Originally Posted by
gear64
Was there a specific demarcation, or did every manufacturer make the change to 130mm in a staggered fashion? For instance I bought a new wheel set, then proceeded to the garage to cold set my frame in preparation, then found it already was 130mm. Somehow I just had it in my head a 6 speed freewheel was 126mm. It's an '84 Lotus frame. Then I looked at an '84 Miyata frame and that was 128mm.
Like many things in cycling tech, the change took place over several years. For the most part, the switch from 126 to 130 happened in the 90s. IIRC Dura Ace was first with the 8 spd 7402 stuff in 1989, but they were an outlier. I'm sure campy wasn't far behind. Can't quite recall. That said, even a couple years later, nearly all of the racing bikes we sold at the shop where I worked at the time were 126 7 spd.
At any rate, no bikes in 1984 would have been 130, and certainly no freewheel road bikes.
Just because a bike has the dropouts at 128 doesn't mean it isn't nominally still 126. OLD is determined by the hubs. Factory might have fudged it a bit, or somebody else spread it to make it easier to get the wheel in.