help: 7 speed rear wheels

gjt70 said:

The hub of the read wheel on my commuter is making some very strange
noises and I am clearly going to have to do something about it. However,
it is my intention to retire the bike in a month or so and build a new
winter commuter over the summer. I therefore do not really want to
spend much money (or time) on the current bike.

The bike has a 7 speed shimano rear cassette and 126mm frame spacing.

Would I be correct in guessing from the frame spacing that its a 700c wheel?

Quoted message said:

I
was wondering if anyone knows where I might be able to get hold of a
suitable cheap (preferably less than £40) rear wheel?

Less than £40 is rare for a decent commuter wheel. I would suggest,
given that you're going to be building a bike, you look a little further
ahead and get a pair of hand built wheels somewhere in the
just-over-a-hundred-quid region from the likes of Spa Cycles (cheap for
good hand built touring wheels) or Oldham Cycle Centre (ditto for more
race orientated wheels - how fast do you want to commute?). This will
most likely get you 8/9 speed (130mm spaced) wheels, but there is no
harm in asking if they have any 7 speed hubs left. 8/9 speed will work,
but will require a cassette spacer and a spot of frame re-spacing (if
its steel, if its not, don't do it). They may well do something like
this as single wheels too, but a bit over £40 I'm afraid.

JimP

"gjt70" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

The hub of the read wheel on my commuter is making some very strange
noises and I am clearly going to have to do something about it. However,
it is my intention to retire the bike in a month or so and build a new
winter commuter over the summer. I therefore do not really want to spend
much money (or time) on the current bike.

The bike has a 7 speed shimano rear cassette and 126mm frame spacing. I
was wondering if anyone knows where I might be able to get hold of a
suitable cheap (preferably less than £40) rear wheel?

130mm will almost certainly fit fine (assuming the frame is steel) - so
almost any "road" hub will do. You can probably get 135mm to fit too (may
require GBH, aka cold setting), which gives you the option of eg a deore
hub.

8/9 speed is the same as 7, just needs a spacer.

Or if it's the freehub which is knacked, you can get a new one of those on
its own. Have you ever taken the hub apart?

cheers,
clive

Jim Price said:

gjt70 said:

The hub of the read wheel on my commuter is making some very strange
noises and I am clearly going to have to do something about it. However,
it is my intention to retire the bike in a month or so and build a new
winter commuter over the summer. I therefore do not really want to
spend much money (or time) on the current bike.

The bike has a 7 speed shimano rear cassette and 126mm frame spacing.

Would I be correct in guessing from the frame spacing that its a 700c wheel?

Quoted message said:

I
was wondering if anyone knows where I might be able to get hold of a
suitable cheap (preferably less than £40) rear wheel?

Less than £40 is rare for a decent commuter wheel. I would suggest,
given that you're going to be building a bike, you look a little further
ahead and get a pair of hand built wheels somewhere in the
just-over-a-hundred-quid region from the likes of Spa Cycles (cheap for
good hand built touring wheels) or Oldham Cycle Centre (ditto for more
race orientated wheels - how fast do you want to commute?). This will
most likely get you 8/9 speed (130mm spaced) wheels, but there is no
harm in asking if they have any 7 speed hubs left. 8/9 speed will work,
but will require a cassette spacer and a spot of frame re-spacing (if
its steel, if its not, don't do it). They may well do something like
this as single wheels too, but a bit over £40 I'm afraid.

Or get teh 8/9 speed wheels and swap the freehub from the 7 speed. That
should give a suitable spacing and be forwards compatible with the new
bike.

...d

Quoted message said:

JimP

Clive George said:

"gjt70" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

The hub of the read wheel on my commuter is making some very strange
noises and I am clearly going to have to do something about it. However,
it is my intention to retire the bike in a month or so and build a new
winter commuter over the summer. I therefore do not really want to spend
much money (or time) on the current bike.

The bike has a 7 speed shimano rear cassette and 126mm frame spacing. I
was wondering if anyone knows where I might be able to get hold of a
suitable cheap (preferably less than £40) rear wheel?

130mm will almost certainly fit fine (assuming the frame is steel) - so
almost any "road" hub will do. You can probably get 135mm to fit too (may
require GBH, aka cold setting), which gives you the option of eg a deore
hub.

It will either require cold setting or be fairly tight to get in/out.
To cold set it you'll probably need to stretch the rear triangle to
over 180mm before youreach the elastic limit (at least it was on my 653
frame.)

Quoted message said:

8/9 speed is the same as 7, just needs a spacer.

Or just put 8 sprockets on and set the derailleur limit screws
appropriately.

Quoted message said:

Or if it's the freehub which is knacked, you can get a new one of those on
its own. Have you ever taken the hub apart?

It is really easy to do.

...d

"David Martin" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

It will either require cold setting or be fairly tight to get in/out.
To cold set it you'll probably need to stretch the rear triangle to
over 180mm before youreach the elastic limit (at least it was on my 653
frame.)

Try cold setting a pair of Brompton forks to accept a SON (pre-narrow
version) :-)

cheers,
clive

David Martin said:

Or get teh 8/9 speed wheels and swap the freehub from the 7 speed. That
should give a suitable spacing and be forwards compatible with the new
bike.

A good point, but the OP would need to bear in mind that if the original
and new hubs are not the same (at least the same manufacturer, and even
then there could be issues), there may be a compatibility problem.

JimP

David Martin has brought this to us :

Quoted message said:

Clive George said:

"gjt70" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
130mm will almost certainly fit fine (assuming the frame is steel) - so
almost any "road" hub will do. You can probably get 135mm to fit too (may
require GBH, aka cold setting), which gives you the option of eg a deore
hub.

It will either require cold setting or be fairly tight to get in/out.
To cold set it you'll probably need to stretch the rear triangle to
over 180mm before youreach the elastic limit (at least it was on my 653
frame.)

Well, it's probably a good idea to try it (any decent shop will be able
to provide a wheel with a 130mm OLN hub to experiment with) but I'd be
amazed if it were not possible to fit a 130mm hub into a (steel) frame
spaced to 126mm without cold setting. The only exception to this would
be very high performance, specialist tubing (especially the old R753),
and frames built from such tubing shouldn't really be cold-set either.

Obviously cold setting is ideal on most frames (and is not rocket
science with the right tools), but is probably a complete waste of time
if the bike's about to be retired.

Clive's advice is good - get a 130mm, 8/9X hub, and just use a spacer
in the interim. That way you don't have to waste any money at all.
It'll be fine.

--
Simon
www.simondaw.freeserve.co.uk

Thanks for all the advice. I will start by seeing if I can squeeze a
130mm spaced hub into the frame and go from there.

I have thought about cold setting however, I am concerned about getting
the alignment right. My commute has a number of 40mph downhills that
are also rather twisty. If the bike was not running perfectly true I
would be concerned that it might do something I was not expecting! I
also did not really want to spend time working on this bike.

Puncture fairly also paid me a visit this morning!

Thanks,

Gordon

"gjt70" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Thanks for all the advice. I will start by seeing if I can squeeze a
130mm spaced hub into the frame and go from there.

I have thought about cold setting however, I am concerned about getting
the alignment right. My commute has a number of 40mph downhills that are
also rather twisty. If the bike was not running perfectly true I would be
concerned that it might do something I was not expecting! I also did not
really want to spend time working on this bike.

You won't get the alignment wrong for 130mm. For 135, you probably won't
either. And even if you did, it won't be terribly out and you wouldn't
notice - instinctive riding reations will just cope.

(this is assuming hack bike here :-) )

cheers,
clive