Hello, I recently just picked up a used Look 251 framset from my lbs. As I was gonna starting throwing parts on it I realized that the headset really didn't spin that smooth. It's a Chin Haur threaded headset that has this stupid lockring atop the upper bearings, a lockring that I have failed to remove. And I also found out that the lower bearing was missing one ball. I think I've decided to just get a new headset, since I want a silver one rather than this ugly black one. I'm shopping around and I just don't know what would work well, be smooth, minimal maintenance, and also have a relatively low stack height, as the current headset, with no spacers above the top race, is close to running out of threads. So far I've decided upon used shimano units, or a new tange levin or something along that sort. Any thoughts? Thanks guys.

You don't say, but it sounds like this is an early generation carbon frame that takes a pressed in 1" headset. Odds are that it takes a standard 30.2/26.4 headset not a JIS, so any decent threaded headset with low stack height is going to be fine. I'm not a fan of used headsets unless I really know their condition, so I'd buy a new model at a price I can budget. The Tane sounds fine (if it's a low enough stack), but there may be other choices, all of which will be comparably decent.

Thank you for your reply, that was one of my issues actually, was when shopping around i found out that there were different sizes for ID of the headtube and crown race sizes. I guess to know for sure i would just knock out the old cups and take a digital caliper to it. And then from there i guess i should make my way to shopping. Thanks again.