[Easyup]

Before I try a local wheel builder with my marginal Shimano hubs I thought you guys might know someone building wheel sets worthy of a nice old custom, Renolds 753 so cold set is out. Maybe you even know someone that builds my "Holy Grail", Campy freehub, reasonably light, blue anodized like my Ambrosio Conalgo wheels with 126mm.

 

[rruff]

Your frame can be cold set to 130mm very easily. I've not heard of it being an issue at all on steel.

And then you can use Chris King R45 blue hubs if that works for you... and you can run 11spd if you wish.

 

[bikerjulio]

Firstly, you could think of building the wheels yourself, it's not that hard and the minimum in tooling is not too expensive.

Secondly, you don't really provide enough info and your terminology is confusing.

"Freehubs" came into being with the advent of 8-speed systems, which also required 130mm spacing.

Prior to that there were 7-speed systems that used freewheels and used 126mm spacing.

How many speeds are you wanting? That will help frame the answer.

 

[Easyup]

Thanks guys.

rruff - Reynolds 753 is notorious for not being able to coldset, much on the net like Reynolds 753 report

julio - Your right about building the wheels but I have managed to get to 62 w/o needing to build a wheel so really hope to make it all the way.
Sorry for any confusion, I rescued the mid 80's frame so I am sure it was a 6 speed. I have DT shifters now but ride in traffic so find I ride my newer bikes much more often due to safety (hands on hoods/shifter/brakes) and no doubt laziness.
So while I could go w/ a 126cm freewheel and bar end shifters my preference is freehub. Have gotten a couple of PM offers of offset rim builds, one a Peter White set that looks a good deal.

 

[bikerjulio]

I'm still a little confused with respect to what you are trying to do, but here's one option: The sprocket spacing between 7 and 8-speed clusters is the same. The cluster just got wider with 8-speed. Therefore a first generation 8-speed ergopower shifter will work fine with a 7-speed freewheel, which also has 126mm hub spacing. You would effectively be upgrading the shifting system to early 90's but retaining the older frame spacing. You'd need a similar vintage (ie late C Record type) rear derailleur. I speak from experience here as I have a bike with a similar setup that runs very well (using a 9-speed chain too). And you end up with shifting from the bars.

 

[Easyup]

I'm still a little confused with respect to what you are trying to do, but here's one option: The sprocket spacing between 7 and 8-speed clusters is the same. The cluster just got wider with 8-speed. Therefore a first generation 8-speed ergopower shifter will work fine with a 7-speed freewheel, which also has 126mm hub spacing. You would effectively be upgrading the shifting system to early 90's but retaining the older frame spacing. You'd need a similar vintage (ie late C Record type) rear derailleur. I speak from experience here as I have a bike with a similar setup that runs very well (using a 9-speed chain too). And you end up with shifting from the bars.

I like that, I know I can find the shifter, should be able to find the RD, don't know about the hub but will look around. thanks much

 

[rruff]

rruff - Reynolds 753 is notorious for not being able to coldset, much on the net like Reynolds 753 report

My apologies... I didn't realize that 753 was so exceptional in that respect. I'll try to give you more *useful* info...

It sounds like your preference is for modern brake/shifters on this bike... yes? If so, what do you have now? Since you mentioned Campy hubs, I'm guessing Campy. I like the modern Campy models the best. The old ones were not very good, IMO.

Would you like to get a Campy 10 or 11 speed shifter to work with a 7 speed freewheel? If you are willing to use a Shimano rear derailleur (old 7400 DA model), you can do it. This page shows some good info for mixing and matching: Shimergo | CTC

Or with a JTek Shiftmate, you could use pretty much any other Shimano rear derailleur. Jtek ShiftMate

Another option you might favor is having a modern hub spaced to ~128mm... which should go in without trouble. Then you could run 10 or 11spd and use a Campy derailleur. Off hand I can't think of any that would not require a bit if custom machining... ie shorten the axle and the NDS spacer. This should be simple though for anyone with the tools.