Originally Posted by
70sSanO
Well you certainly are digging pretty deep there with Shimano engineers and lawyers with no concerns about 130mm OLD hubs in 126mm frame. Show me one Shimano document referencing an install of a 130mm hub into a 126mm frame. Just one.
As for no 128mm frames when Dura Ace 7402 came out. I think you need to take a trip down memory lane. DA7402 came out in 1989. Mfg’s were already going to 128mm before that. My 1988 Cannondale is 128mm.
You can’t possibly believe Shimano would release a group set that would not fit into a current frame and just shove it in there. Mfg’s knew what was coming. As for mtb, they went to 130mm before road did, so it wasn’t just out of the blue.
John
DA 8 speed came out in 1989, not 1988. Your '88 Cannondale has 128 spacing because the frames commonly warped during heat treating. Here's a 1989 catalog. On page 21 of the PDF it says "Standard 126mm rear dropout spacing" for their racing framesets:
https://vintagecannondale.com/year/1989/1989.pdf
Here's a photo of the 8 speed, 130 spaced 1989 DA rear hub. Note the curiously tapered locknut clearly visible on the NDS side of the rear hub, but both sides look like that. That's Shimano's innovation to spread 126mm frames simply by pushing the hub into the dropouts, because there were no 128 or 130 road frames in 1989. You'll note the front hub locknuts are not tapered, nor are 7 speed locknuts of that same model year.
Yes, Shimano intended this hub to spread frames. No, it didn't seem to hurt any frames that I have EVER heard of. And no, your 1988 racing frame was not supposed to be 128mm spacing. I worked on an a LOT of 1988 and 1989 Cannondales when I started wrenching (including my own 3.0), and the dropouts where never a loose fit for normal 126mm hubs of the time.