Originally Posted by phoenity

Last year I had the same issue with a Pedal Force RS frame (essentially the same as the Bottechia) and a Cane Creek IS6 headset.

I emailed PF about the issue and attached a picture of someone elses' built PF RS which showed the same gap. Here is their reply:

I've logged many miles on my RS and I have had the headset out and not seen any evidence of contamination. The bearing fits tightly in the upper cup. The upper cover uses an o-ring in the center which tightly seals around the steerer tube.

The upper cover rotates freely with the bearings and steer tube. If it were to contact the headtube then you would have problems. I guess the LBS was correct in that Cane Creek headsets are like this by design.