Got a super light GT frame that has 3/8 slots and I wanna run my 14mm wheels and I was just wondering if anyone has ever done this before and if so what did they use?
Anyone ever convert 3/8 dropouts to 14mm?
- Thread starter rhrandall6
- Start date
Which frame do you have? I'm in the same boat with my Ruckus UF.
Yup, I've done it a few times.
First convince yourself there is enough metal to support yuo still once you remove some. C'mon, there's plenty. You know it.
If the frame is steel you are good to a small angle grinder with a thin, fine ferous cutting disk. Mark it all up with a compass point to scratch out the size then use the cutting wheel like a jigsaw to slice out the material. Clean it up with a fine file.
If it's Aluminium the grinder can easily get it too hot too quickly and do nasty thing to the local heat-treatment. Mmm soft dropouts. Again mark it out with a fine scratching point but you gotta manually hacksaw and/or file this one out. Takes a while even going down through coarseness levels.
I have tended to take half the material from each side of the cut to keep the geometry spot on, but on one frame I wanted to lower the back slightly so I took it all from the top. Only a tiny difference but whatever.
First convince yourself there is enough metal to support yuo still once you remove some. C'mon, there's plenty. You know it.
If the frame is steel you are good to a small angle grinder with a thin, fine ferous cutting disk. Mark it all up with a compass point to scratch out the size then use the cutting wheel like a jigsaw to slice out the material. Clean it up with a fine file.
If it's Aluminium the grinder can easily get it too hot too quickly and do nasty thing to the local heat-treatment. Mmm soft dropouts. Again mark it out with a fine scratching point but you gotta manually hacksaw and/or file this one out. Takes a while even going down through coarseness levels.
I have tended to take half the material from each side of the cut to keep the geometry spot on, but on one frame I wanted to lower the back slightly so I took it all from the top. Only a tiny difference but whatever.
I've done the hacksaw variety on an old T1 frame. Worked fine, marked the top and bottom and went to town. Also did it on a set of Pitchforks. Aluminum is sketchy, have fun with that!
I rode a set of pitchforks for years with that mod. A buddy of mine had a grinder with a 14mm wide stone. He should have charged for the service he did it so often.
Milling some flats in the axles can work too, but not as easy to pull off without serious equipment.
I'm about to do mine in a few weeks. Now I just need to find a 14mm hub with disk mounts.
maybe i'm silly, but i always just use the 14mm slotted ales...