I have various parts laying around doing nothing - rims, spokes/nipples, cranks, pedals, tyres. Basically all I need is a hub to build a 26" wheel. I think a 26x2.2 will fit in my Nimbus 2 24" frame, but have a couple of questions.
1)- Has anyone done this? Ie, put a 26" wheel in a 24" muni frame? And if anyone has, did it fit ok, without rubbing ?
2)- Is it worth it? One one hand it seems sensible to actually use spare parts rather than leave them gathering dust, but on the other hand I’m not sure it’ll feel different enough for me to go to the effort of swapping wheels. Am I likely to just end up with a wheel gathering dust as opposed to a pile of parts?
Any input would be appreciated before I blow £40 on a new hub!
A couple of years ago I picked up a discounted Kris Holm 24" muni frame with a similar idea and built up a wheel with a Qu-Ax hub I had, also discounted from when they shifted to disc brakes and closed out their old stock. But the 26" tires I wanted to use were all just a little bit too big. It was very close, and a 2.2" tire might have worked. I had it in my head that I didn’t want a “narrow knobby tire.” But if you’ve got one to try…
I also thought hard about coming up with some sort of spacers to go between the frame and the bearings–10 mm would have easily been enough to make it work–but I didn’t figure out anything that I could make myself, or have made for me for less than the price of a different frame, that I expected to stand up to muni riding. That’s not saying it couldn’t be done.
Fwiw, you can always unlace the hub and build it into another wheel later on if you don’t like how it turns out, so you wouldn’t have entirely blown the purchase price. The spokes might only really be good for one use but you say you already have them sitting around.
If you have the tire and rim you can put them together and measure the height. I bet it will fit.
If it doesn’t fit you can always do something like this:
That was to use a fat 29" wheel in a standard 26" MUni frame. It felt perfectly solid but I don’t think I would want to use that system long term.
( I used another set of stamped bearing caps facing the other way to hole the wheel.)
Would your 26 but your road wheel? Make sure it’s different enough from your main wheel to justify switching every once in awhile for something different.
The older KH 24" frames (before 2008) had a huge amount of clearance. I rode a 26" wheel for a while in my KH 24" frame. The 3" Duro would rub very slightly on the top. Smaller tires worked well without any problems!
Obviously, if you plan on using a brake, rim brake wont fit, and KH 2007 did not have disk tabs.
I had a Nimbus aswell for a while, but it has less clearance than the KH. I’m not sure it’ll fit.
Thanks for the replies. I have sat the uni wheel next to an mtb wheel and it looks like the 2.2 should fit. Another, possibly a better option, would be building it up and putting a 2" slick on for a totally different feel. I think I’ll go for it. Worst case scenario if I don’t use it there’s always the trading post on the forum!
Hi there OorWullie…I have a KH 26 frame available if you are interested. Feisty sold it to me in Dec. 2012. I recently swopped it out for a new frame. It has lost some paint from Feisty’s prodigious thighs (look up his profile and posts!)… Have fun, Joseph.
