Originally Posted by
wannabemekon
I need to replace my Shimano 600 tricolor headset. It's all indexed and dimpled, sadly.
If I thought bottom brackets were incomprehensible (I'd rather read Heidegger on Dasein than Sheldon Brown on bottom brackets!), headsets are a close second.
So the "stack height" of the current headset is 33.5 mm. How close does the new headset's stack height need to be?
And if you don't mind, a second question: I'd love to find an NOS tricolor to replace this old one, but am having no luck finding one. Any suggestions on one that would look similar/appropriate? I know Velo Orange makes one, but I'm sour on VO stuff after a bad experience with a set of VO hubs...plus the stack heights are over 40mm and that makes me worry...)
If your 600 tri-colour headset has caged bearings you can remove them and use loose ball bearings and that'll usually get rid of the indexing problem. Doing that can give you many more years of use out of the existing headset.
Cheers