any tips for a really tight crown race?

just bought a CC40 (EC49/30) headset lower and surprised to find not a split race. big chunk of brass i think (reducer crown). doesn’t want to go on my 2012 1-1/8 Revelation. worried if i hit it too hard could damage bonding of steerer into CSU or something.

I have the fork resting on wood supported under the crown. spacers on top, then 30m spanner, then claw hammer.

Never known a race this tight. can’t find my dremel or i’d probably split the race. could heat it up, but don’t want it to be forever on the fork. hmmm ideas please?

🙁

Bike shop?

hah well, haven’t really needed a bike shop in years.. might feel like a failure.. but you’re probably right.
so how do they do it then?

a form of slide hammer which contacts all round the race and forces it on squarly.

bit of heavy gauge pipe and a hammer will do same thing.

now have fork supported actually on steerer so no danger of damaging csu.
is it possible the CC crown is undersized? my shitty caliper won’t help. could practice on an old fork actually..

Chances are its not going on square, use some polypipe tube as trail rat says over the steerer and hit it on straight

or cut it with a junior hacksaw and a 30tpi metal blate. £10 from B&Q for a cheap one, and a useful thing to have about anyway. I’ve found it’s easiest to undo the blade, feed it throught the race, reattach and cut from the inside – more to hold onto. Or use a vice if you have one.

good tip with polypipe, found some, fits just right. still won’t go.

i have a hacksaw.. any reason not to cut the reducer race? it’s a big brass thing, would take pic but can’t find camera..

concern is that it’s structural because it’s a reducer – may twist.

i guess sanding inside of race isn’t likely to work as i’ll never get it even.

could be the fork. there is a tool for cutting the fork to size.

Threaded bar up through the middle with pipe in place, washer on ea end and tighten up with couple nuts

If you cut the race, then force it on, it’s diameter is going to be larger – depends on the headset, but might not be brilliant to do that.

Bike shops like me have a proper tool to do it – to get it straight and undamaged, even when carefully applying the biggest hammer.

it is slowly going down by hammering pipe. not really happy, might never get it off..

Ah, well that’s where you need the other big expensive tool that a decent bike shop will have 🙂

i find the tube part of an adjustable axle stand works awesome as a crown race installer with a CK adaptor. you could polish steerer first just to help it a bit

I’ve used the aluminium tube from my pull along henry hoover before – worked a treat.

Riiiight. Well, it’s possible it just needs the right tool, or more brute force. Or, it’s possible that it actually doesn’t fit for some reason. And the thing is, if it’s the latter then applying the former can cause more problems.

So rather than just diving right into mullering it, at this point I’d be getting a second opinion from someone else who’s seen the parts.

grease it first

just split it with a hacksaw

i got it. needed to shape the bottom of pipe so i can control which side i’m hitting. and hit harder, with a lump hammer this time. slow big taps, not lots of little ones.

so i’ll be using CC headsets forever now i guess.. hopefully their lower cup can also take a taper fork, with a different crown race?

cheers guys ah bloody hell, stress. hate this kind of thing.
hope the cup ain’t this tight 😮

Measure the race it to make sure it is 1 1/8″ (if it is a neat fit / slides up and down on the upper steerer it should be fine). I’m guessing the steerer widens slightly towards the crown (not like a tapered steerer that will widen open to around 1.5″

Once checked, grease it up and slide it as far down to the crown as possible.

Hit it soundly with a 1.5 steerer tube (or similar sized tube) slid down the 1 1/8″ fork steerer. The 1.5″ should fit pretty much square on the 1 1/8″ race. No real need for a rubber mallet or hammer.

If you hit it soundly a few times and it will press fit onto the crown.

Too late…

yeah thanks, it’s well on. just needed a bigger hammer. great tip with pipe, that’d never have worked any other way. pvc is surprisingly strong and doesn’t damage anything else.

For future reference…

I have found that some forks and crown races do not work together, the differences are slight but enough.

Smiff you now have a problem as you have a fork with a crown race that you have forced on… it will not come off.

I have cut pretty much all of my crown races with a hacksaw with a fine tooth blade as I have 9 sets of forks which get swapped between 5 bikes depending on my mood at the time.

I run a cut reducer crown race on my burly bike which has seen plenty of action and it works perfectly.

I do hope ‘forcing it ‘ on doesn’t come back to haunt you and I mean that as i know how important bikes and biking is to us mtbers. The reason for my post is to reassure anyone else that it is fine to cut the crown race if it doesn’t go on as it should.

Roll on a dry winter…

The reason for my post is to reassure anyone else that it is fine to cut the crown race if it doesn’t go on as it should.

