terry b said:
Are you sure your year 2000 frame has a different dropout width? All of my bikes from that era are 130.
Ditto me and my 2000-era LeMond.
However, my gf has a late-90s entry-level Trek road bike, and it's 7-spd. So 126mm may've hung around at the low-end a bit longer than we remember.
Extra cog increases recently have not driven spacing changes, they've driven tighter cassettes. 9 to 11 for example was all done on 130 hubs.
Are you sure that had
nothing whatsoever to do with it? :idea:
Okay, sure, 8 to 11-spd was done on 130. But 6 and 7-spd were done on 126mm, and 5-spd was done on 120mm, if I recall.
And 3- and 4-spd were on 114mm, if Sheldon Brown's chart is to believed.
Just coincidence?
Or is it more like the component and bike makers will try to 'hold the line' at a dropout spacing standard for awhile (by narrowing the chains and cog spacing), but beyond a certain point something's gotta give if you're gonna cram more coggage back there, and when that happens, dropout spacing goes up.
.