Got the wrong size rear wheel?

Pompous

I ordered some Shimano R501's and the rear wheel seems to be too narrow for my frame?

Is it a simple job of just replacing the axle with the correct length?

Thanks.

Eamonnator

What make and model bike have you?

onthefringe

Pompous wrote: »

I ordered some Shimano R501's and the rear wheel seems to be too narrow for my frame?

Is it a simple job of just replacing the axle with the correct length?

Thanks.

cheaper and easier to send it back
you must have a 135mm frame..although thats unusual without discs..

Pompous

Jupiter Spider. You can't really get the specs online. I just measured the spacing of the frame to be 135mm.

These are the wheels I bought. Seems the "Over locknut distance" is 130mm, whereas I need 135mm?

Pompous

onthefringe wrote: »

cheaper and easier to send it back
you must have a 135mm frame..although thats unusual without discs..

I'd rather not send it back. Surely an axle is not that expensive. I just want to know if it's possible to replace an axle with a longer length?

Eamonnator

I have an aluminium MTB frame, which has 135mm spacing.
I have, just now, put a 130mm rear wheel into the frame and tightened it up.
There does not seem to be any problem. The stays only have to bend inwards by 2.5mm each side.

Pompous

I'll give that a shot tomorrow, good idea. Thanks.

Pompous

Eamonnator wrote: »

I have an aluminium MTB frame, which has 135mm spacing.
I have, just now, put a 130mm rear wheel into the frame and tightened it up.
There does not seem to be any problem. The stays only have to bend inwards by 2.5mm each side.

It worked! Thank you very much Eamonnator!

Dave_White

couldn't recommend "squeezing" or cold setting aluminum frame. better add some spacers or change axle.

Eamonnator

Dave_White wrote: »

couldn't recommend "squeezing" or cold setting aluminum frame. better add some spacers or change axle.

Nor would I have recommended squeezing the frame, if I hadn't tried it out on an aluminium frame of my own first.

seamus

Steel is fine for squeezing a 130 into a 135 (or vice-versa). Wouldn't recommend it with alu.

Probably overworrying, but alu doesn't take kindly to being flexed in the long run. Getting your hands on a new axle and fitting it is trivial. Fine to ride the bike for now, but I'd get the axle sorted in the near term.

Pompous

seamus wrote: »

Steel is fine for squeezing a 130 into a 135 (or vice-versa). Wouldn't recommend it with alu.

Probably overworrying, but alu doesn't take kindly to being flexed in the long run. Getting your hands on a new axle and fitting it is trivial. Fine to ride the bike for now, but I'd get the axle sorted in the near term.

It's not trivial for me Thanks for the heads up though. Finding the right axle is the hard part for me. Fitting it will be fun because I've never done it before.

quozl

A friend of mine did this with his alumium hybrid. One of the chain-stays snapped about 2 weeks later.

Also http://www.sheldonbrown.com/frame-spacing.html

He even put it in red and he wasn't a man for being overly dramatic

Note, if you're not careful, you can do serious damage to your frame or fork this way!

If your frame or fork is made of aluminum or carbon fiber, do not attempt to re-space it: these materials are not suitable for "cold setting."

aldark

Cold setting - isn't that trying to bend the metal permanently? Forcing the chainstay to fit a smaller axle isn't permanent but I wouldn't like to do it either.

You could replace the axle in the hub, that's a quite straightforward job, costs about €5 for the new part. But, you'll have to redish the wheel - move the rim a bit to the drive side of the axle - if you've no experience, that's better left to a wheel builder.

Most axles are quite long and the axle doesn't have to be a perfect fit in the drop out. ie. if it's just over half way in that's probably good enough. So, I would just get 2x2mm washers (or 2.5mm washers if you can get them) one for each axle and try and fit that. This reduces the chainstay movement to 1mm which is probably much less stressful for the material. I might have read this somewhere on the Sheldon Brown site?

I should also add that I'm not a bike mechanic, wheelbuilder or metallurgist and this is just my opinion ..

seamus

aldark wrote: »

You could replace the axle in the hub, that's a quite straightforward job, costs about €5 for the new part. But, you'll have to redish the wheel - move the rim a bit to the drive side of the axle - if you've no experience, that's better left to a wheel builder.

Good point, but I think you could get away with the drive side being 2.5mm further from the stays, it's well within the rear mech's tolerance.

aldark

the problem isn't the rear mech, it's the position of the rim in the rear triangle -it'll be off centre, so the the brakes will rub, handling will be off + you're stressing one side of the bike over the other.