Originally Posted by rccardr

Oh my, no. That would hardly be ingenious.
Instead, I took a DA7700 rear hub, replaced the freehub with an HG 7 speed (-5mm), replaced the 6mm spacer on the NDS with a 1mm spacer (-5mm) and shortened the axle by 10mm. The result is a 120mm OLD quality hub on which one can run 8 cogs with 9 speed spacers (8 of 9 on 7). Easy to either friction shift, or index shift using 9 speed Shimano compatible shifters. Do this on a built wheelset and no re-dishing is required since you removed the same amount from both sides. And is makes a wheel as strong as a standard DA 7700.
One could do the same by messing around with an equivalent 7 speed hub and reducing some spacers.
Another possibility would be to narrow a common Shimano or Campagnolo 126mm freewheel hub by removing spacers, was pretty common back in the day.

Originally Posted by The Golden Boy

Isn't that really the most fun part? Looking at other people's builds, thinking about how they got to that build, how it works, how something like that would work for you?

One of the things that's pretty cool about old bike stuff is that it's a "hobby of opportunity." You can run across the most amazing stuff at a fraction of the cost of what it was new. You can always figure out what you like and look for it. Sometimes that means throwing money at something- sometimes it just falls into your lap. For the first 6-7 years I was into bikes, I could not find something "good" that I could afford. I couldn't find a 531 framed bike. It was like there were none around. Then I finally got one. And then it was freakin' RAINING 531 bikes in my size.

For me- the attraction was throwing a bunch of stuff on the bike and heading out "that way" for a few days with a daydream of riding across the country. I think the "grand tourer" concept of the mid-80s really appealed to that. It was "adventure" while appealing to my tendency to be a dork about minutiae- it was striking that balance between fancy and graceful, while being rugged and badass.

After ignoring "modern" technology for years- I finally upgraded a bike to 10s and wondered why I didn't do this all along. So getting a mid 80s bike that came spaced at 128 was important for being able to just squeeze in a 130mm hub for 10s.

I think once you recognize what makes a good bike, what components are good (and why)- it goes beyond a brand or model name- you see a bike with a Columbus or 531sticker, a fair amount of room between the tire and seat tube, you see cantilever brakes, you see Campagnolo or Shimano SF dropouts, and it's built with Deore XT... That's the start of a great bike.