Originally Posted by
gugie
With the proper tools you can cold set pretty much any vintage steel frame - I'd stay away from the more modern "super metals." Stay bridges that break when doing this weren't brazed properly. I had a repair this last year that was clearly not fully brazed all the way around on both the chain and brake bridges - but that's rare.
Seconded - even though I, personally, wouldn't want to cold-set this frame unless it needed adjustment, one can absolutely take it to 135mm.
However, with a frame of the notability of this Colnago, I would only do so if I had the right tools on hand to minimize any chance of it going wrong. At minimum, a frame alignment gauge, the big honking cold setting arm, a vise with soft jaws to grip the BB, and the Park or Campy dropout alignment tools which will be necessary to get the DO's back in plane with each other.
Granted, if one's worried about brake bridges popping off, a soft-jaw clamp in that area between the stays could give some peace of mind. Keep in mind that there probably
will be some bowing of the stays from this point down to accommodate the wider spacing.
Here's an extreme example on my '80 Raleigh Sports - keep in mind this is mild steel and the frame went from 110 to 135mm. It's even more pronounced as the stays aren't evenly bent because the brake bridge wasn't particularly straight from factory, and I was more interested in proper operation than perfectly even stays, so long as they were centered.
It's not entirely obvious when built up - unless you happen to be looking for it:
-Kurt