Originally Posted by
Maelochs
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Go with the cheapest reasonably sound headset. I have an old quill-stem Raleigh with a $10 headset and it works flawlessly---the $10 headset (from a name-brand maker nonetheless---cheap because of low demand for threaded headsets) is probably better than the one the bike came with---and that one went 30 years before it got notchy.
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Very good headsets are the Tanges if you go threaded. $10-30. I get ~8000 miles out of them, then they start getting "notchy". I then go one ball size larger and it's another 1-2,000 miles. For price paid, setup that is a joy and very little attention, why not? (And decent vintage look with real high quality chrome. They take to wrenches with scarring.)
Ben