I feel a strong need for a real classic with a 120 mm rear hub. Show me the depth and breadth of what that means.

That's oddly specific.

most bikes before 1980 probably fit the category. i have two, and they're beautiful.

with that said, i prefer 126mm spacing, allowing for a 6 cog, 12-speed. it's the additional high gear that i usually appreciate most often.

It was at one time the norm.

I wanted to put Ergolevers on my 1974 PX10LE, what with it being such a hyper animal with it's steep frame angles.

These frames typically measure 121mm, so my trusty, old Phil wheelset slipped right in:




Not quite happy with the 14-28t, 5-speed FW that I needed to go along with the bike's 45t small chainring, I built up a slightly wider-axled hub/wheel for it, which fit a 7-speed FW (had to alter the rear derailer again) with an overlocknut-width of 124mm, to easily slip into the Pug's dropouts. Call it a half-assed 120mm bike, ok?

Are not 10 speeds enough? Next thing you know we will be riding carbon fiber and aluminum?

Guess I AM getting a bit jaded....ONLY 5!?! Seems like not enough! Looks wimpy!

Back in the day a 5 speed freewheel and 2 chain rings gave us a lot of choices.

If some guys can ride single speeds, a 5 speed block should certainly be the cat's meow.

A late 60's Paramount would be my grail bike. A sleeper 531 might fit the budget. Cottered cranks are not what I have in mind. Stronglight cranksets are a plus. Campy Gran Sport would be cool.

That's pretty cool, definitely a bit older than mine. I don't recall my exact model, but it's a very similarly named Regina 5-speed. I've been using an old Shimano for awhile now, after reading here at C&V, that they're probably the best-shifting, and I think I agree. BTW, my old Frejus might very well be 120 but a 126 axle still fits very well.

Well, with the Pug's half-step chainrings and the very hilly terrain here, a very wide-ranging 14-28t 5-speeder was just taxing my legs too much to hang with the faster groups, so a less-gappy 7-speed freewheel gave me exactly what I needed and little more.

The 7-speed also happens to match the 8-speed Ergo cog-spacing requirements, so a Campy derailer could be put back on.

This here is a 5-speed freewheel setup that gets me around at speed, here in the hills. It requires one double-shift in the sequence to extract a full 7 sequential, reasonably "tight" ratios, but I did get up to speed on it (with considerable practice, tuning and yes, more practice!). It uses 52x36t and 13-24t. Finally I can say that I did it, it was my cycling goal of early 2013.

Narrow spaced SunTour Ultra or Maillard Compact 6-speed freewheels were made for 120mm rear ends.

I never liked the shifting quality of Ultra-6 freewheels back in the day, but rode on them and even had a couple of customs built up on Pro-Compe bodies iir.

But I've become a fan (and small hoarder) of U-6 freewheels in recent years, after finding out how amazingly well that they can shift using 9-speed chains, chains that weren't available back in the day, but which have allowed U6 freewheels to make a comeback around here.

Yep, I use a 50-34 in the front, with a 14-28 cluster. I mostly use the small 34, along with the higher 3 gears in back, & that gets me up most hills, that I want to try, anyways.

I just posted this in another thread:


Here's another, also posted recently in another thread:


And another in progress, but actually 124mm with a 5-speed FW:

A few people are now offering a 120mm freehub. I've been tempted to see how many 9 or 10spd cogs I can cram on one.

...that would be handy, because decent quality 5 speed Crit cogged
freewheels are getting harder and harder to come by in the used/recycled
stuff that shows up here. Most of what i see is wide range 12/28 and 12/30.

I guess I could try recogging a couple, but they are usually on there pretty good.

brilliant post. these look my size. px-10? how many bikes do you have as nice as these three? and have you yet named beneficiaries?

Sleeper 531? 120mm? 1971/72?

I give you one Corky Gulbransen Criterium specific racing machine. Made in the USA.

How about an early 50's Stucchi

...my wife says she's gonna sell every darn one of them at a yard sale for 50 bucks apiece after I croak, so check the obits here in Sacramento every couple of weeks.

My only 120mm rear spaced bike from 1972.
Phil Wood 1st gen hubs front and rear with a 5 speed Zeus 2000 aluminum FW.
I first thought that the hub/FW combination would be troublesome when I could not fit my splined FW remover over the enlarged tip of the aluminum axle, but thankfully through informational help from the C&V forum, I found out that I could easily tap off the drive half of the axle from the hub to get it out of the way.

That Phil is NICE!