redcurrycelt

I recently bought a new wheelset for my Ciocc- a set of '05 Ultegra 9-speed hubs laced to Open Pros, and love them so far. The only hitch arrived when I realized my frame's spacing seemed around 5-10mm too small to easily accept the rear hub. I should have been alerted to this when I was running the frame as a fixie and didn't have to do any wrangling to fit a 120mm spaced track rear wheel to it.

Besides the worrying amount of wrangling it took to get the wheel in place and the subsequent unideal angling of the dropout faces vis-a-vis the locknuts and qr surfaces, everything is working properly. I would like to respace the rear hub in order to get things totally flowing again, but I'm not sure this is possible on a modern freehub like this Ultegra. Is there a way to do it? The end of the cassette is right up against the end of the axle, so I'd assume any movement would have to happen on the other side's nuts, and that a redish of the wheel would be neccessary.

Whoever heard of a road frame coming with 120mm rear anyway? Fricking weird. Any advice?

Sheldon Brown

120 was the standard spacing back in the days of 5-speed freewheels. When 6-speed came in, they went to 126, then to 130 when 8-speed arrived.

If you could respace the hub, the necessary extreme dishing would make for a VERY weak wheel.

However there's a simple solution, since this is a nice steel frame:

See: https://sheldonbrown.com/frame-spacing

Brown "It's Pronounced 'Choach'" Brown

redcurrycelt

Thanks much! I'm a little squeamish about taking a 2x4 to the thing but I think I'll do just that after the first time I need to patch a tire on the road and have to herniate myself to get the wheel off/on

Cheers,
-rcc

phoebeisis

I put a 135 spaced rear MTB wheel on my 120 spaced Mercian by taking off the nut and spacer that many rear hubs have on the left side.On XTR,XT,ans LX hubs there is a thin nut,a rubber dust cover,and a spacer under the dust cover.Just take the nut and spacer off.The axel will be too long now;it will extend about 5 or so mm outside the frame and you won't be able the clamp the quick release.Just slip the spacer over the axel on the outside of the dropout.It will work just fine.This saves having to wack your nice frame,and you don't have to redish the rear wheel.It might-probably will be-slightly out of line with the front wheel,but that won't make any difference.Luck,Charlie
PS There is a tiny chance you might have to use that thin nut on the inside-so you aren't mashing in your bearings-on some hubs the thin nut prevents crushing the bearings-just eyeball it.If you are crushing them the increased resistance wil be obvious.You should be able to tell be looking before actually tightening down.

Grand Bois

Don't be afraid to respace your frame. I've done several. Follow Sheldon Brown's instructions to the letter and you won't get into trouble. I lay a piece of old carpet on the floor to protect the bike and I prop the end of the 2X4 on my wife's new washing machine. I protect the seat tube with a piece of foam pipe insulation. It's easier to work with a bare frame, but the last bike I did was fully assembled with just the back wheel removed and I didn't have any serious problems. After you've done one or two of them and you have a feel for how to place the lever and how hard to push, you can get the job done in under five minutes.