Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - I just bought some silly stuff off ebay!

Hey everyone! I've been good for a while but the other day I went crazy and bought some stuff on ebay. I am not quite sure if I'm wasting my money. First of all I'm getting a seat post, saddle, and a headset, all new in box. I have a track bike but it has a low budget no-name headset. The one I bought off e-bay is way higher end...but will i notice a difference? How much do u think a shop whould charge to install a headset? My old headset is almost new still. I hope the seat post fits. It SHOULD...but you know how that could go wrong. I also bought a used Nitto stem, it claims it is a 25.4 but on another site I saw the exact model and they only listed it as 26.0. What should i do? I haven't recieved it yet though.

ask questions before hitting that "buy it now" button. I know it's hard...shoot first, ask later...good luck.

I suppose you can always list 'em yourself.

specifically I want to know if a shimano headset is going to make a noticable difference in ride

I'm guessing it will not make any difference in the ride of the bike. It may last longer then your old one and it may be a little smoother feeling in the stand, but I doubt you'll notice much difference when your actually riding the bike. That is of course assuming your old headset was in good shape and smooth to start with, if not then you may notice more of a difference. Still not a bad upgrade IMO. I have a thing for having high quality, durable parts especially where bearings are concerned (hubs, headsets, BB) If I'm going to spend extra money, this it where I usually do it. I just did a low budget build up of a Lotus frame into a fixie, the one place I really splurged on it was in the headset....I got a King (I have thing for Chris King stuff, they are the best and all of my bikes over the past few years have had either a King headset or hubs) It will not ride any better then a much cheaper headset, but I like knowing that it's there and that I'll be able to transfer it over to a new frame if I ever decide to upgrade.

was it a Nitto Pearl stem? they come in 26.0 and 25.4 varieties. some places sell one or the other, some sell both...

How much do u think a shop whould charge to install a headset?
$10-$15 I think if your headset was indexed, brinneled, or whatever they call it you'll notice a big difference when going to a properly installed quality headset. On my fix I originally had a 25 yeared old Campy headset that I really liked for the old school appeal but it was indexed. When I had the money I picked up a Shimano 600 headset (WOOHAA! it matched the 600 brake) and the ride was noticeably better. Crappy no name parts suck especially when they involve bearings or grease.

hell yeah...so maybe i made a good choice with the head set.... I just hope the lbs won't charge a lot to install it. I also hope my seat post fits...

Don't be an eBay *****!

what's a *****?

hell yeah...so maybe i made a good choice with the head set.... I just hope the lbs won't charge a lot to install it. I also hope my seat post fits...

My LBS just charged me $69 for a new Cane Creek S2 with installation. I figure they probably charged me around $25 for the install. Your problem is they can't make anything on the headset so they will likely charge more.

I forgot to mention I had everything apart and the old headset already removed. All they charged me for was installation

ahh...good point, they'll prolly charge a bit for installing a new ebay headset