I am building a front and rear wheel for a mid 80's Schwinn Le Tour. It has 126mm rear spacing.

Without spending more money, I want to be able to use the parts I found in a storage locker (see below).

2 700c hoops (Sun M13 II)
1 Velo Orange Grand Cru Fixed Front Hub (36h)
1 Grand Cru High Flange Freewheel Rear Hub 130mm (36h)

I want to make the rear wheel a single speed.

Will I be able to adjust the rear hub's spacing to 126?

Also, can I replace the quick release axel with one that matches the front bolt on?

Thanks

You can absolutely respace that thing to 126mm, but that doesn't mean it'll have good chainline with a SS freewheel. You might be hard-pressed to pull that off without doing some weird MacGuyver stuff with spacers and dish.

As for the solid axle-- I've never had one apart, but I see that they have cartridge bearings with adjustable cones. I think if I were in your shoes, I'd break it down and see how the threads go on the stock q/r axle, before I went ahead and got a m10x1mm solid axle for it. It may be very normal, or it may have some special features for the sealed bearings.... If you break it down, post up a pic, and we'll be better able to advise. (Or, maybe someone who has worked on this hub--- or the folks at VO-- can shed some light on it for ya.)

HTH

-Rob

Not having the rear hub in hand I can't say how the axle/bearing fit is dealt with. Some cartridge bearing hubs have a portion of the axle special ground (no threads) to fit the ID of the bearing, some have a threaded sleeve fitting the bearing's ID. if your hub is the latter then most any axle of the same diameter and thread pitch will interchange (independent of the nuts or QR) If the former then you'll have to find a compatible axle (maybe from Velo Orange) to do the swap out. As Rob said the chain line will still need to be dealt with.

Not asked but a possible issue is whether the original wheels were 700c or 27" and whether the brake calipers will still work with the new wheels. Andy.

Thanks reply 1 & 2 for the quick response. Ok, what would be the best hubs with these rims for a SS setup? Trying to keep expenses down because my cap got peeled back on the rest of that locker.

Where y'at? Probably wouldn't be to hard to arrange a trade-- the VO fw hub for a flip/flop track hub; otherwise, used track hubs are pretty easy to come by. The track hub will be spaced 120, but you can easily add 3mm of spacers per side for a 126--- or, vary the spacers per side to dial in a chainline for a specific crank.

It would be easier/cheaper to find an old, used, cup & cone hub, respace it so the flanges are somewhat symmetrical and put a single-cog freewheel on it. That's what I did with my single-speed Le Tour. I even left the QR axles on it just to be different. Finagling the Grand Cru hub sounds like too much work.

FWIW: my wheels are 700C. Adapting them to the Le Tour frame (which originally had 27" wheels) was just a matter of lowering the brake shoes.