Road and Track Headsets

[rusty bodie]

Hi,

Can anyone remember what the difference is between eg Super Record Strada and Pista headsets? Is it something to do with the stack height of the two, with the Pista being shorter overall? What bearing did this have on track bikes?

SO many questions! SUCH fading memories!! :facepalm:

Many thanks,

Craig

 

[KermitGKona88]

Re:

From my memory there was a very slight difference in stack height, but the main difference was the Pista headset was very plain.

http://velobase.com/ViewComponent.aspx? ... &AbsPos=35

http://velobase.com/ViewComponent.aspx? ... &AbsPos=36

 

[rusty bodie]

Re:

Thanks for the quick reply with those links!

Looking at both pages there's almost a centimeter difference
in stack height between the two - that's massive when you consider fork column length.

Any idea WHY the pista version was so much shorter than the strada?

Something to do with the angled track stems and getting the rider's reach/ position as low as possible??

 

[Midlife]

The Pista and the Gran Sport has smaller ball bearings. And not in cages ,! Being smaller and with track stems having a more downward angle the front end could be lower.

And then the Russians started brazing the bars to the top of the fork crown !!

The TT crew also used Pista head sets to reduce weight until alloy headsets like EDCO came along.

 

[rusty bodie]

All questions answered in full - what a wonderful lot you are!

Many thanks!

Craig

 

[torqueless]

Re:

Any idea WHY the pista version was so much shorter than the strada?

Something to do with the angled track stems and getting the rider's reach/ position as low as possible??

I've always thought of it from the other end- The Strada headset is relatively massive because you might reasonably be expecting it to stand up to traversing terrain rougher than a billiard table- or the boards of a velodrome?

Just the crown race of the Strada probably weighs twice as much as that of the Pista, and probably adds close to 2mm of stack height by itself.

Having said that, I have a Super Record Pista which has been on my road bike for three and a half decades. But these days it's getting to be a delicate act of torqueing the locknut enough to hold the thing together without going a bit too far and stripping the threads.