Pro flex 857

Hi Guy and Gals

I have recently bought a pro flex 857 frame and garvin forks. im struggling to find anyone with info on what head set these used to run as from what i can see it requires an inch top and 1" 1/8 at the bottom?!
Do i just buy on of each or can you still buy a factory from somewhere?

Any info would be much appreciated.

Hi,
You have a couple of options I guess.
Option one is use the existing cups, washers and spacers. Clean and re-grease using standard headset ball bearings in races. I have one Proflex with this "standard" set up and it works just fine.

Option two is buy 2 mid range modern headets, one an inch for the top and one 1/18th for the bottom.
Knock out the old cups and fit the bottom 1/18th as normal, lower race on the stepped crown of the fork.
For the top you need a headtube reducer ( google 1/18th to 1" spacer/reducer ) anywhere between £8 and £20 depending on where you buy from.
Press the top 1" cup into the spacer and press into the top of the headtube.
Then fit as normal, it all should come together nicely.
I've done this with my singlespeed Proflex with Girvins and it is fine too.

If the frame and forks are all up together now, you should have the washers/spacers for option one already, just need the caged bearings.

I used an M Part standard 1/18th on the bottom and a cane creek 1" on the top.

Hope this helps
jr

...and you could fit the spacers top and bottom and just use the 1" headset top and bottom.
My only thought was that Proflex used a larger bottom bearing profile for a reason...
Maybe it spreads the load better or produces a different angle to the ball widget flange ... ;-)
jr

...don't Hope offer a mix-n-match option ie: you can purchase the top and bottom cups/races individually?

Recently replaced the headset ball bearings on my 856 and from memory it was the original dia-compe 1 1/8 headset with spacers on the 1 inch steerer top and bottom to allow it to fit the larger headset!! Don't know if this helps at all.

Is this the same for the 856 with vector 2?

Just ordered a 1/18th for my project?

Mines an 856 with vector 2, so yes, I've an 856 with a crosslink fork from an 857 which is a1 1/8 headset and an 1 1/8 steerer so no spacers at all just normal fitment!!!

dicoverybmw":2axqqebq said:

Mines an 856 with vector 2, so yes, I've an 856 with a crosslink fork from an 857 which is a1 1/8 headset and an 1 1/8 steerer so no spacers at all just normal fitment!!!

Click to expand...

My 857 with Girvin Crosslink forks was the same, it had 1" 1/8th steerer so a regular 1" 1/8th headset (top & bottom cups) was all that was needed.

It's not the frame that's the issue here (I don't think?) it's the forks, specifically the steerer. As mentioned above there's a few options you could try with reducers for the headset (to go from 1" 1/8th down to 1"), or spacers to put on the fork (I had a set of Girvin Crosslinks which had a 1" steerer and used spacers to allow a 1" 1/8th headset to be used), or of course you could try and find a replacement 1" 1/8th steerer, although they can be tricky to track down. Or you could keep an eye out for another set of Girvins, or just fit a different set of forks with a 1" 1/8th steerer on them (I fitted some Pace RC38's to my 857).

Just so happen to be taking mine apart this evening for a clean up , I have a 1" steerer with a shim for the top and the bottom as can be seen flairs out to 1 1/8th

Hi ,just built a Proflex XP-X works from bits ,first the forks then got the frame and was faced with the same question , what head set and where is the missing bit ,the answer is 1 1/8" cane creek S2 head set and an 1" to 1 1/8" adaptor from the top head set ,it sounds yours like mine is missing this part ,yes hope do a mix and match but at a price ,cane creek are reasonably priced and so are replacable bearing ,you might find more info K2/proflex riders group ,do google , good luck ,if you need more info just ask ,