Doesn’t look good!
 

Ugh, that looks awful.

Chrome plating, tight press fit with added chrome thickness, hydrogen embrittlement I fear at work.

Those look like smudges below the headset. Do they wipe off?

In my opinion, yes that looks cracked..both through the headtube AND chrome. How may I ask?

Ahhh, what we're seeing is highly polished chrome on the headset, and hightly polished chrome on the head tube lug.

Crash?

Agreed.

Nothing good comes from this, I'm afraid.

:crash: oh no.

Oh man. That doesn't look good. :notamused:

Certainly appears to be a crack.

It does look a lot like this bike. :foo:
https://www.bikeforums.net/20657882-post65.html

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/...psdds47vix.jpg

I'm still curious about what happened.

Easily fixed. Don't worry.
Many ways to fix it, some will mar the chrome only very slightly (I'm thinking Mini MIG or TIG microtorch from the inside).
Thinking about it more I would Mig from the inside.
Your local craftsman can advise you.

That's going to need to be reamed after any repair. Running a cutting tool over weld material sucks.

Yep. Sand with the circular abrasives that every welding shop has bins of, do slight retrim / cut with reamer, press in.

The OP can sleep well, the frame will be better than it has probably been in years. i'm guessing it has been a long time since that headset was able to be perfectly adjusted.

Hmmm. One doesn't see Campy Record chrome broken and flaking like that often either.

Send it to me.
I'll fix it.
:D

A dozen gloom and doom comments. Kind of like reading Yelp restaurant reviews. If a new place gets a few 5 star reviews, the sheep appear to follow the herd and also post 5 star reviews, merited or not.

Glad it was a non issue Shawn.

Most of the cracking and flaking is on the chromed the upper head tube lug (which blends into the headset).

I think the headset looks clean except for perhaps some grunge on the spacer. But, it has some wicked reflections in the highly polished chrome which do make it look like it is damaged.

Can we get some "clean" photos with the headset off?

That chrome does look like it has seen better days. :(

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...86e0bf3a4a.jpg

This point marked in blue looks like the only place where there is significant concern. The rest appears to be flaking chrome. Although, most of my bad Colnago chrome has been pocked with rust, not flaking.

So, that brings up the question why it is flaking like that. And, perhaps stress from the headset installation.

It looks very clean... and also rust free. A lot of deep flaking.