Bending Frame
 

I have a 2001 Fuji Finest CrMo frame. The rear spacing is 120mm. I want to bend it to 130mm to fit my road/fixie wheel. Has anybody done this to a CrMo frame? Any problems I may encounter? I've been to Sheldon Brown's website for instructions to do this, but want to hear from people who have done something similar. Thanks.

I spread my Capo, which is MnMo (Reynolds 531) from 120mm to 128mm, with no ill effects. Work slowly and carefully, and perhaps take it first to 126mm.

Yup. Don't be impatient and you'll be straight. Me, I got a little carried away and my 130->120 job is a little right-side-biased, but not so bad. Other than that, it's a job that a reasonably intelligent monkey could pull off.

Man, I'd pay good money for one of them monkeys.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=78416

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/frame-spacing.html

Cool! Thanks guys. Now, when you guys say, "Work slowly" and "Don't be impatient", what did you mean? How long should it take me to go from 120 to 130, generally?

I don't know that there's a way to measure this. I mean, if you're a machine, you could do it in like 30 seconds. Otherwise it should take you maybe 10 minutes. Basically, what you want to do is find out what's the minimal amount of force that will bend the stays. I know I was surprised by how little it took. Then go real slowly measuring as you go along, probably periodically checking for centeredness.

Oh, and you should know that your dropout alignment will be off from this. I personally haven't had a problem with mine, but then again, I don't use it very often. It could theoretically bend your hub axle. If you're concerned, you could set the frame yourself and take it to a shop to have them realign the dropouts. It's a fairly simple procedure.

Thanks, just the guideline I was looking for. Yeah, I know my drops will be out of alignment and plan to have the LBS realign it.

Somehow,I really don't think a 2001 fuji is 120 spacing. They Were made with 8 speed which is 130 oln. Measure it again before downing too many beers.

It is. Now, I'm not sure if it's a 2001 model, but it's definitely 120 spacing. I bought it from someone to build up a fixie and was suprised when I couldn't put my 130 fixie wheel on it. I had to take several measurements to confirm what I was seeing was true. Anyway, I cold-setted it tonight and my wheel fits it fine now. It actually was a lot easier to cold-set it than I thought.

Thanks for your help guys!

Any recent vintage Fuji other than a track frame isn't 120. Someone else had to have diddled with it it .

Did the guy who owned it previously have it fixed? If so, I'll bet for sure hed set it down to 120 to fit a track hub without spacers. Glad to hear the procedure went well and the patient had a speedy recovery. ;)

I just "cold set" my '80s vintage Peugot to 130mm from 126mm this weekend using the method Sheldon Brown described. Yup, I used a 2x4 and a piece of string to widen the dropouts. It took about 15 minutes of fooling around to get the spacing and alignment correct. I did have the benefit of a Park dropout alignment tool to straighten the dropouts.

Unfortunately, I don't have a dropout alignemt tool and will take to the LBS to have it done. I comteplated buying one, but can't see doing much dropout alignments in the future.

I have yet to have to align a dropout when going from 126 to 130.

I went from 120 to 130. It definitely looks out of alignment.

That's a different story.

If your going to pay them to re-align the dropouts you might as well pay them to spread it. It takes all of 15 seconds to spread it with the Park tools and then another 30 seconds to re-align the drop-outs.

I've already bent/cold set it. I don't have the tool to realign the drops, so that job will have to go to the LBS.

Yep, you were right. I finally had a chance to take to the LBS to have them realign my drops and it was perfectly aligned. This could only mean that the dude bent it down to 120 before he sold it to me. No big deal, it's back up to 130 and everything is good.