Bikewer

I've been working on my vintage Cilo, and wanted to replace the freewheel with a freehub. Dropout width was 126, so no big stretch. The bike has the extra-wide rims, so I found a seven-speed shimano freehub wheel from a cruiser that was perfect. Needed a bearing rebuild, but otherwise OK.

I had read Sheldon's article on using a 2X4 for frame spreading, and I reasoned that an automotive jack might work. Took the screw-jack from my Hyundai and used a couple of pieces of hardwood for "padding".

Seemed to work very well. A couple of gentle stretches brought the rear dropouts to an on-the-money 130mm, and now I have a seven-speed freehub rear end, complete with QR.

The Cilo had bolt-on axles, with odd little allen-head endcaps.

HillRider

A length of 3/8" all-thread rod, two nuts and two washers work well too.

KrisPistofferson

I dig tips like this.

operator

How is the frame alignment?

AndrewP

If you use sheldons method moving one side at a time, you know you have not changed the alignment. Checking the alignment is a lot more complicated than measuring to see 2mm movement of a drop-out. You could also use sheldons method to move the drive side out 4 mm and reduce the wheel dishing needed - but this complicates flipping the wheel to check for correct dishing.

cascade168

Having done a couple of these I can tell you that it's just not that simple. It would be nice if it just worked and aligned properly on the first shot, but I have not seen that happen.

I totally disagree. The string method that Sheldon describes is very simple. You can easily see 2mm change. All you need to do is tie a knot and read a ruler. Then compare two measurements. What's complicated about that?

The two frames I did got frame aligned to within 1mm. That's just the start. Once you do that you have to do the dropout alignment and, once you get that done, the frame alignment is changed as a result and you have to go back and do that again.

This method of spreading a frame is cheap, but don't think it's going to be done in ten minutes. It's very easy to overshoot and undershoot with the bending. And, just as Sheldon says, you do need a set of dropout alignment tools to properly finish the job.

HillRider

The all-thread rod method allows you to keep track of the net spread very easily and avoid overshooting the width. You can check your progress every couple of turns and stop at exactly the right time. The control it provides is much better than the 2x4 method and pretty much assures symetrical width change.

Bobby Lex

The auto jack method suggests that cold-setting requires great force, which is just not the case, it's overkill. Sheldon's method works fine, and the force actually needed to spread the stays is "light" at most.

Bob

well biked

I agree that the allthread method is more controlled, but I disagree that it assures symmetrical width change. If the stays don't bend equally (which they may or may not do using this method), then you've altered the alignment of the frame. The only frame I've cold set, I used the allthread method, and it turned out just fine without further re-aligning afterwards, but I believe I was fortunate in this case. If I were to do it again, I'd use Sheldon's method to assure that I'm moving the stays equal distances.

Grand Bois

I agree. It's a mistake to assume that the stays will always bend equally when equal force is applied. Sheldon's method involves bending one side at a time, so you have complete control. If you're careful and measure accurately, you can even correct a misaligned frame at the same time that you spread it.

cascade168

I also agree that it's folly to assume that the stays will bend equally. Many bike frames are asymmetric in one way or another, as far as the chain stays are concerned.

Another thing that plays, big time, into the Sheldon method is that when you actually make the bends with that 2x4 it's extremely difficult to control how much bend you get with a given amount of force. You think you just bent the frame 2 or 3mm and when you go and measure you find out that it moved 10-15mm. Just watching how far you move it does not indicate how far you permenantly bent the frame. In any bending, there is a certain amount of "springing back". So, you have to bend past the amount you need and hope it springs back to where you wanted to end up at. If you overshoot - and this is very easy to do - then you have to reverse the bending. It's not as easy as you might think.

Grand Bois

I found that I got a feel for how much pressure to apply very quickly. You'd have to put a ridiculous amount of pressure on the frame to bend it 10-15 millimeters.

cascade168

Well, now that would depend on the exact tubing in the bike your are working on, wouldn't it. Seeing as how there are many different possibilities for different tubing and frame construction, it just might differ from bike to bike. I found it very easy to get 10mm of bend. That's not speculation. It actually happenned several times, and it did not take any ridiculous amount of pressure to do it. The point of using a lever to do this job is to make job that needs a fair amount of force much easier. If you just tried to bend the stays apart with your hands it would not be easy at all (unless you are much stronger than the average person).

I'm not questioning that it was easy for you, but, please don't try to tell me what my own experience was.
I'm sure that I have a much better idea of that than you do (which is none).

Phantoj

I thought 126 was typical for 7-speed, and 130 was for 8,9,10 speed. Am I nuts?

Grand Bois

I reread my post and I don't see where I tried to tell you what your experience was. I did insinuate that you apply too much pressure and I'm sticking by that. I think it's best to spread the stays in tiny increments.

I hope that I would realize that it's a task better left to a person with a lighter touch before I overbent "several" frames.

HillRider

No, you're correct.

dooley

A big stick or rod is best, it's what the frambuider at my old shop would use.

ponchotempest

On my old high tensile steel bike, i went from 126 to 135 MTB spacing spreading it by hand. It's not hard on a cheap steel frame.

oilman_15106

+ 1 Have done 3 frames this way. Simple, cheap.