Originally Posted by
RobbieTunes
You can go bigger, but there's a real issue there because of the thickness of the RD hanger, and the fact that it's bonded in, i.e. not replaceable. Mess it up and you're done. I went 2x8 on an earlier frame, and had a lot more finagling back there that I really did not want to do, and sort of wish I hadn't. It's fairly easy to strip the threads in the RD hanger, as well. I got one for free that had a stripped RD hanger, and a Drop Out Saver worked, but really impaired the clearance for an 8/9/10 rear hub. I'd do what clubman says, stay with 7sp.
So I decided to start working on the bike this afternoon - figured I'd start by taking the rear wheel off and actually measuring the dropouts. To my surprise, it measures 129.5mm! So next, I grabbed my spare 130mm hub and it slides right in with only the slightest bit of effort. Yea, I know, I should have done this a long time ago!
So I think I'm back to my original plan of going 8-speed. My only hesitation is with respect to Robbie's comments above. But was your finagling simply with fighting to get the wheel fit into the dropouts? Cause I don't see that I'm going to have an issue there.