Cold Setting the rear stays

[SpaceFlightOrange]

Hi.

Has anybody ever tried this?

My Raleigh Max which I love has had a weird problem. I've had it from new and have the original wheels. the rear hub is a 135mm Alivio FHMC-12 (i think) and my new wheels are built around NOS versions of the same hubs. When I got the frame back from the powder coaters I discovered the rear wheel wouldnt fit, but annoyingly I cant remember if it was a tight fit before.

The original hub had a solid axle that i replaced at some point for a quick-release but I still have the original axle, and confirmed that it is 135mm (the axle is 185mm, 180mm was for the 130mm hub. The NOS hub is quick release.

I measured the gap between the stays and it was 127mm and I checked the frame alignment and its only 1mm adrift on one side. Speaking to a guy at Bob Jackson and he was at a loss to explain what was wrong but said that it would mean cutting out the bridges and fitting new ones!!

so I watched this video and thought "In for a penny..."

Lo and Behold, it worked!! I made tools similar to those on the vid and started spreading, first up to 150mm. this reset the gap to 130mm. then up to just below 160mm. this reset it to 133.8mm, so before carrying on I tried the wheel and it slotted in nicely, snug but didn't require any force to get it in (the bike was upside down at the time). so rather than risk metal fatigue I stopped. I then re-aligned the dropouts. this only reduced the gap by a very tiny amount.

I then checked the frame alignment and it was the same on both sides!

Well pleased with the result. Obviously This is on a steel frame. I wouldnt try it on anything else. and its not an expensive or rare bike, but it does mean that if I get a puncture I can now change it without requiring the strength of ten men to get the wheel out!!

Parts cost me £12 in total (including a box of 100 nuts which was all they had)

 

[bikey :)]

Re:

Nice work. Did you need to do anything with the drop outs to get them parallel or has that turned out not to be an problem?

 

[SpaceFlightOrange]

Re: Re:

Nice work. Did you need to do anything with the drop outs to get them parallel or has that turned out not to be an problem?

not a great deal. the 2 rods in the pic, in each dropout were used to re-align them. I put a nut/washer/nut combo on the end of the rods and fastened them into the dropouts with a small gap between each rod-end in the middle of the stays. I then used the other end of each rod as a lever to re-align them. once the ends were lined up that meant the dropouts were in line, allowing for any movement of the rod in the dropout as they aren't a perfect fit.

 

[Kell]

Keep the bits and you can make a headset press too.

http://youtu.be/HGfvO-ztoT4

 

[Muddy paw]

Excellent work mate as it just goes to show what can be done with time and patience ..

 

[SpaceFlightOrange]

Keep the bits and you can make a headset press too.

http://youtu.be/HGfvO-ztoT4

Good plan. I've got a GT Karakoram in the loft I'm thinking of building up. Might try it on that.

 

[SpaceFlightOrange]

Excellent work mate as it just goes to show what can be done with time and patience ..

Thanks. of course you can get proper tools to do the same job but for one-time use, they are not cost-effective. probably cheaper to take it in somewhere. But when I spoke to Bob Jackson, they said I'd need to completely strip the frame of components (including headset cups) and then when he talked about removing the braces, i could see the cost spiralling to the point of it being far more than the bike is worth

 

[Muddy paw]

I with you on mocking up your own tools instead of buying the proper ones as that will have saved you a few quid plus you'll probably find another use for them at some point in the future and yes i can quite imagine the cost getting out of hand when getting a pro like Bob Jackson to do the job as he'd probably be adding the cost of a re paint to the cost of the braces and as you say the frame isn't that expensive to begin with so good call mate ..

 

[SpaceFlightOrange]

I with you on mocking up your own tools instead of buying the proper ones as that will have saved you a few quid plus you'll probably find another use for them at some point in the future and yes i can quite imagine the cost getting out of hand when getting a pro like Bob Jackson to do the job as he'd probably be adding the cost of a re paint to the cost of the braces and as you say the frame isn't that expensive to begin with so good call mate ..

Thanks. Although I haven't ridden it yet...

...I just hope the arse-end doesnt fall off :shock:

 

[Silvergoat]

Re:

Excellent information and ideas here. I need to reset and realign the rear dropouts on my frame as the rear wheel seems to spin 2mm closer to the non-drive side chain/seat stays and this answers a lot of questions – thanks!