Originally Posted by
scottcof
Thanks. It's got rim brakes and threaded 6-cog freewheel. I use the hollow quick-release axles. I have a narrow wheel that my 26 x 1.5 tires fit onto.
The cassette hub sounds like something I need if it lessens axle breakage. What are the most common cassette hubs nowadays (re. availability of parts)?
I checked QBP. Their website is VERY bad. I recently found out about bikeparts.com, and it looks like a good source.
I am guessing you couldn't check QBP as their website is pretty good and one of the easiest to search on but you can only do so if you work at a shop with a QBP account unless some unscrupulous employee decided to share the login with you which could easily get them fired and cause issues for those of us in the industry who work at shops who have legit accounts we aren't sharing. QBP is not a consumer site it is for dealers and the industry and these don't seem like questions one who works at a shop would ask.
Why is the wheel you had previously not going to work for your tire? If it is a 135 spaced 26" wheel it should fit the tire just fine unless it is something ridiculously wide but you have rim brakes so most MTB rims from that era where pretty narrow compared to now and a 1.5 tire is not that tiny at that time. I would just use the old wheel or get a proper wheel that is 135mm spaced that fits the criteria you need!
Freewheels are a pretty outdated standard but if you are running only 6 speeds in the back there aren't really great sources for cassettes out there for 6 speed 7 speed yes but 6 speed is pretty much exclusively freewheel. If you are running friction you can run just about anything but we still don't know enough about your set up to really help a ton on that regard. If you have a high quality derailleur from that era (say Deore, Deore LX, XT...) than you could say upgrade to a 9 speed set up pretty easily with a 135 spaced cassette wheel a 9 speed shifter and a 9 speed chain and cassette and you wouldn't have to change cranks or rear derailleur.
I have a couple bikes running 9 speed on 7 and 8 speed rear derailleurs and at one point one of them did have 7 speed chainrings but I ended up swapping to a LX crank because I wanted an external BB and the crank at the time was an outdated no longer in production Bolt Circle Diameter (BCD or sometimes PCD) and didn't want to deal with that anymore plus it also was Octalink but the BB was fine and the previous crank to that was a 7speed early XT crank which got moved to a different bike and sold.