Rear Wheel hub too narrow for dropouts - solution?

Hi guys - got a problem and wondering if anyone could help.

I am building a real beater up and the back wheel I have is about 1cm too narrow for the frame/dropouts - the axle is long enough but the hub has about 0.5cm of space either side before the dropout. This means that if you were to tighten the nuts up fully the dropouts would not be properly aligned and I doubt they would hold the wheel in place properly.

Can I put washers between the hub and frame? Or would it be better to wind a nut onto the axle to fill this gap, as I could "lock" it against the hub and stop any further movement? Or, am I fucked and have to buy a new wheel?

I would do this but trying to keep this as low cost as possible as the bike will probably not survive a year locked up outside the pub.

PS: if anyone has a 25.4 quill stem in any length for around £5 I would be very grateful!!

Cheers

If the frame is steel I wouldn't worry too much about 5mm of flex from each chain stay, but the chain line might then become an issue, it depends on your crank set up, you might get lucky. If it's alu I would be a little more concerned, that stuff doesn't really like flexing.

If the axle of the hub is long enough for you to add a couple spacers (most bike shops should be able to help you out with some axle spaces from the part bin) either side I'd do that but it might not leave you with much axle space to fit the wheel locking nuts depending on how thick the dropouts of the frame are. This would also let you fine tune the chain line to a degree.

You might be able to get a wider axle if you need, hubs by people like Halo have axle conversion kits to change from 120mm to 130mm.

Thanks @HousecatHST!

The axle itself is long enough to allow the wheel locking nuts to fit on, that isn't a problem. I'm just considering what I can put in between the hub and the frame - I feel as if spacers would still allow the wheel to move about?

The wheel is a flip-flop hub - how would I adjust the chain line at all without having to re-dish the wheel?

If it's steel just tighten the nuts up job done. Your chainline should be OK as it's measured/determined from the centre line of your hub and measured from the centreline of your downtube. If it was 42mm before it should be 42mm after tightening the nuts. Even if you put washers or nuts between locking nut and frame your chainline shouldn't alter unless when tightened up the rear stays dont squeeze evenly, i.e. you end up with the hub off centre and therefore chainline more to one side.

To adjust the chain line you would need to put two spacers on one side of the hub rather than the other. Its not going to make any difference to how the bike handles by having the wheel a couple of mm closer to one chain stay rather than the other.

I'd go to a local bike shop and see if they have any hub spacers they can give you. if not any cheap wheel will have them on, I've pulled them off bikes which have been left at the local tip before.

hope that helps.

Yeah as the other guys said steel can handle the flex, but in the past I've used these with great success....

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Being steel, and a beater you could probably cold set it 5 mm narrower. I've cold set frames 5mm the other way, steel is pretty forgiving. If you've ever seen a frame builder cold set a new frame you'll know what I mean!

Thanks guys, heading down to B&Q tonight for some washers/nuts/whatever works!

Your help is much appreciated.