WGB 

I have a Peugeot Competition which was born with 126mm rear spacing. The rear wheel was destroyed when I got it and so I decided to upgrade with a replacement wheelset. I was planning on using a tubular set (and now wish I had!) but a few days ago a really nice, almost new 8 speed Bontrager wheelset (with cassette) was offered locally at a giveway price. I grabbed the wheelset and it was spaced 135mm. This wheelset had a nice shiny ring on the non-drive side of each wheel and I didn't know then what that meant and simply assumed it was part of the hub.

I brought the bike, less cranks and bottom bracket to a local frame builder who widened the rear to 135mm. I then grabbed the rear wheel and installed it. Everything seemed perfect (pads needed adjustment), until the mechanic said it's a "disk wheel set". In my defence I have never touched a disk wheel bike as not my thing and had no clue about disk wheels.

So, I now have a perfectly aligned 135mm rear on my Peugeot.

A review of Sheldon's crib sheets shows that:

130 mm Rear 7-speed (MTB) and 8- 9- and 10-speed (road)
135 mm Rear 7- 8- and 9-speed (MTB)
140 mm Rear tandem.

I understand that steel is flexible and it can be reset but it strikes me as tempting fate to reset multiple times. I would prefer not to re-align it back to 126mm, though if I have to, I will. If I did reset, I think an 8- 9- and 10-speed rear road hub at 130mm might be a better choice than 126mm reset.

I have been advised to seek an 8 speed mountain bike hub and build a new wheel but I am not sure that won't create issues with compatibility later? Another alternative would be to seek out a wheelset from a hybrid as I thought they have wider rear spacing than normal road bikes but I can't find any source for that online to see if it's true or not. And, even if a hybrid wheel works I'm not sure it won't look terrible on a Competition.

Assuming someone somewhere has made this mistake before and has an answer or maybe someone has previously widened a frame deliberately to 135mm and had a hub they would recommend????

dabac

If your rims are rim brake compatible, it doesn’t matter if the hubs are disc-ready. It’ll work just fine.

For some years, frames were made with 132 mm spacing, to be able to use both 130 and 135 mm wheelsets. If that was OK for frames, it shouldn’t really matter where that mismatch is created. Assuming cup&cone hubs, taking a 130mm hub up to 132mm is an easy task.
Taking one to 135, it might be prudent - but not actually required- to use a longer axle.
Ideally, such a wheel should be re-dished, which isn’t a big deal either.

WGB 

Sorry, should have said, rims themselves have a sticker which says do not use with rim brakes or a serious accident can result.

pdlamb

Oops. Get yourself a rim brake MTB wheel.

Andrew R Stewart 

Well, there you go. Opps is right.

Some of us run their road bikes with a 135 rear spacing on purpose. It reduces the wheel's dishing amount and if you also run a triple crank set more closely matches the crank's chain line. I've done this "over wide" rear spread for decades on a number of bikes (starting with a 130 wide way back in the early 1980s before upping to 135 by Y2K).

There are many rear hubs that can work w/ 135 and many of these could be used and thus rather low cost, just make sure the bearings are in good shape before spending $ on used. Generally a complete pre built wheel is far less $ than building from separates and wheels are also fairly commonly found in the used market. I would be careful about rim external widths and the brake's ability to spread the pads wide enough apart. Also a wider rim will result in the old tire's profile increasing too. So if the tire currently has little frame or caliper clearance do your homework well. But a wider rim is often also more dent resistant and, with enough clearance, fit a wider tire better than a skinnier rim will. Andy

Bill Kapaun

Typically they are 135mm. At least for "standard" 10mm QR axle types. Of course the manfs. are capable of doing more stupid stuff since the lemmings will follow.

IF you can find the ERD of your rim AND found another rim with the same ERD (and # holes), you could use the same spokes & hub.
Possibly you can swap this wheel set on craigslist or similar? This MIGHT allow you to find a rim that fits your aesthetics with minimal additional cost.

redshift1

I would stay at 135 mm or go back to 130 mm but definitely not back to 126 mm, as there are far more cassette type hubs available in 130 than 126 widths. For a frame spaced at 126mm, unless you pry open the chain-stays a bit to fit a 130 mm hub, your 126 mm hub choices will be just about all for freewheels, not cassettes. They are a few 126 mm cassette hubs about though. But doing the latter wouldn't make sense anyway as you have already cold-set your frame to a more modern spacing.

In case you were interested, there is an Edco Competition hub on Ebay right now ( in the U.S. ) in 135 mm width BUT the seller says it's for 7 speed cassettes. Looking at the freehub though, it looks like it can take both Uniglide cassettes ( obsolete and hard to find ) and also Hyperglide cassettes as the inner is threaded for a lockring.

I can't post the Ebay link as I am sub-10 posts.

However the most sensible option would be to choose a hub that can take an 8 ( plus ) speeds cassette, to take advantage of the increased frame width you have. If you found a 130 mm hub ( plentiful ), you probably wouldn't even have to reset ( cold-set ) the spacing. The quick-release would probably just draw the stays back in - not sure if someone above already mentioned this. ( Amending this a day later leaving the original comment for information ) - Actually I don't think this would be a good idea as it could result in reduced clamping loads hence unsafe.

( I am a fan of Edco Comp. so couldn't resist mentioning the 135 mm hub on Ebay. )

redshift1

I've never done it but you may be able to use spacers/washers to take up the extra 5 mm and fit a commonly available 130 mm hub into the 135 mm frame.

WGB 

I've listed the wheelset locally and assuming it sells hopefully it will cover at least part of the replacement set. As for the Edco's, they look very nice but sure aren't cheap!. If I went with the spacers idea I might have to replace the axle with a longer one. It seems that recovering from this method might be a bit tedious. Hopefully next week I can finally go to the Buffalo bike co-op after over two years wait and see if they have a hybrid wheel set (or at least a rear) or maybe a long enough axle.

Thank you

bboy314

135mm 700c hybrid wheels are very common and should work fine for a road bike. Sometimes a wider rim can be tricky for some brake calipers though.