Here's a little ditty 'bout lock nut lip clearance.
I've got six bikes now. One of them has a threadless inch 'n an eighth headset much like the one in the picture. One of them has a .833 steer tube, headset and stem combo. The other four bikes have good old dependable one inch threaded headsets. Retainer bearings are a quick, cheap, lazy way to pack a headset. Loose ball bearings are the way to go. Loose Balls are good. I'm not just saying this, it's true. You know those NJS guys sit around all day long and talk shit about sealed bearings, cartridge bearings and threadless headsets. Visualize the NJS committee meetings in a smoky bar and the topics of discussion.
So today I started to scrap together the frame and fork I bought from Chris. He threw in a new headset and mentioned several times that the one in the frame was trashed. With the assistance of my local bike mechanic and his beautiful headset press and crown race removal tools I swapped out the headset. Only to find the stack heights of the two headsets were not even close. Any kid on the street, any one with eyes actually could have just eyeballed the new headset and it's beefy stack height, and told you that the steer tube would not be long enough. But of course I didn't even look at or think about it. I installed the new headset and slapped the fork in, only to come up about 11mm short. At that point I evaluated my options. A new fork. NO. A new headset. Maybe. Put the old one back in and buy some new bearings...Yes. Yes, loose balls. Once again taking advantage of my local bike mechanics tools to remove the new and re-install the old.
Measure twice, cut once.
or
Have a beer, don't measure anything. Slap it in there and see what happens, then work backwards. But I'm proud to say that at least I did not touch a hack saw today and do any permanent damage by hacking up a brand new steer tube, cutting it off 11mm too short. I didn't destroy anything. I was just a bit hasty or maybe I was naively optimistic.
If I was in a band I'd write a song about loose balls and locknut lip clearance. Maybe I'll have to settle for a poem.
Add Comment