Bike Friday dropout respacing

[Dave Feldman]

Thinking of equipment changes on my Bike Friday that would mean spreading the rear end from 130 to 135mm.  Given the short stays it's a proportionally greater move than on a frame for bigger wheels.  Anybody respaced a Friday?

David Feldman

Vancouver, WA

[Mark Bulgier]

Never heard of anyone doing that, but I bet it's do-able. (I'm betting with your money not mine though) 

The tubes are small diameter, right? Less chance of kinking. 

How bad would it be if it got ruined? Cost-benefit analysis requires knowing or estimating both the cost of failure and how likely it is. Even if failure would be terrible, it still can be worth trying if it's very unlikely. 

- Mark

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From: Dave Feldman <feldm...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, December 8, 2025 8:00 PM
To: frameb...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [Frame] Bike Friday dropout respacing

Thinking of equipment changes on my Bike Friday that would mean spreading the rear end from 130 to 135mm.  Given the short stays it's a proportionally greater move than on a frame for bigger wheels.  Anybody respaced a Friday?

David Feldman

Vancouver, WA

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[tho...@kokopedli.com]

Remember to strap tight all the bridges so all the bending hjappens between them and the drops and not pop the bridges loose.
seeing how far I have moved some rear drops apart on larger diameter wheel bikes, I'd bet (as Mark says, your risk) that just 2.5mm per side ought to be O.K. 

noMadic  Thomas

[Steven Shand]

Not BF specifically, but when I've respaced bikes that I'm a little nervous about, then I usually do a permanent adjustment of about half the amount I need, (2.5mm) in your case and just accept that I'll need to spread the dropouts another 2.5mm when fitting the wheel each time. 

I don't have hard data for that. I just like to minimise the non-elastic (beyond Young's Modulus) bending as much as possible. You'll have to move the part significantly more than the 5mm you need.

Steven

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[Brandon Ives]

David,

it depends a bit on the age and model. When I was there 25 years ago I cold-set literally thousands of the frames. 130 to 135 shouldn't be a problem.

I have 4 (2 Crusoe, a Saturday, and a Air Glide) that I built while there and have reset the spacing on all of them since I left for various configurations. The monostay rear triangles will be no problem and the more recent designs with cold formed full length tubing and bridges should be really easy if you remove the bridges first.

Best,

Brandon Ives

Springfield, MO

[david levy]

Dave,

Bike Friday stays are small in diameter and you can bend them all over the place with no issues.

Dave

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Dave Levy
Ti Cycles Fabrication (Bicycle stuff) 
Cedar Ridge Fabrication (Car stuff) 

15707 NW McNamee Road Portland OR 97231 USA
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