Doc_Wui

I did one earlier this year on a 1 1/8" fork and it was pretty easy. This time, I'm putting a new headset (Ritchey) on a new 1" fork (RST). The other one, as I recall, only had about half the gap to cover as this one and was easy to tap in. Could this be a mismatch?

What should I do. Just push it on? I use a twelve inch 1" ID steel pipe for this task and a BFH.

corrado33

Looks fine to me. Sometimes the races slide right on by hand. Sometimes they require a BFH. I suggest holding under the crown with your non dominant hand while hitting the tool with your dominant hand... well the hammer in your dominant hand.

Don't hammer on it with the fork legs on the ground...

Make sure the pipe sits on the "rim" of the race and not the race surface itself or else you can ruin it.

Doc_Wui

Darn, I should have maybe taken some emory paper to the thick part of the fork, as it only moved 1.8 inch, if that much.

I'm going to try the same thing I used to get the bearing races onto the frame. There, I used a 5/8" threaded rod and tightened it. Slip the pipe over the stem, put the rod inside and torque. May have to go up to a 3/4" rod.

If that don't work, I guess I cut this one off and try another headset race. Probably not wise to support 100+ pounds on a metal ring without support under it?

SquidPuppet

One inch races come in more than one size, Do you have the correct one?

HillRider

+1 An ISO crown race (26.4 mm) is going to be an excessively tight fit on a JIS (27.0 mm) fork.

Slash5

Assuming it is the correct size I will often warm up a crown race before installing.

3alarmer 

.
...maybe you know this, but in addition to the different sizes for 1" crown races, you need to grease the interface of the race and seat before you start pounding on it.

3alarmer 

.
...also, you can buy headsets with a split crown race that have cartridge bearings in them (so you don't need a solid race ring, the bearings don't ride on it directly. I think you can get them in 1 inch, but I've never shopped for one in that size. Those just pop right on.

Doc_Wui

Thank you all for the insights. I guess it was probably the wrong size. I feel dumb. I should have measured I.D. and O.D.

A 3/4" nut can generate over 13K pounds of clamping force though. After some initial resistance, where I was putting in over 60 ft-lbs of leverage on my wrench, it started moving easily.

One of the few times where my 1/2" Harbor Freight breaker bar actually did its job. Put any real torque on it, like on a car suspension part, and it bends so bad, safety dictates it gets put away.

dbg

Meant to post this earlier...
NEW forks should be "faced" to insure they are square. My last two "new" forks were pretty bad. I kept complaining about the headsets having a "wobble" until I finally sprang for a crown race cutting tool. After "facing" them properly there was no wobble at all. My complaints about FSA and Ritchey were completely unwarranted. They were fine. The crown was not square to the tube.

trailangel

I'm surprised nobody had mentioned this earlier. You need the crown race cutter. This is the only thing I have a trusted mechanic install. (headsets)
Nothing like a bunch of hackers beating on bikes......
But it's not limited to DIYers. I was in a national bike shop and heard some metal to metal banging..... looked back in repair and somebody was hitting the lower headset cup with a 4 lb. handheld sledge hammer... trying to seat it.

JohnDThompson 

Glad it worked for you, because if it didn't, that race would be a b*tch to get off!