Crown Race Issue

Afternoon all,

I hope everyone is ready for my birthday tomorrow!!!

Anyway, I bought a Shimano 600 Arabesque headset to my Gazelle A-Frame last week. I had originally planned a 600 headset but it is 'too new looking' - the frame is 1975 ish. When i fitted the headset i found that it was indexed or brinelled. As a few of you will know, i need glasses and i failed to notice the pits in the crown race when i fitted the headset. when i removed the forks and used my friends glasses they were very plain - I could count at least 10 pits in the race.

I want to use this headset and I want to know if i could use another crown race with the remaining bits? The race itself would not be seen below the lower head race.

Is my plan flawed?

Thanks,

Richard

My experience is 'yes' you can (though an engineer might not agree). Alternatively, if it is not bad then going from caged balls to uncaged (or vice versa if the bearings didn't have cages already) means more of them and they don't all fall into the indentations together because their contact points are displaced.
Happy b'day for tomorrow.

Thanks for the birthday wishes and advice.

I might try this option before i start a search for a crown race.

Richard

Happy birthday TGR..

I don't see why not. As ever with headsets, watch out for the ISO/JIS conflict. Also, make sure that the crown race you're intending to use was made to take the same diameter balls as the original. I once considered replacing a brinelled Campag pista crown race with one from a campag strada, but then I remembered that they take different diameter balls. Then anyway in my case there would have been the stack height issue- Campag Pista to Strada is like from one extreme to the other. The Strada crown race on it's own was so much taller than the Pista one that there wouldn't have been enough steerer left to secure the locknut. In the end I used a 'sacrificial' ball-race and grinding paste to de-brinell the Pista crown race- as a sort of character-building masochistic penance, I suppose... I don't particularly recommend it...

It's here somewhere on your birthday card..

Torqueless,

Thanks for that. I don't fancy the masocistic option but at least i know it is there is need be.

Happy New Year - i have not seen you around for a while, do you happen to have the link to your freewheel thread?

Richard

Your birthday wish is granted!

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... freewheels

...and while I was looking for it I found this reminder that I've been through the same routine with a freewheel..

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... freewheels

Torqueless,

Thanks for the very practical present.

Richard

Loose bearings have saved a slightly brinnelled headset for me in the past, well I got another 6 months out of it!
Also, if you can be bothered, indexing the headset cups and races so that the marks don't line up works. As you generally only move the handle bars through a very small arc. So if you can get it into a clean bit of surface on the straight ahead and for 5 (?) degrees either side, which *should* be achievable with a normal headset, you'll effectively half the damage. As the bearings will only sit in one dent in your normal range of use.

I am a proper engineer, and these are only bodges, but they do work.

Thanks for that, I suspect that moving the race may not assist as there are too many pits on the surface - it is almost like a clock face with the pits OR am i missing something?

Richard

Even with 24 dents on the race/cup you've got 15 degrees between dents, so (in theory) 7.5 clear degrees before the dents line up.
Which in real/road terms is a hell of a lot of steering!