Originally Posted by
SamSpade1941
I just ran into this problem last night so all was for naught. I am back to square one now.
ETA I am now going to be forced to buy another french headset NOS or just buy a whole different fork that is not french and use one of my other headsets ( I have several Shimano 600 and a couple of XT headsets in my bin) .
1. it's not unheard of to run a headset with no spacer between the top nut and the top race in this circumstance. Assuming that gets you to where you need to be in terms of threads engaged between top nut and fork.
2. the more recent Stronglight A9 had a pretty short stack height. I think they stopped making them, but you ought to do a couple of searches on French e-bay (not our e-bay) and see if anything turns up. It's a good source for French specific stuff.
3. people have been known to run a regular headset using a different, French threaded top race and nut. I can't tell you how well it works, because I've always managed to come up with another way.