Originally Posted by well biked

The method Sheldon describes is the better method because you spread one side of the rear triangle at a time, so you can make sure you spread the two sides equally (assuming they were properly aligned in the first place). The other common method is to use a threaded rod, nuts, and washers to simply spread the dropouts apart until there's enough permanent bending to get the desired spread. The problem is that most frames have an extra dimple on the driveside chainstay, so the driveside bends easier (and first). I've now done it both ways, and I can say that Sheldon's method is the way to go. If you take your time and pay attention to the alignment with the string method described in Sheldon's article, you may end up with a frame that's more precisely aligned than it was originally-