When I finished my last French bike, I said out loud, in my shop, late at night, "NO MORE FRENCH BIKES!" And that has been true as I haven't purchased any French bikes but I did still have one hanging around and am now building it for my mother-in-law as a grocery-getter.

So, this little Motobecane has a somewhat low cut steerer tube. I made the mistake of tossing the old headset because it was so cruddy and banged up but now I'm really kicking myself as I've had to cobble together a headset. This shouldn't be a problem but it is since the adjustable race is fairly tall, as shown here:


The washer has grooves that seat into the adjustable race. But, it has a 5mm stack height and doesn't leave any threads for the locknut.





My question is, are there thinner grooved washers out there? If not, I'm not sure of my next steps other than finding a more streamlined French-threaded headset. And I'd rather not have to pull the races out if I don't have to.

What say ye, C&V'ers?