I think it's because pedals get in the way of the trash bags full of bottles and cans they pick up along the roadside.


(You get 10 cents a can here in Michigan. Not a bad day's haul!)

I'm looking to purchase a new headset, but I'm worried that I'm gonna spend the money and have a useless headset that wont fit. What measurements should I take to make sure everything will be okay?

That's a great deal! I was surprised to learn when I moved here that you weren't allowed to crush aluminum cans if you wanted to redeem them. Makes a hundred cans take up way more space on the bike

Threaded or threadless? At least for threaded, some key dimensions are the diameter of the crown where the crown race (i.e. the lower inner race) sits, the inner dimensions of the head tube, and the steerer tube diameter. A big unknown is the stack height. Best is to start with something you know, which is to say the spec for your current headset.

See https://sheldonbrown.com/headsets.html

Threaded, and I have no current headset, which is where I get concerned.

All the way forward, with the levers in line with the down tube.

Id' say first try to guess what sort of headset it had. Specs are available online and in Sutherland's. Then get one that is slightly on the shorter side. You can always add spacer rings to increase the height if necessary. Maybe someone else has a better idea.

Speaking of headsets, here's another question......
Do you really have to use the washer with the tab that comes with most headsets, or is it safe enough to just use a tabless spacer instead to avoid damaging your threads later when you remove the lock nut, as this seems to happen a lot as the tab will tend to jam against the threads and mess up things when it tries to turn with the lock nut. It has not happened to me yet, but the next headset I'm about to install (A Miche Primato with needle bearings) has the smallest, rounded edged tab I ever seen on a headset washer and it seems like it's eager to mess up my steering tube threads. I'm really tempted to just grind off the vestigal looking tab....

Chombi

I don't see a problem with grinding the tab off, especially if your adjustable cup has a slight recess where the spacer in question fits in the recess just right. The tabs do have a way of buggering up the threads no matter how careful one is.

If you have a threaded, slotted HS spacer (looks like a BB lockring) you can put that on top of your 'keyless' spacer and effectively lock down the adjustable cup. Then, use 1" threadless spacers to tune the stack height, then install the top Locknut and firm that up.

Alan

Chain's on the right because the bike is mounted on the left. This comes from the traditional side of mounting a horse iir.

I actually charge a bit more to work on bikes without clipless pedals. The cage pedals really get in the way, especially when moving bikes around.

I put a lot of headsets together with a no-tab washer, but I put the wrench to each pair of wrench flats so as to get the nut really well-settled onto the threaded top cone/race. The nut ovalizes very slightly depending on the wrench position, and moving the wrench to different positions more-fully tightens it up without excessive torque or wrench gnarl on the flats.

Alan, doesn't this defeat the engineered/thought-out purpose of the tabbed washer? It seems to me that if the washer is loose that the headset won't work correctly, especially in the long run. As an engineering school person, it seems that you should either replace the tabbed washer if it's jamming in the threads, or use a new headset that has some other design that uses that "floating" washer method on purpose. That washer shouldn't move IMO...

I have not figured out what N+1 means

You have N bikes. You need N+1. The value of N doesn't matter. You need N+1.

anixi,

From a purely engineering standpoint, the tabbed washer is supposed to help 'lock' the adjustable cup in place along with the top Lock Nut.

In the reality of production manufacturing, the tolerances on those tabbed washers in conjunction with the tolerances of the steerer tube slot
vary greatly from manufacturer to manufacturer, even within production runs of the same part. At best, it was a Class B and sometimes a Class
C fit between key and slot.

Invariably, the tabbed washer would 'stick' to the Adjustable cup in such a way that when the cup was turned, the key would slip out of the slot
and damage the threads on the steerer. By removing the key from the washer, the washer can float over the steerer threads without damaging them
yet allow the adjustable cup to move freely.

Think of the same application as the LH axle cone, spacers and Lock Nut. If you tighten the Lock Nut down tight against the adjustable cup with
sufficent torque, even with 5-6mm of spacers present (less than on an axle) the two will stay tight and not loosen.

Chombi will be fine running the spacers washers sans the key... it's a more suitable method as opposed to having a thread damaged, unusable fork.

I have 1" headsets that have stayed tight using this method, and they've stayed tight and in adjustment for years until Overhaul time.

Alan

Hmm, interesting, I could buy that.

I have one threaded headset (HP-6500) no keyed washer, but all my other ones (HP-1050, Tange, ect) do.

That said, I wonder what you people all think:
Is the French (with the flat) washer better than the JIS/Tange type with the tab? I'm not sure if either one will stand the test of time....

anixi,

If you mean the 'slotted' lock ring (like the BB lock ring) over the 'tab/ slot' method... personally, I prefer the slotted version better.

Both my everyday bike (Tange Levin Alloy) and my cyclocross bike (Tange cheap steel) use a hanger for the front brake cable.
Because the cable hanger effectively 'covers' a significant area of the adjustable cup's flats, it's hard to get a headset wrench
in far enough to engage the flats of the cup to get a good adjustment. Here's where the slotted lock ring comes into play. I lock the
adjustable cup down against the threaded, slotted lockring so the adjustment is tight. Then, I slip the cable hanger down the steerer,
and tighten it down with the top Lock Nut. With the slotted lock ring keeping the adjustment tight, the top Lock Nut can be tightened
down independently of the headset adjustment.

As I reiterated before, this has worked for me under many different conditions and situations and has been very reliable.

Alan

It's a rule: https://www.velominati.com/the-rules/#12

What's the etymology of "steel is real"?

rhyme and a distaste for aluminum and carbon frames

Titanium is tangible!

The French version typically had a thicker washer that fit against the flat on the steerer.

The thickness of this washer would seem to be the most important factor in terms of how much torque that the washer can resist before twisting on the steerer.
As oldskoolwrench mentioned, there is also a good bit of variability in the tab/slot engagement.

JReade, to expand on what Jimmuller said, find the diameter of the steerer tube near the middle below the threads. Calipers are needed for an accurate measurement. You should end up with 1", 1 1/8", or 1 1/4". Then measure the diameter where the steerer meets the fork crown, where the crown race will sit. I believe this is standardized on everything except a 1" which has two different crown race diameters. If you have a 1", this measurement is critical since the two different sizes are very close to one another. I can't remember what the two possible measurements are though. For stack height, measure the head tube length and add the stack height. This number should be just longer than the steerer tube length. That's so the top nut doesn't bottom out when tightening. The steerer can be cut down some to make it fit but a large amount might mean having to get more threads cut so the headset can be screwed on far enough. Hope this helps.

Here's another "dumb" question....
Do cartridge bearing type of BBs with the sealing tubes that go across the drive side to the non drive side like the Phill Wood BBs, not have the typical problem of English threaded fixed cup trying to uscrew themselves because of turning/rolling forces coming from the bearings in the fixed cup when pedaling when using loose bearings in cup races?. I am thinking so, because the bearings on both sides of the BB are connected physically by the aluminum tube and that might help keep the outer bearing race on the fixed cup from turning. Will one have to tighten the fixed cup side as much as they have to when using a conventional loose bearing setup then??

Chombi