I have fitted my HT with a rigid fork for commuting purposes but having problems with the headset (i think).

I have an FSA orbit extreme pro headset which was fine with my suspension fork but not with the rigid. When i fit the forks they turn fine by hand until i tighten the top cap. When the top cap is tight, i can’t turn the fork at all. When i take the stem off the forks are properly wedged in. I have sanded the excess paint off and they seemed better, but when i tighten it all back up same again.

I refitted the suspension forks and it works perfectly, then refitted the rigids, same thing again.

Any ideas?

Crown race on the rigids?

Sorry, should have said, crown race swapped from the sus forks to rigids.

Oi reckons you’ve fitted something arse uppards.Did you put the bearings in correctly?
Are you sure?

Bearings haven’t come out but they are in correctly. Had the sus forks on the bike for over a year with no issues at all. As stated in original post, fitted rigids got this problem. Refitted sus forks, no problem, put rigids back on and problem remains. I can’t work it out hence asking the folk of STW.

There’s a 30mm section of the steerer (where the crown race becomes a friction fit) and this, if it’s quite long, may be extending too far up inside the headset where it will jam inside the headset cup. Compare it side by side with your suspension fork. If it is too long, there’s not much you can do unless you put some kind of spacer between the crown race and the crown.

Shedfull, you are spot on. Checked this morning and the friction part of the steerer is longer than the sus forks. If i put a spacer underneath the crown race as you suggested it would probably work. Any ideas what i could put there? Headset spacers don’t quite fit

my mate had this exact issue, it’s a pain. He sourced some correctly sized spacers, a selection from CRC with the intention to send the unused back. (used 3mm I think) There was enough meat on the interference fit vertical bit on the bottom of the fork to fit the spacer and crown.

On his fork the taper section was actually slightly rubbing on the frame as well, spacer fixed this too.

Didn’t on-one do some ‘tall’ crown races when they had issues with short head tubes on 456 frames?

Its great when you get a solution to a frustrating problem like this
Internet rules – what did we do before it??

shedfull

Good knowledge

I’m assuming it’s the headset cup it’s fouling rather than the frame… In which case, check it for burrs/deformation especially if it’s ever been fitted to another frame. I had to machine a Hope cup out slightly as it was out of round.

It seems to be the headset cup its fouling on. The headset has only been fitted to this frame, i had a look on the headtube and it seems round and there is no damage or burrs to it.