Increasing chainstay clearance to run wider tires

[Jim Bronson]

Gang,

There was recently a thread on the 650B forum about increasing chainstay to run Hetres for example.  One method used by Alex Wetmore had pictures:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/88336152@N00/11139776595/

It's an area of interest to me since I converted my bike to 650B.  There were some comments about early Rivendells having less chainstay clearance and my bike seems to be among these despite being a custom.  So I am interested in this for my bike, but only if it's really feasible.  I certainly don't want to weaken the chainstays, and I understand a repaint will probably be necessary afterwards.

This seems a bit dicey to do at home, so, was just wondering if anyone had sent their bike back to Rivendell, or anywhere else, to have this done.

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Keep the metal side up and the rubber side down!

[Peter Morgano]

For me it's always been brake bridges where the clearance runs out first. Just my experience.

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[Bill Lindsay]

I did it in my garage on a 650B conversion.  It's not rocket surgery.  If you are planning to get it painted anyway, then fine.  By no means will you need to get a repaint just because you squeezed the chainstays.  If you wanted to pay a professional to modify your frame, Riv will not be doing the work.  They might give you a referral, though.  

[Tony DeFilippo]

I asked Bilenky in Philly about this a year ago in reference to my trek 650b project and they said they could/would do that after getting to look at the bike and assess the chain stays. As it turned out the retrofit budget went into the purchase of the Atlantis/Saluki so I never did it. I'm going to try narrower tires on the Trek and swap the hetre's out to the Saluki... Might solve some of my wicked hi speed shimmy with the Trek to!

[Patrick Moore]

I've never had worries about chainstay clearance for tires, but I've several times needed more clearance for right side cranksets. Rivendell offered to indent the right stay of the 2003 Curt (I declined, as I decided to build it with a single ring), and I myself used very crude methods to indent the stays on 3 bikes, all of rather heavy gauge tubing; on one using a bench vise, and for two of them simply using a hammer and mandrel and beating the sh*t out of them until the stay took the, in these two cases, deep indents that I needed. The results were actually effective and good looking after a quick touch up with paint. I never hand problems with them, and when I sold all three, no one complained.

On Thu, Mar 20, 2014 at 5:04 AM, Tony DeFilippo <vpi...@gmail.com> wrote:

I asked Bilenky in Philly about this a year ago in reference to my trek 650b project and they said they could/would do that after getting to look at the bike and assess the chain stays.  As it turned out the retrofit budget went into the purchase of the Atlantis/Saluki so I never did it.  I'm going to try narrower tires on the Trek and swap the hetre's out to the Saluki... Might solve some of my wicked hi speed shimmy with the Trek to!

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[Cyclofiend Jim]

When RBW started making 650B/584 frames there really weren't that many tires to choose from  - and Col de Vie's were on the wider end of things. It's been wonderful to see the profusion of tires now supported, but it does make the early 650B/584 spacing seem limiting.  But, then, there was a time when 700C/622 tires larger than 25 mm seemed "big"...

I know some folks who have crimped their own chainstays.  It's mentally a bit overwhelming to consider, and you want to proceed carefully, with a way to confirm rear triangle and dropout alignment.  But, it's not sensei-level work.

Peter's point about checking for clearances at all angles is important.  You don't want to crimp and then discover it's not the true limiting factor. 

Done right, it should not weaken things.  It's one of the reasons steel is a superb material.

Ride buddy JimG worked his way through this - well documented as usual.  Here's a little of his investigation process:

http://sfcyclotouring.blogspot.com/2007/07/denting-chainstays-for-tire-clearance.html

Any competent frame builder or a shop that does frame alignment on steel frames should be able to do this if you don't want the project yourself.

hope that helps,

- Jim /  cyclofiend.com

[C.J. Filip]

Renewing this informative old post to see if anyone has attempted dimpling/indenting their Riv chainstays to increase tire clearance in the last 5 years.

My application is a Saluki running 47mm Teravail Cannonballs.  The tires fit but there is only 3-4mm of clearance on either side.  Looking to increase my margin of safety!

Clark in Moscow, ID.

[Doug Coleman]

I had a local frame builder (Jamie Swan) indent my chainstays on my Romulus so I could 48mm tires on a 650b conversion. Everything went smoothly, paint was intact and the dropout spacing was brought in to 130, instead on 132.5. 

- Doug 

[C.J. Filip]

Thanks, Doug.  

Hope the 132.5mm spacing can be kept as I am running a 135mm setup.

Member Frank did the same to his 60cm Saluki and suggested contacting Mark Nobilette for this service and mentioned the labor was $35.