I dunno, I'd have to say this is bunk, assuming we're talking about steel frames here. I've cold set a dozen or more bikes a few millimetres larger or smaller and as long as you confirm that the dropouts are reasonably well aligned and the added or subtracted millimetres didn't all end up on one side or the other then you can't tell the difference. Many of these I've ridden thousands of kilometres on myself.
As for trying to coldset an modern off-topic aluminium frame, that's another matter, I know a guy locally who had a Cannondale that he stuffed a wheel that was too large for the dropout spacing and it did eventually (~half a summer) crack. Cannondale replaced it.
David Bilenkey Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
> -----Original Message-----
> From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org
> [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org]On Behalf Of Edward
> Kleinbard
> Sent: June 8, 2003 1:30 PM
> To: gregt@cs.net
> Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> Subject: [CR]Re:126 into 120
>
>
> Greg --
>
>
> I spoke to a serious framebuilder about doing something analogous
> (130mm wheel on rear dropouts with 126mm spacing) and he was adamant
> that it was a bad idea -- you risk cracking a chainstay after a few
> thousand miles. It costs very little for a framebuilder to 'spread' the
> existing rear dropouts to accommodate a larger size. 126 to 130 was
> said to be easy; I have no direct experience with 120 to 126.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Edward Kleinbard