So this is basically a question of what usually wins, common sense? Or OCD. Next in the project line up is to strip a complete 600 arabesque group off of a Raleigh frame, and put it on my newly aquired Talbot frame. The question comes here. Do I take the campy headset off the talbot and move the 600 over to keep everything all matchy, or do I leave it as is and don't worry about it? The problem I'm concerned about is selling the Raleigh with no headset. (let's be honest, I'll end up putting the campy head in a parts box for future use).
What do y'all usually end up doing????

I'd have to go with moving the 600 headset over.
1. Mixing Campy and Shimano
2. It's available for free
3. No one will pay you extra for selling the f&f with or without that 600 headset anyway.

I think in the C&V world OCD is common sense.

So, are you saying that mixing Campy, Suntour, Shimano, Mafac, Sugino, Weinmann, Sakae/Ringyo, and Sunshine IS totally Koshure? :-) Trade you an SR quill for the Campy! ;-)

Sure! show me the Campagnolo Quill you wish to have!

mixing brands...its like the galvanic chart.(hmmm this could be a interesting thread idea....




if you are selling the frameset- sell the headset seperate.

whoever is buying the frameset clearly has in mind the parts he will install on it, you are just giving it away if its on there.

I am SURELY not too worried about mixing brands on my frankenbike, as long as they play nice together. Fix YOUR rig to WORK for you. If it is a SHOW bike, THAT is a different thing. My Frankenbike Torpado project is SUCH a mishmash that I don't really care what is on it, just keep pushing it forward. Once it is rebuilt and rideable, THEN I will see how the components play together. Aesthetics are less important than function, but as it IS my first Italian Iron, I would like to eventually push it in that direction.

I would switch it. I do know those old shimano headsets are weak and a friend of mine ovalized multiple 600 headsets and even ruined headtubes before he realized he should be using steel headsets (and also not dropping curbs and doing wheelies on vintage road frames). The issues you may run into is that the raleigh could have a 27.0 crown race seat and the talbot could be 26.4 so do yourself a favour and remove the crown races first to check this before knocking the cups out of both frames.

also, arabesque headsets will fetch enough to make them worth selling separately as well. I would remove it either way whether it fits or not.

Voice of Reason at last!

I was hoping the size difference wouldn't be an issue, but both bikes are in the storage room and I haven't measured them yet! I'm gonna take them both out most likely anyways, might as well right? The only other question I have is, assuming they are the same size, are the bottom cup on the fork interchangable? Or do i have to knock those off there as well?

The headset on my Trek 616 is a mishmash of (iirc) a Campy crown race, no-name bearings, a DA 7400 lower cup, a Tange upper cup, an upper cone from I think a Pugeuot and a Stronglight locknut. Because that's what I could find in a hurry to fit the Motobecane Grand Touring fork I replaced the bent original jobber with. Somehow I got everything to fit with reasonable tolerances.

It's been my most reliable headset. Adjusted it once, almost two years ago, now, and haven't touched it since. Works a treat.

The Lower cup is in the frame. the crown race is pressed onto the fork and yes you must change it and that is the part to which I refer which may not be interchangeable.

Measuring BEFORE you do a lot of work is a GOOD thing...found that out the hard way. Pulled the old bar and quill from a bike I was rebuilding. Pulled the bar and brake levers, put them on a nice Nitto with a bit more reach....JUST what I needed on this ride...Put the bars in the quill, put the levers on...and went to put it on the bike to adjust....NOOOOOOOOOPPPPPE! Wrong Size!!! Head/Steering Tube...SCHWINN SIZE.....NOT a match to the Nitto stem...OOPs.

However, to have the complete working headset and mis-match it would be folly, I am sure you will agree.

Ah yes, that's what I meant, but clearly didn't have my words right. So basically I'm just measuring the steer tube on the forks to see if they are the same? From what i can tell that's the dimension that matters when seeing if one race will fit the other fork?

I am working on restoring a Falcon San Remo I got from my dad. At one point he had a shop replace the original campy crankset with sh600, so they also had to replace the ISO BB with JIS to make that work. So I picked up a nice Campy Record 53/42 which looks a lot better. The Sugino BB didn't offer enough chainring clearance, so I had to replace it. I happily replaced it with a sealed-cartridge Shimano UN55. It fits well enough (SB approves of ISO cranks on JIS square tapers), should last forever, it was dirt cheap ($23 delivered), and it doesn't stick out glaringly like a whole Shimano crankset did!