Rainbow83

Hello folks, I have a rear wheel with a hub that has a 135mm over locknut distance. I'd like to use this wheel on a frame that has 126mm rear dropout spacing, and would like to do so without cold setting the frame if possible (just because I've done that before and it was kinda a lot of work to keep the frame and dropouts aligned). The axle on the wheel currently has a spacer in it, about 1cm wide, on the non-drive side. If I remove this spacer (and replace the axle with one that isn't so wide as to prevent the QR skewer ends from clamping the dropouts), can I just run the wheel as is, or would I need to redish it? I'm pretty sure the answer is that I will have to redish the wheel, but I'm asking here because although I searched here and some other places, I didn't find any similar questions, and I'd like to have someone else's opinion just to be sure. Besides needing to redish the wheel, are there any other concerns to be had about doing this?

Iride01 

I've done that with 130 OLD hubs on a 126 mm spaced drops. But might be a little much with a 135 mm OLD hub. If you have it, try it. But personally I wouldn't buy a 135 hub expecting it to happen. Even if the stays have that much spring in them, the possibility is that the cog or chain will rub the stays.

But like I said, if you have them both there with you today, give it a try. It's a plus if you can remove a small spacer from the axle. But new fangled stuff I've got now doesn't use spacers.

CliffordK

It depends on the hub. Some Shimano hubs have two 5mm spacers on the left side which can be discarded and the axle cut to length.

As far as the wheel... yes for redishing... well maybe.

Is this an 8/9/10s (or even 11s) freehub?

I would only use an 8/9/10s hub with an off-center or asymmetric rim. And even with that the spoke angle is mighty steep.

On the other hand, with 6s or 7s, you're probably OK.

You may be able to source Shimano 7s freehubs that will work on most old style 8/9/10s hubs.

3alarmer 

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...besides the spacing itself, as already mentioned you will need to do something about the freehub, and the axle length (if you want to continue using a QR skewer. Sometimes you can respace a hub a little bit, by removing equal stuff on both sides of the cones, so you can avoid re-dishing the wheel. But it's not all that often. So it sounds like a lot of work, with no guaranteed result. Me, I'd look for a used wheel with a more appropriate hub, or build one on a 126 hub.

Rainbow83

Based on measurement, I'm pretty sure it's a 7 speed freehub (32mm from the outer edge of the taller portion of the splines to the end of the freehub body, as described here). I guess maybe the best thing to do is just to take the spacer out of the axle, stick a 7 speed cassette on, and see how it goes.

3alarmer 

...this is a workable plan. then stick the wheel in front of you and check the dish with whatever. There's a specific dishing gauge that looks like this, but you can put the wheel in your frame and eyeball it to see how much it's off, too. Or use a stand to look at it.

70sSanO

The issue you have is the flange-to-flange spacing. 30 years ago the flange-to-flange width was different on 130mm and 135mm mtb freehubs; i.e. XT FH-m732 7 speed.

In the past year or so I’ve swapped out Shimano freehubs with non-spec’d Shimano freehubs, including fitting into 126mm dropouts.

It does not sound promising if you are already running a 7 speed freehub at 135mm. You might pick up a couple of mm’s on the DS to move the 1st position cog closer to the dropout, but the rest is a coming off the NDS. It isn’t just severe dishing, there may be spoke length issues trying to move a rim that much.

John

Rainbow83

Hmm. That's useful to know, if perhaps not what I'd like to hear. We'll see, I may just abandon this prospect and bother to spread the frame if it doesn't seem like the wheel will play well. The frame and wheel were both free, so nothing is particularly high stakes here, and I'm just messing around.

2old

I solved the issue by procuring a 1984 Schwinn Mesa Runner with 126 spacing. The wheel (Joy Tech hub and Weimann rim manufactured in Belgium) was perfect. Bonus: found two and used the parts from one and the frame from the other to construct my granddaughter's first MTB.

70sSanO

Good job!

John

davidad

Grandpa you are now number one to her!

2old

For anyone with a similar challenge, I found only one used hub on ebay that was feasible price-wise ($25); still would have cost about $75 for a wheel if I built it myself. This was a much more economical solution.