Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Frame respacing?

How easy is it to respace the dropouts on an aluminum frame? I know you can't just spread 'em open and slap the wheel in, but can it be done without just replacing the whole back end?

I ask because I saw a really nice Fort track frame in my LBS yesterday, but it's 120mm, and my Surly hub is 135mm. I can't afford to buy a new hub (unless the frame is like £10 :) ).

Guess I should have bought a frame before I got a hub :rolleyes:

It's a lot cheaper to just buy a new 120mm hub or re-space your Surly hub if possible..... why alter a nice track frame?

True. I doubt the Surly hub will go down to 120mm, unless I leave off the locknuts and have the cog rubbing the seatstay :O

I've kinda set myself a budget of as little over £300 as possible. If I can get a 1" HT/120mm track frame and hub (I have a 1" fork and headset already) for less than a Pompino frame/fork/headset, then I'll get it.

yeah but you can sell the surly hub for about the same price as getting a new track hub. There's a guy selling a sweet hope titanium track hub on cyclingplus.co.uk, i'd get that and put the surly on ebay. Just check the hope hub is 120mm. The pompino is a nice frame, but it does have all those canti bosses on it, I think it's more of a question of whether you want the true track frame and geometry or not. Oh and steel vs alu.

Check out terry dolan, his track frames are pretty cheap, not sure whether they're cheap enough, but they look nice.

I'd love to, but it's 24h, grrr.

Well, the Fort frame is only £159, and I can use my 1" Look road fork in it too, so all I need is the frame, a narrow hub, a seatpost shim and a seatpost clamp (maybe). And it turns out it's Chromoly, so maybe I could just spread the drops. Or if I took the locknuts off the hub, it might slide straight in.

120 to 135 spread might be a bit severe..... you'll definitely see a bend especially on the seatstays where they're bridged. I would still leave the frame alone...

George

you can get a pair of miche hubs from trackcycling.co.uk for £52, you could prob sell the surly for not far off, it's a good price on that frame though, is that from your LBS?

Yeah. My LBS rocks, they have all sorts of weird stuff, like tubulars and drop-barred road bikes (sarcasm :) ). But seriously, they have trikes, track frames, and best of all, the two owners are nuts about classic stuff. They have a fully restored 1948 something-or-other sitting on the shop floor, with a note on it saying 'As sold by us in 1948' (tongue firmly attatched to inner cheak). And the other day, they were busy fitting a solid tyre to the front wheel of a small-wheeled Penny Farthing from 1880 (complete with Mavic-style hub nipples and Dura-Ace-style two piece crank :) ). Bike nuts? I think so.

Do not try to spread an aluminum frame from 120 to 135 spacing. Aluminum does not bend well like a steel frame would (even that is a lot to bend a steel frame) and there is no way to go from 120 to 135 on one without hurting the frame. Get a different hub.

Don't worry, I'm definately not going to spread an ally frame that much. The Fort I'm looking at is steel anyway, I thought it was ally but it's not :)