Originally Posted by
garage sale GT
You cannot easily upgrade to 6 or 7 speeds because the hub will become wider, all on the right side. You will then have to redish the wheel by loosening the spokes on the left and tightening on the right in order to move the rim back to the center. Then you will have to respace your frame to make it wide enough for the wider wheel.
If you just spread the frame apart and clamp the wheel in extra hard, you can ruin the hub because you will get extra pressure on the front. You can ruin a wheel with excessive skewer tightness. Bolt-on wheels may have an issue as well.
If STP could get 8 speeds on the rear, 9 or 10 should have fit just as well. The freehubs are the same.
#1 Incorrect. Use the original freewheel hub, with new 6/7 speed chain, no issues. No re-dishing or cold setting required.
#2 Also incorrect, at least with the "old-school" loose ball bearing/cone nut arrangement. Just adjust the cone nuts so the axle spins freely with no play, tighten stopper nuts, recheck, you're done. There's no way you can hand tighten down a quick-release and ruin a wheel.
#3 For 8 speeds, yes, 130 mm spacing was used, cold-setting 126 mm dropouts like the Record would be preferred. I'm running 8 speed Campy with friction shifters on a bike right now- but I wouldn't go beyond that without an indexing setup.