Curious about 130mm dropouts
 

Was there a specific demarcation, or did every manufacturer make the change to 130mm in a staggered fashion? For instance I bought a new wheel set, then proceeded to the garage to cold set my frame in preparation, then found it already was 130mm. Somehow I just had it in my head a 6 speed freewheel was 126mm. It's an '84 Lotus frame. Then I looked at an '84 Miyata frame and that was 128mm.

During the transition period a lot of frames were spaced 128mm. Especially if the same frame was used for multiple models. This allowed higher models using the same frame to use 130mm drivetrains and lower models 126mm. 1984 seems a little early but maybe it was respaced somewhere in the past.

May 23 1986 @1307 every manufacturer switched over

Thanks neither was new to me, but miyata 84 by serial number. Lotus only by paint and group set comparison. I thought perhaps someone respaced but the 6 speed freewheel is tight fit.

:)

Like many things in cycling tech, the change took place over several years. For the most part, the switch from 126 to 130 happened in the 90s. IIRC Dura Ace was first with the 8 spd 7402 stuff in 1989, but they were an outlier. I'm sure campy wasn't far behind. Can't quite recall. That said, even a couple years later, nearly all of the racing bikes we sold at the shop where I worked at the time were 126 7 spd.

At any rate, no bikes in 1984 would have been 130, and certainly no freewheel road bikes.

Just because a bike has the dropouts at 128 doesn't mean it isn't nominally still 126. OLD is determined by the hubs. Factory might have fudged it a bit, or somebody else spread it to make it easier to get the wheel in.

May 23rd was a Monday. The great change over was on a Tuesday (nothing important takes place on a Monday), quite sure the time is correct as long as it’s GMT not EST. Lol

As was stated nothing just changed over everything kinda crossed over as a big blur. At least that what I kinda remember... lol

Somewhere on his blog, Dave Moulton mentioned that he was building all his frames to 126mm when he hung up the torch in 1993.