I'm building up an Raleigh Grand Prix circa early 70's and want to keep the fork as its chrome is still intact and matches the frameset nicely.
What is holding me up is the headset; for the life of me I cannot find a 26 thread vs standard 24 thread headset anywhere online and LBS's around me refuse to acknowledge the 20th century. Besides locating another frame/fork/headset for parts, does anyone have any sources for these threaded headsets or a workaround? I know the bottom can go ISO but that upper needs the 26 thread count and I just can't find it.

Thanks!

Good luck. That's an old Raleigh proprietary size, and long since out of production. Of course it's possible that some old Raleigh dealer still has some in a dusty drawer, but that's kind of a needle-in-a-haystack search. Your best source is probably another old frame. I changed out the bottom cup and race on one and left the top intact - it improved the front end significantly and was acceptable for the beater campus fixed gear that it was. Changing the fork is an option. Maybe someone will tell you it can be re-threaded to 24tpi; I've never tried that.

Is all of the original headset trashed or missing? I likely have a top cone and locknut around. PM me.

Neal

Thanks Jbonamici and Neal. Yellow Jersey in Madison has the top races for sale which seems more than anybody else that I've found thus far. Neal, thanks for the offer. I'll message you.

I guess when all the supply of 26tpi threaded HS is depleted, the fix would have to be replacement of the steerer. A good frame fixer can splice on a new section of steerer, onto a stub of the old, that would have standard 24tpi threading...or even unthreaded if you need to go that route. Cutting 24tpi threads over 26tpi just would not work.