Spreading Stays on Trek AL - Safe?

[pinnah]

Is it safe to spread older, internally lugged Trek AL road frames from
126mm spacing to 130mm spacing?

I have a mid-90's Trek Aluminum frame that is spaced for 7-speed (126mm)
and would like to move it up to 8-speed, which requires 130mm. The most
direct method I know of is to add a spacer to the drive side and retrue the
wheel but I'm concerned about this putting too much persistant stress on
the rear triangle since the stays can't be cold set like on a steel bike.

Has anybody done this with this vintage of Trek AL bikes?

Note, I am also familiar with Sheldon Browns "8 of 9 on a 7" approach but
would prefer not to go this routed due to cost.

Many thanks,

-Dave

 

[Sandy]

Dans le message de news:[email protected],
pinnah <[email protected]> a réfléchi, et puis a déclaré :
> Is it safe to spread older, internally lugged Trek AL road frames from
> 126mm spacing to 130mm spacing?
>
> I have a mid-90's Trek Aluminum frame that is spaced for 7-speed
> (126mm) and would like to move it up to 8-speed, which requires
> 130mm. The most direct method I know of is to add a spacer to the
> drive side and retrue the wheel but I'm concerned about this putting
> too much persistant stress on the rear triangle since the stays can't
> be cold set like on a steel bike.
>
> Has anybody done this with this vintage of Trek AL bikes?
>
> Note, I am also familiar with Sheldon Browns "8 of 9 on a 7" approach
> but would prefer not to go this routed due to cost.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> -Dave

From Velo News, Lennard Zinn (19 April 2005):

"Were this question about a steel frame, it would be not be a problem, but
no, you cannot adjust an aluminum frame permanently without damaging the
frame. But you can flex the stays to put in the wheel each time you do it
without hurting the frame. You just can't make fast wheel changes. However,
cold-setting an aluminum rear end so that it holds 130mm rear spacing rather
than the 126mm spacing is out of the question."

He writes this, not me. Other opinions may well differ.
--
Bonne route,

Sandy
Verneuil-sur-Seine FR

 

[Matt]

Dave:

My wife has been riding a ~1990 Trek 1200 using a 130mm rear wheel
since 1996 with nary a problem. It is a bit of a fiddle to get the
wheel in and out, but not too bad. I do inspect the chainstay/BB and
the seat stay cluster every 3-6 months, just to be safe, though.

Matt.

 

[Dan Lenski]

Dave,

I'll just chime in to say that it's been working for me on a 1990 Trek
1100. It has dropouts that I've measured to be 128 mm, which I think
was done intentionally because they knew 130 mm was coming.

I have to squeeze a bit to get a 9-speed wheel in, but everything lines
up fine and I've had no problems with it after a couple of weeks of
use. I am very glad because I love this frame.

Dan

 

[[email protected]]

Ive got 3 road bikes from the '80s . Two are steel and one is aluminum.
I run 8/9 speed shimano 130 mm modern freehub wheelsets on all of them.
i never had to spread the drops on any of them to make the wheels work.
I have more miles on the aluminum frame that either of the two steel
frames and havent had any problems either. I also weigh 200+ lbs. If
you like the frame, keep it and try a 130 mm hubset on it.

 

[Bill]

"pinnah" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Is it safe to spread older, internally lugged Trek AL road frames from
> 126mm spacing to 130mm spacing?
>
> I have a mid-90's Trek Aluminum frame that is spaced for 7-speed (126mm)
> and would like to move it up to 8-speed, which requires 130mm. The most
> direct method I know of is to add a spacer to the drive side and retrue
the
> wheel but I'm concerned about this putting too much persistant stress on
> the rear triangle since the stays can't be cold set like on a steel bike.
>
> Has anybody done this with this vintage of Trek AL bikes?
>
> Note, I am also familiar with Sheldon Browns "8 of 9 on a 7" approach but
> would prefer not to go this routed due to cost.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> -Dave

I've got an 88 or 89 Trek 2000 frameset (same as the 1500) that has been
very happy with a DuraAce 8/9 wheelset for the last 7 or 8 years. It's been
the winter / beater bike since then and gets 1000 to 1500 miles a year of
rather awful treatment with no noticeable ill effects.
Bill

 

[Mike Jacoubowsky]

> Is it safe to spread older, internally lugged Trek AL road frames from
> 126mm spacing to 130mm spacing?
>
> I have a mid-90's Trek Aluminum frame that is spaced for 7-speed (126mm)
> and would like to move it up to 8-speed, which requires 130mm. The most
> direct method I know of is to add a spacer to the drive side and retrue
> the
> wheel but I'm concerned about this putting too much persistant stress on
> the rear triangle since the stays can't be cold set like on a steel bike.
>
> Has anybody done this with this vintage of Trek AL bikes?

Measure your dropout spacing; could be that it's 128mm. They built them that
way for two years, as it became apparent that 130mm was on the horizon. In
fact, the earliest DuraAce 130mm hubs had locknuts shaped to enable them to
more easily squeeze into slightly-narrow dropout spacing.

If you're looking at 126mm, you could have trouble. The frame won't fail per
se, but you'll quite possibly break loose the adhesive on the brake bridge,
causing it to buzz. It's also held in place by rivnuts, so it's unlikely to
cause serious trouble, aside from the buzzing. The other issue with 126mm
spacing on an aluminum frame is that you can't safely bend the dropouts so
they're parallel to the locknuts, which means they're under constant stress
and far more likely to break (this is not an unknown failure). Some will get
away with this for years, others won't.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

 

[John Everett]

On Tue, 24 May 2005 13:02:46 -0400, pinnah
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Is it safe to spread older, internally lugged Trek AL road frames from
>126mm spacing to 130mm spacing?

Another positive vote here. I've had a 130mm hub in my late 80s era
Trek 1400 (bonded aluminum) for about five years. I use this bike
primarily as a beater, but it probably gets at least a thousand miles
per year. So far, so good.


jeverett3<AT>earthlink<DOT>net http://home.earthlink.net/~jeverett3

 

[pinnah]

Matt wrote:
> My wife has been riding a ~1990 Trek 1200 using a 130mm rear wheel
> since 1996 with nary a problem.

Bill wrote:
>I've got an 88 or 89 Trek 2000 frameset (same as the 1500) that has been
>very happy with a DuraAce 8/9 wheelset for the last 7 or 8 years.

Dan wrote:
>I'll just chime in to say that it's been working for me on a 1990 Trek
>1100. It has dropouts that I've measured to be 128 mm, which I think
>was done intentionally because they knew 130 mm was coming.

The opinions seem pretty unaminous! Thanks a ton for the feedback.

Dan, I'll have to measure the rear spacing myself now. It would make sense
to me that they did just as you suggest, actually made them at 128mm.

I don't put a tremendous amount of stock in this, but I did call the good
folks in Waterloo and talked with a 1st level support person who told me
*not* to do it. But this is sort of like asking mom what you should or
shouldn't do, even if you assume that tech support guy actually had direct
knowledge of these specific frames. "No" is the safe (and correct) answer
from Trek.

Thanks again for the help!

-Dave

 

[Dan Lenski]

> Dan, I'll have to measure the rear spacing myself now. It would make sense
> to me that they did just as you suggest, actually made them at 128mm.

Good luck! I recommend using a stiff steel metric ruler and a very
bright light. It's harder than I expected to actually measure them
accurately.

Then again, I think I would have tried the new wheel even if they were
126 mm... The thing I checked most carefully is that the dropouts lay
FLAT against the axle nuts once the wheel is in. They do, even
without tightening the quick release, and this reassures me that the
wheel is not going to go flying out.