I’m sitting in my flat trying to fit a pair of exotic carbon forks to a road rat. I have Allen keys , screwdrivers and a hammer. The bottom race is off the original Cotic forks and now I have to try and seat it on the new forks.

Thoughts :
I could try and seat the race by tapping around a the inner edge with a screwdriver
I could add extra spacers under the stem and then hit the top of the stem / steerer with a hammer. With a block of wood in between
Or I could take it to the local German bike shop!

I also have to lengthen the hydraulic hose on some magura brakes as well. Are they easy to bleed tool less ?
Or is the LGBS the best option?
Cheers

I use a wooden mallet, but have used just a handy peice of timber before now.

This is the race on the forks – not at the bottom of the head tube.
Sorry, I dint explain that

The metal tube/pipe from a vacuum cleaner (or other bit of pipe) works well.. slid down over the steerer and tapped with a mallet..

If you have a cylinder hoover with an alloy tube then that will slip over the steerer tube and seat the race just right, my hoover is a 20yr old Electrolux dolphin and the suction tube is an exact fit for a 1 1/8th crown race but i have used the tube from a Henry before with similar success. 😀

you ‘can’ seat a headset race and headset cup for that matter using the forks and tightening the top bolt… you should not compress the bearings, and may have to use some extra washers, spacers etc to get the right pressure distance. its bodgetastic but it’ll work if you got no tools

A thick ,short wooden rod and a hammer or better a rubber mallet should do it. Just grease the steerer and tap evenly around the race. And keep calm! Simples.

Nice to see someone else on a similar wavelength to myself, the make do and mend mentality at work.

A length of 32mm plastic waste pipe & mallet should do it or a lump of 4×2 with a 30-32mm hole drilled through.

The metal tube/pipe from a vacuum cleaner (or other bit of pipe) works well.. slid down over the steerer and tapped with a mallet..

Yep, used the ‘Henry Method’ last week on a pair of carbon forks (& steerer). Slightly dinked the end of the pipe though as I turned it upside down and knocked the pipe end against the concrete garage floor. Currently using pliers and file to get the flippin’ pipe to fit back into the hoover!

Still, crown race seated a treat.

I imagine the result will be me spending more money to fix the problem I’ve created as a by-product of saving money in the first place.

I have a Henry !
Thank you for that lateral thought.
I will try tomorrow and report back ! Now , the hydraulic hose !,,,

Op, yes I meant the crown race. Just tap it either side till it seats.

What headset is it? If it’s a decent one it’ll most likely have a sealed bearing, which means the crown race isn’t really a race- the bearings don’t sit on it. And if that’s the case, then you can just cut across one size to split it (like many are from the factory) and slip it on effortlessly.

Failing that, I have an ancient, massive crown race off some old wreck which I drop on top of the new race, then using my #1 favourite whacking tool combo (a Thor hammer my grandad stole from the RAF after the war, and a rear axle out of a Suzuki SV650) I pummel it.

The rampant bodginess of method 2 shouldn’t put you off using method 1 😉

Take the fork outside with the race pushed loosely in place, turn it upside down and then ram it down the hole in your garden furniture where the sun umbrella goes twice a year

I assume it’s not a split crown race? Pushed mine on by hand as they’re split.

I had to fit bodge a crown race on recently as it stuck on a lip on my Project 2 forks and would’nt fit all the way down.
I just tightened the top bolt, rode it, it loosened, tightened it again and it went on nice and snug.

If you haven’t already battered your henry to death ( 😯 ), heat the race in boiling water first (and leave the fork outside in the cold if steerer s aluminium) so that race expands a bit and steerer shrinks a bit

I was just about to ask a similar question…

‘old standard’ 1 1/8 Hope Headset with split crown race.

I’ve fitted it with finger pressure and mounted the fork experimentally to the partially built bike.

I was going to ask if I should give it a good bounce and adjust/thump it with a tube of some sort but I gather from the above this will not be required! 🙂

Much as hate my Henry, with a vengence, (how such a shit awful piece of design can still be sold is beyond me), I thought brutalising the hoover pipe will cost a lot of money to rectify.

So it was down to the DIY store – and 1.18 euro and a waste pipe later ….
Job done, race seated.

The waste pipe will never see active life in plumbing again, but will be a great “race twatting” tool
Thanks for the suggestions 8)

I use the bracket from a rear crud guard and mallet

frogstomp – Member
The metal tube/pipe from a vacuum cleaner (or other bit of pipe) works well.. slid down over the steerer and tapped with a mallet..

+1 – although I use the plastic tube from an old paint roller.

Can we have a thread with a list of “Best alternatives to the real tool” ?

I was going to spill the beans on my-cut-the-race-so-it-is-split method, but someone got there first. As long as the bearings are not ball races, then this should be ok to do.

Garden parasol tube for me- the bottom half that usually screws in to make it twice as tall- spot on for size

I use an old stem. Slide it down, give it a tap or two, job done.

What a brilliant thread. Thank you all. Very useful and extremely amusing. Never knew Henry vacuum cleaners were so disliked!! Now where’s the dyson…

32mm plastic waste is your friend

See here for bodge build, been riding it for a couple of years now and it’s going well

Scandal Bike Build by fantasticmrmatt, on Flickr