On Fri, 17 Sep 2004 00:26:32 +0000, Phil, Squid-in-Training wrote:

If you add the 5mm spacer to the left side of the hub, the wheel will be
stronger because the dish will be reduced and the spokes more evenly
tensioned between the left and right sides of the wheel.

Stronger, that is, than that 130mm wheel was originally.

This begs the question:

Why not make all hubs such that the dish is zero, right off the bat? Or
why aren't all mountain hubs have the flange spacing of road hubs, so as
to make it stronger?

narrowing the flange spacing does not make a wheel stronger. But keep in
mind that "stronger" is not really the only consideration. Strong enough,
yes, but most of us do quite fine with 130mm spacing on 8-9-10 speed hubs.
A 135mm hub will probably be stronger than a 130 stretched and re-spaced
like this. But the 130 will be strong enough -- that is, if there is an
axle for it that is long enough.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not
_`\(,_ | certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to
(_)/ (_) | reality. -- Albert Einstein