Bought a burly full suss frame on Ebay. Arrived well packed apart from the crucial bit of support between the dropouts. It appears to have been crushed and the dropout width is 125mm.

Question – is it worth trying to spread them by 10mm or is that a non-starter. The vendor will refund me but I got a good deal and would prefer to fix it if I can.

The rear triangle is Horst link – slightly burlier than a Five Spot.

I think I know the answer – get the refund… but advice welcome.

I spread one of mine back out using a threaded bar… Probably not the best idea on paper but it didn’t kill me. If it were an Orange 5, frinstance, you can do it with your bare hands, so it’ll depend on the bike.

But unless you really, really want the bike, I’d get the refund.

It would have to be something along the lines of threaded bar – the thing is pretty solid. I guess the added complication is whether it ends up out of wack centrally or in respect of disc mount/mech hanger.

Think I might discuss options with the guy who sold it as it isn’t going to be wort much to him.

The frame has never been built up!