RecordAceFromNew
Swinging Member
- Location
- West London
No.
I have a big shelf full of second hand wheels off tourers and road bikes dating back to the 1950's, a great deal of which are 5 speed on 126mm hub, some even take a fixed sprocket on the other side depending on the brand of hub.
When you handle a lot of older bikes and work on them (and I mean a lot) you learn what kit was fitted, you don't make the arbitrary assumption that it "must" be this dimension just because it has "x" component fitted.
Companies and riders used stock up on components, they mixed and matched new and old and companies often only offered the very latest kit as an upgrade to standard lines.
Indeed. Zoiders if you check you will see it was you who stated "As a 34 year old mercian it will have been built with 126mm spacing" AFTER I merely said it was most likely to have been built with 120mm spacing despite having seen the Mercian catalogues in which they were ALL 10 speed i.e. 120mm when new.
Given it did turn out to be 120mm, I am having difficulties understanding what your beef is.