Originally Posted by
AlmostTrick
I always considered cold setting a hack, I would not do it or want a frame it was done to. Too much room for imperfection, and I'd rather not have bent seat and chain stays anyway.
Agreed. I would never cold set anything outside of a pannier rack. I would never buy a frame that has been tweaked by some guy with 2X4's on his garage floor.
Originally Posted by
AlmostTrick
There's no downside to giving the remove spacer / re-center the rim method a whirl though.
Unfortunately there is a downside- you are increasing the dishing, which is bad. The only solution is to use an off-centered rear rim.
But I re-iterate- there is nothing wrong with that 126mm spacing. Just use a 7 speed HG/UG hub (600-6400, 105-1055, RSX or RX100), 7 speed cassette and RSX, Sora, or Tourney brifters (or Micronew or Microshift). I should know because at this moment I have 4 bikes with 126mm spacing- and 2 of them I have had to re-convert to 126mm hubs because the previous owners (in the case of the Lemond Tourmalet- possibly the factory) stuffed a 130mm hub'ed wheel in there, making it extremely difficult to take the wheel in and out.