Fixed hubs for 130 frames

Avahi29 said:

Hi anybody know of a decent, yet reasonably priced rear hub for a 130 OLN road frame. I've seen IRO hubs in the states but there seems to be a lack of choice in the UK.

Any help would be much appreciated

A29

Surly makes one with a 135 OLN ... a flip-flop hub. About $60US. Unfortunately, I do NOT think that it has spacers/washers that can be removed to make it a 130 OLN hub,

I think that your best-bet is to simply buy a replacement Shimano solid axle & nuts and/or cones and put it in an older Shimano freewheel-type hub (or, possibly even a vintage Campagnolo hub if you replace all the innards with the solid axle parts from another, solid axle hub) ...

OR, you can try to locate a NOS solid axle Shimano hub (used in hybrids until a few years ago, perhaps even now) or the complete solid-axle wheel and cannibalize the hub ... but, it will more than likely be a 36h hub.

Another option is to bend the frame to fit the hubs you have available. Of course there are caveats:

1) This is best done with steel.
2) Be sure the dropouts stay parallel and the frame symmetrical. Options range from try-it-and-hope to paying a frame builder to do it perfectly. That could cost more than the hub modifications described.
3) Not a great idea if you need to switch back and forth to 130mm.

With the warnings out of the way, I'll mention that I have a Reynolds 531 road frame which has been widened from 5 speed to 9 speed, and then narrowed back to fixed gear width. No problems, and my LBS did a good job keeping things parallel.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/singlespeed.html 🙂

The solid axle from a set of araya wheels from 1980 fit into the hub of my 1993 dura ace rear wheel on my fixie