Originally Posted by
Salamandrine
Yes. Even 126 OLD freewheel hubs were prone to broken and bent axles. 130 is pushing it. Maxi-car hubs were rare as hen's teeth to begin with, and now they haven't been made for like 20 years. Spare parts could be a problem.
If you want more spacing than 120, IMO it's a much better idea to either use cassette hubs, or Phil Hubs with fat hollow axles, or the equivalent. If you want the red anodized end cap look, the Compass hubs are an option.
If you're really light and willing to sacrifice reliability for style, maxi-cars may be at least a reasonable choice. But stock up on spare axles while you still can.
+1 to this. I'll happily use vintage 120mm or 126mm hubs if they're original to an otherwise period correct bike, but from a technical point of view, Shimano pretty well obsoleted the rest of the market with their freehub design. That, and modern seals really cut down on maintenance. Most older "vintage" hubs are wide open to dust and dirt ingress -- you really should tear them down and re-grease them every year or maybe 1000 miles, or sooner if you're riding in the rain or other crappy conditions. A modern hub, even Shimano's road stuff could probably go for 3-4 years of abuse before I'd even consider opening one up. There are quite a few nice road and MTB hubs from the 7-8-9 speed era that can be re-spaced to 126 or even 120 with the loss of a spacer or two and shortening the axles. No problem running 6 or 7 speed cassettes with the appropriate freehub, or spacers.