Originally Posted by
Standalone
Nice graphic.
I just did the opposite (susp. to rigid) and found that the steerer tube on the rigid had the same lip. The crown race from my new headset did not fit on it well, and actually split when I put it on. Everything else seemed to go together ok, and since it's a cartridge headset, I figured it would last a decent amount of time. Since your option is to seek out a different headset or crown race, why not run it as is until it fails. It shouldn't be a catastrophic or dangerous failure when it goes.
Thanks. I guess if it fails the first thing I'm going to notice the steering will become rougher at which point I will need to replace the crown race (somehow finding one that will match the bearing which in turn may shorten the life of the bearing because of small build 'deviations') or replace the whole headset (a trip to LBS I guess owing to lack of tools).
I was hoping more people could share their experiences with replacing a rigid fork with a suspension one and any issues that arose around crown race compatibility. I've done a bit of a research on the forums/internet and couldn't find that much info. Thanks for your input Standalone.