Originally Posted by
Jeff Neese
A lot of it has to do with who did it and how. If it was done by a knowledgable framebuilder with all the right tools and experience, that's a lot different than somebody bending up their frame using 2x4s on their garage floor, and aligning it using a string.
Why is that? Perfectly good results can be had with the methods you describe, and you certainly coulnt tell who or how it was cold-set by looking at it, assuming it was done right by either the amateur or pro.
I've passed on a number of otherwise very desirable frames once I saw that they had been spread.
Don't disagree at all with this. Like someone said, if you want an original build, you don't want a spread rear, it's only original once. But I wonder if your passing decision was simply because it was spread (and you wanted original spacing), or because of the method used (i.e. amateur vs pro), or just poor results of a spread regardless of who did it?
FWIW, I have a mid-80s, fairly obscure, but very, very nice Italian frameset (Sannino). I didn't have any desire to build it up as original, but went Campy 8 speed at the time. I did a home shop cold set spread from 126 to 140 pretty much the way
dddd describes above, but it was (technically, but not mentally or physically!) easy to do that, technically easy to square up the drop outs, and technically easy to check the frame alignment while in process to equally spread vis-a-vis the rest of the frame. What more is necessary? The thing looks and rides perfectly.
My next bike will be a 70s-80s as-original (or able to be built up period correct), probably British or American bike. So when I'm looking for that, I'll probably pass on modified spacing. OTOH, I've heard that spread frames can be put back to original in most? cases.