ean10775

I have a 2010 Ridley Orion that came with an FSA integrated headset (Italian Campy standard - IS42, 30mm crown race). The headset works fine however, has hardly any stack leaving me with a tower of spacers (which I dislike for purely aesthetic reasons). Cane Creek sells separate upper assemblies for their Forty headsets which are available in an IS42 size with a tall cover. Can I simply purchase something like this in the correct size, leave the FSA crown race and lower bearings on the fork and just replace the upper bearing and cover with the taller Cane Creek parts? It seems to me like this should be fine, but I just wanted to make sure there isn't some compatibility issue I'm missing or some other reason that I shouldn't do this...

Camilo

Seems you understand integrated bearing fit perfectly, and I can't think of why you couldn't do what you're talking about. In fact, there's no reason to replace the upper bearing that I can think of. I believe you could just slap the taller cover on the upper bearing you have, assuming it contacts the bearing to set the preload.

That said, it sounds like you're going to use what would be an entire headset, except the crown race and lwer bearings? What I would do is just buy a complete headset, leave the crown race in place and replace the lower bearing too (I've done that - as long as the bearing's angle is the same as the crown race, which they should be. This is assuming you don't want to remove and replace it? .... It's not a trivial DIY, but not difficult to do with household tools if you have common sense and patience.

When you get the new headset, you can easily eyeball the bearing angles and thickness/ height of the bearings between the old and new to assure yourself that the new lower bearing sits on the old crown race properly and is the correct height to contact the internal/integrated head tube race without letting the head tube contact the fork crown.

I've seen one instance where an OEM headset on a bike of mine had a thicker/taller set of bearings (a couple mm, but obvious) than the replacement ones (FSA) I bought. The angles and diameters were the same. Turns out the new crown race sat the bearing up just a little higher so the overall functional height was the same. I have two FSA headsets and both are the same thickness bearings, so I have to assume the OEM headset was just an odd supplier? Dont' know.

You should also eyeball the old crown race and make sure it's not worn or damaged, but that's pretty unlikely w/ cartridge bearings - they just sit on it, no motion really.

I can't imagine the price difference is much between a whole set and the top-only set. But if it is a cost savings, go ahead and do what you are thinking of.

fietsbob

Integrated headset wrestling was improved with a QBP 'locking' (pinch bolt collar) spacer,
just enough grip so the fork didn't fall out, repeatedly,
while I was futzing with the spacers above there.

I have a 'tower of spacers' [cane creek Interloc] and 2 stems , on My Koga WTR, trekking bike ,
so not a race bike application.. [lower stem mounts the Handlebar bag ]