Hi all,

I'm new to the forum and have searched, with no luck, for advice for this issue I have. If anyone can help that would be great.

I found a beat to **** Raleigh Record, probably mid 70's, still made in England. I would like to clean it up and make a single speed out of it. My problem is that I cannot get the headset to break loose. I have the entire fork ready to drop out of the head tube, but I cannot get the handlebar stem to break loose.

Any advice would be appreciated.

#1 you've loosened the stem bolt and then tapped back down to loosen the wedge, correct?

Thanks for the advice. I tried that, used about a quart of penetrating oil, and finally turned the bike upside down, wedged a piece of wood under the frame to support the headset and took a monster screwdriver and beat on it with a two pound hammer. After about 10 minutes of that, the sucker broke loose.

Ordering a new Nitto to replace that POS.

Make sure the steerer isn't "bulged" due to over-tightening of the wedge...something I've seen on Raleighs before. You *may* also have 26tpi threading, meaning HS choice will be limited to Raleigh-compatible only.