Saturday, July 9. 2011
i will at some point post a narrative account of what i've done with the 1984 Trek 500. For now, though, just a fact dump about 126mm hubs & wheels:
- new 27" rims are hard to come by. 700c is easier, but 36 spoke rims are hard to get in either size. look for 28H or 32H hubs. 28H front/32H rear is a fairly reasonable thing to do.
- new 126mm hub options are limited, and the quality is uncertain. good used and NOS hubs abound on ebay, major, quality brands like Mavic, Shimano, & Campy are not hard to get.
- there are both freewheel and freehub options available in the ebay environment.
- if you're buying a freewheel hub on ebay, attend to the threads: Sheldon Brown's article on freewheel threads. stick with ISO.
- vintage 7 speed freewheels for ISO threads are kicking around, and so are brand new ones. I briefly used an NOS Suntour Ultra 7 before switching to a new 7 speed Shimano hyperglide. The modern Shimano freewheel brings with it the possibility of indexed rear shifting if the shifters and rear derailler are also modernized appropriately, a subject for another article (I have done this, it works.)
- Shimano made some 126mm cassette hubs in the early 90s with the now-obsolete Uniglide splines. Most of these can be converted to the modern Hyperglide, and some used ones on ebay have already been converted.
- The Shimano cassette hubs for 126mm were made in the Deore mountain bike line and in the Exage and 600 (Ultegra) road bike lines. The Deore is quite heavy and tough, heavier than most road bike riders will be interested in.
- The 7 speed hyperglide freehubs swap right onto Uniglide hubs. Sheldon Brown claims you can take some 9 speed hyperglide cassettes, remove one cog, and get an 8 speed cassette that fits on the 7 speed hub. This works for the heavier cassettes that don't use spiders.
- 8/9/10 speed hyperglide freehubs can swap onto the uniglide hubs. these appear to end up slightly wider than the 7 speed freehubs (about 2mm), but still can be gotten to fit on steel frame bikes without violence. Some wheelbuilders warn about excessive dish, others think it's no big deal.
- There's lots of information on Shimano hubs here, read it before making any decisions about freehubs on 126mm rear hubs: Sheldon Brown on Shimano rear gears
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