130mm 7 speeds?
 

I see a couple of wheels with 130mm 7 speed FW hubs on eBay, but are they really? I've never seen a bike with one. Thought 126 was plenty for 7. Did Campy stretch the Record to hold non-ultra 7 clusters? I just returned a set of wheels that were measured wrong, so not counting on sellers too much.

Yes, MTBs had 130mm wide freehubs with 6 speed Uniglide and and 7 speed Uni and Hyper-glide.

How about 700c though? Sure they're all 130 now with 8-11 speed, but did anyone make 130s for 5-7 speeds?

You can use a 7 speed cassette on a 8/9 speed road hub with the use of a spacer, and this is likely what you are seeing.

Probably someone made them.

The parts all work together and I'm sure that some manufacturers mixed-and-matched what they had available to work and ship their bikes. So I'm sure there were 7-speed cassettes and 7-speed derailleurs that were assembled on bikes that had the frames the sourced set to 130mm. 130mm freehubs are just as cheap and probably more readily available as the 8-9's came out so that is the way they assembled them and sent them out to dealers.

130mm, 7 speed is also popular for a retro-fit option. Many 5 and 6 sppeds being upgraded do not have the necessary relief on the inside of the driveside stays to accommodate the slightly wider fit of a 7 speed without the cogs or chains interfering with the stays (usually the seat stay).

Talking freewheel, see o.p.

I thought freewheel hubs were generally made with 120 (<5 speed) or 126 (>5 speed) ONLY. I saw my first Suntour Ultra6 in 1980 or so, it's claim to fame was that it fit 126mm 5 speed hub spacing. Then Ultra7, still at 126. Freehubs started briefly with 7 speeds but quickly went to 8, so the LAST freewheels were presumably 7 speeds with 126. They're still stuck at 7 and 126, so I dont understand why there are 130mm freewheel hub/wheels advertised in eBay. Campy no less.

here

I've had trouble getting 7-speed to fit with 126mm hubs. I'd say it depends on the hub; and, to some extent, how the drive-side dropout is brazed to the stays. Sometimes you get a little interference with the chain hitting the seatstay.

+1

This is one of the the reasons why I only went with 8-speeds on my updated 85 Pursuit. That and the barcons for 8-speeds are MUCH cheaper than 9-speeds. Re-spacing the dropouts to 130mm is snap -but having enough room for 9 gears might have been a stretch. And I had a perfectly good 8-speed cassette sitting around...

So they're 126 hubs with longer axles and spacers setup for 130 coldset/squeeze 7 speed conversions? Makes sense if you wanted 7 speeds pre-Ultra narrow.

I have a Rigida V-Argent rim laced to a 7 speed hyperglide Shimano RSX hub that is 130 spaced. Came off a stock 98 Trek 420. I am currently using the wheels on an 85 Fuji Espree that is my commuter.

I have a set of Suntour Freewheel hubs in 130 with bolt on axles that were designed for early 7 speed MTB's, so I am sure someone else had them. There were/are also a lot of cheap bikes built for 7 speed FW's and I am sure a lot of them are 130.

Glenn

But that's a freehub, not freewheel. Freehubs are mostly 130 on road bikes anyway...

Judging from the responses, I'm guessing that freewheel hubs spaced for 130mm was NOT the convention for road bikes, although a few existed.

130mm-spaced freewheels were a HUGE mistake. The axles bent if you looked at them wrong and then there were all sorts of issues with the bearings and rubbing on the freewheel. Heck, 126mm axles bend pretty easy if you are heavy or were aggressive off-road. The 130's were 10x worse.

That's a good point. Did you have one? Was there a 130mm freewheel period in hub spacing history?

I think that my C-Record hub is 130 mm, I am using it with a 7 speed Regina freewheel.

From what era was this freewheel hub? Campagnolo for a while during the late 70s up to the early 90s offered a Portacatena system, the normal version of the idea was to put a wheel with a 5 speed freewheel on a 126 frame, and the 'missing' cog space was filled in with the portacatena. Some manufacturers extended this to 6 speed (and arguably 7 speed) freewheels by building 130mm OLD frames and Campagnolo obliged them with the necessary axle and hub.

http://campyonlyguy.blogspot.com/201...rtacatena.html

Most any threaded asel 126mm FW hub can be converted to 130mm by simply adding a 4mm thick spacer beneath the locknut on the NDS, re-center the axel extension on each side. Axle will not protrude as much but usually works just fine. Risk of braking/bending axle with a 130mm 7-speed FW this is no worse for breaking axels than a 126mm 7-speed if all the extra space is added to the NDS, probably a bit less problematic as more of your weight is then carried on the NDS bearings. Benefit of this is that the spoke tension will be a bit more equalized so the rear wheel is a bit stronger if you dish to center it.
Sachs briefely made/sold 130mm 8-speed FW hubs in the early 90's before they got aroud to building a casette hub. I think a few of the botique hub makes like American Classic, Phil Wood also would have offered 130mm freewheel hubs for a few years before they built freehubs.

My Specialized 36H 126mm hub has a total axle length of 136mm, so there's 5 mm at each end for the dropouts. If I stuff a 4mm spacer on the drive side (and recenter axle/redish), it would leave me with me just 3mm at both ends for the dropouts. Is that enough?

Or you could just add two 2mm spacers to both ends, and you wouldn't have to recenter the wheel. However, a cassette hub is better because of the problem of bent axles.

When I was doing a drivetrain upgrade recently I was looking into getting a wheel already spaced for 7 speed, I also came across those odd 7 speed dished freewheel 130mm OLD 700c wheels, my theory came out to being people using more modern framesets with modern spacing and their old drivetrains, possibly with plans to upgrade slowly. At least I considered trying that before I scratched that idea and grabbed a spare axle and some spacers and redid a 120 to 126.

Well, no. You need the extra mms for the slightly thicker freewheel to clear the stay and cage, so it's the drive side.

Not really. 130mm width for road bikes came along when Shimano introduced 8-speed Dura-Ace. Those first hubs had an unusual conical locknut on the left side so you could cram a 130mm width hub into a 126mm width frame without "cold setting".

FWIW: in the late '80's, Shimano Deore/Deore XT/Deore II/Deore XT II (all 7-speed cassette) hubs came in 130mm and 135mm width, 32 or 36 hole, and silver or black. Keeping all those variations straight on the warehouse shelf was a nightmare-
http://www.euroasiaimports.com/produ...1820p11941.htm

i think there were a lot of 126 mm 7-speed freewheel hubs for road use. Granted, some frames really don't handle it well, but many do. Those dished wheels have been very reliable for me as a road rider.