Originally Posted by
sykerocker
Hit my local Ace Hardware this morning (you should see their fasteners aisle!) and came up with a couple of proper width steel chrome spacers bored 3/8" with 3/16" wall thickness. They're far and away the heaviest alternative available, so I'm assuming this'll add a bit of structural rigidity to the assembly. Putting the wheel on, I found that by removing both the rear rack and massive kickstand (we're talking 1920's motorcycle kickstand - I think my old Indian 101 Scout had the same stand), I've narrowed it down to the point that the non-drive side nut bolts on with 1-2 threads on the axle showing. I'm assuming the drive side indicator chain bolt is fitting about the same.
Set up this way, the wheel is slightly to the left of the center line on the fender, so I can probably do something a bit narrower on the right side spacer and have the bolted down setup drag the wheel back closer to center. Big hold-up right now is that I need to add a couple of links to the chain, as I'm replacing the original 20t rear sprocket with a 23t.
I'm optimistic.
Check and see if the hub is centered, and that you get a good driveline with the chain straight to the chainwheel on the crank. If so, don't shift it; instead use a spoke wrench to take the dish out of the wheel (for this you have to know a bit about wheel alignment, if you don't, look it up on the web, its not hard). The hub allows you to move the sprocket back and forth a bit to fine tune the driveline. This is done by changing the spacers around (there are two, plus the sprocket itself) and often the sprocket is dished so you can reverse it if needed. If you do this right you may have to work with the spokes.