven't
had any problems with them. The older one is a Motobecane with about
127mm spacing, the newer is a Colnago Super with about 129mm spacing. I
checked the frame alignments on both and they are good except for the
minor rear wheel spacing differences. I didn't want to correct the
spacing because everything else was properly aligned. The wheels slip
into the dropouts without any effort.

Purist will probably disagree but if you wanted to switch between 130mm
& 135mm wheels you could have the rear dropouts spread about 2-3mm and
you would probably be OK with both widths.

As far as axle problems go, you should be OK with Shimano hubs unless
you are very heavy or do a lot of jumping. The wide outboard bearing
location on the free hub side gives extra support for the axle.

Chas.

Steve Gravrock ha scritto:

Quoted message said:

Off-the-shelf 36 spoke touring wheels shouldn't be hard to find. Just at
a glance, Nashbar has one for $120 at <http://tinyurl.com/vj8oe> and
Harris Cyclery has one for $100 at
<http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/wheels/622.html>.

Thanks for the tip.
Unfortunately you Americans keep the good stuff for yourselves! Nashbar
doesn't ship to Europe and Sheldon has discontinued the wheels.

Anyway, I'll look harder at online shops. Even though we have the
European "Union", it is quite difficult to browse sites in 25 countries
with more or less the same number of different languages, not to
mention of different payment systems and not-integrated postal
services...

Bye,
Federico

Quoted message said:

The frame is steel. As you say, I would like to keep time and trouble
at a minimum, so I am not considering spreading the frame. Even
re-aligning the dropout sounds scary!

It isn't! See: http://sheldonbrown.com/frame-spacing

Quoted message said:

On the other hand, dropout or axle failure sounds even worse.
I am still not convinced that buying a 135 wheel is trouble-free
enough...

135 mm wheels are inherently more reliable than 130 because of the
reduced dish. Axle failure on Shimano hubs does not happen. Dropout
failure is vanishingly unlikely on a frame such as yours.

Buying an inexpensive wheelset from overseas doesn't make a lot of
sense.

St John Street has some that look good:

sjscycles.co.ukcategory 700c (622) Touring per pair 695.htmOpen ↗

Sheldon "Be Not Afraid" Brown
+-----------------------------------------------------+
| If one lets fear or hate or anger take possession |
| of the mind, they become self-forged chains. |
| --Helen Gahagan Douglas |
+-----------------------------------------------------+
Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts
Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041
http://harriscyclery.com
Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide
http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hello,
I would like to buy a new wheelset for my commuter. I found some nice
wheelsets for sale on ebay for less than a hundred euros, but my bike
has a rear spacing of 130mm instead of the now standard 135mm.
Is it possible to respace a rear hub (say, Shimano Deore) from 135mm to
130mm? Is it possible to do so without re-dishing the wheel?
Thanks,
Federico Cozzi

I used a Deore hub to build a custom rear wheel last week. The hub was
spaced at 135mm, and I had to fit it into an older Cannondale frame that was
spaced at 126mm. I replaced the 8/9 speed freehub with a 7-speed unit, and
removed the left rubber boot. So now the left side of the hub only has a
single grunge barrier instead of double, but this is for a road bike that
hopefully doesn't get that dirty. Of course I had to remove 9mm of spacers,
and cut the axle down by the same amount.

Then I redished the wheel.

A one hour job for an experienced wrench with all the tools..

Quoted message said:

Hello Nate,
thanks for the extremely detailed reply!

Quoted message said:

I assume that by naming 135 as "now standard" you mean to say your bike
is a 130-spaced MTB (130 is still the size for road hubs). If the bike

It's a trekking bike actually (700c wheels) with MTB components.
I could use road wheels, but I am afraid they are not suitable for my
intended usage (36 spokes for peace of mind, fairly wide tyres for
comfort).

Quoted message said:

is a pretty typical steel 130-spaced MTB that actually measures 130 or
higher, just putting in the 135 hub is fine. If it's aluminum, it's a

The frame is steel. As you say, I would like to keep time and trouble
at a minimum, so I am not considering spreading the frame. Even
re-aligning the dropout sounds scary!
On the other hand, dropout or axle failure sounds even worse.
I am still not convinced that buying a 135 wheel is trouble-free
enough...

Again, those issues are basically only a risk if dropout alignment is
already poor. The additional misalignment introduced by putting a 135
in a 130-spaced frame is basically negligible if the dropout alignment
is okay to start with. If you just put the 135 in and ride it, the odds
of anything bad ever happening are quite low, but setting up a bike
this way I do think it's prudent to check the alignment first. Another
relevant piece of information here is what your frame actually measures
in back - 130 exactly, or something a bit above or below?

Quoted message said:

Hello,
I would like to buy a new wheelset for my commuter. I found some nice
wheelsets for sale on ebay for less than a hundred euros, but my bike
has a rear spacing of 130mm instead of the now standard 135mm.
Is it possible to respace a rear hub (say, Shimano Deore) from 135mm to
130mm? Is it possible to do so without re-dishing the wheel?
Thanks,
Federico Cozzi

Federico,
che sappia io no, però se vuoi un mozzo da 36 fori per battuta da 130
mm, oppure vuoi che te lo faccia legare ad un cerchio di tua scelta per
quel prezzo, devi solo scrivermi in privato che ci mettiamo d'accordo;
ciao
Luca

PS: scrivo anche su it.sport.ciclismo