Or perhaps it’d be better to get the crown race seat properly machined to the correct diameter, using one of the expensive but vital tools a bike shop has.

This thread cracks me up 🙂

Or perhaps it’d be better to get the crown race seat properly machined to the correct diameter, using one of the expensive but vital tools a bike shop has.

This thread cracks me up

Ben it’s a cracker.. 😆

Crown race that has no split should not be spilt! It will reduce bearing life and at worst affect the steering which can be dangerous. 🙄

Get it to a BIKE SHOP with the correct tools.

timax.

Serious question, why shouldn’t you split a crown race?

I split one on my CK a while back and haven’t noticed any ill effects.

Crown race that has no split should not be spilt! It will reduce bearing life and at worst affect the steering which can be dangerous.

really ? how, exactly would it have those effects ?

Well, it depends on the design of the headset. But one example: the headset is designed so the cup and race meet pretty tightly, often with a seal of some sort. Cut the race and spread it, and the bearing cartridge won’t sit so far down on it, so there will be a gap where there shouldn’t be, letting muck and water in.

It’s funny so many people suggesting, with an expensive bit of precision kit, not fitting it properly but bodging it to save going to a bike shop.

hello, thread still going? i realise this reads like a masterclass in how not to solve this type of problem. a few things in my defence:

1) it seems whack it hard is fairly common solution. nor have i heard of anyone getting a crown really stuck, but no doubt it’s happened..
2) being a big piece (space to put tools with fork upside down), greased, and going back out the way it came, i expect to have a good chance of getting it off. maybe even “split it off” with said dremel. carefully.
3) i’ve no way of knowing why CC supply it like that, i’m having trouble visualising whether splitting this kind of race (30mm steerer in 52mm i think bearing) is ok or not. and split races normally have a continuous seal, which i’d have to cut.
4) i’m tight. in the jewish sense.

TL:DR basically i should have split it yes.

sometimes a guy wants to stick a thing in a thing and go ride.

look out for a thread from me in a year or so, asking how to remove. hehe.

look out for a thread from me in a year or so, asking how to remove. hehe.

Can answer that one for you now. Cold chisel and 3lb hammer. 😈

There is never a need for a claw hammer on a bicycle!

TL:DR basically i should have split it yes.

No, you really shouldn’t. Some headsets have split races and they’re designed for that. Some are not, and need a reasonable wallop from a proper headset press and a big hammer – or carefully with the right size bit of pipe if you really are allergic to a bike shop.

Of course you faced the crown race seat on the forks and reamed and faced the head tube?

Why am I going on about this? Well, I’m a big fan of bodging, but there are some things that should be done properly. Companies don’t make all these reaming and facing and pressing tools for the fun of it, they do it because headsets are precision bearings that are under incredible stress and they need to be fitted accurately to get the best performance and maximum lifespan out of them.

ok so i did it roughly right. i call it a “self-reaming” 😉 makes me feel a bit better.
apart from first hitting it against the fork suspension and wheel, which.. sometimes works.

i sometimes wonder why instructions never give practical tips, just say things like “seat the crown properly”. or “this race can/not be split”.
so when you mess up, they can just say you didn’t.. thanks.

Because headsets aren’t really designed to be fitted by the general public – it’s assumed you’ll have the headset tools.

you don’t think i can patent the combined crown and reamer then?

honestly i bet most bike shops would do what i did and no one’s the wiser. not saying you would Ben. like the time i bent an alloy hanger and they used some fancy heat treatment to set it. like hell, they used a mole grip.

you have a feel for this stuff and get away with it, or you don’t.

I used to use a Brompton seatpost for doing crown races – big, steel, and it flares at the bottom for a nice fit on the race 🙂

I really have no problem with what you did – what I was objecting to was the idea of splitting a race which isn’t meant to be split.

Splitting a reducer crown race = bonkers!

There’s a very good reason why it’s big, chunky, solid, and hard to fit.
As for why it’s hard to fit, it’ll have the same ID as a normal crown race, but be much much stiffer, and the only way to make it easier to fit would have been facing the crown race… It’s a tool that surprisingly few bike shops actually have.

What you should have done was push it down the steerer as far as possible, then put the headset together as normal (leaving the gap between the bottom of the crown race and the fork crown) and then just tighten the top cap really tight to force the crown race down.

This also works for pressing the headset into the frame.

yeah Pierre, thought of that, but i think i’d have stripped the bolt. i also use a Hope head doctor instead of a star nut, which btw i find brilliant 🙂

setting up a proper press with fork off the bike would have been the best way, and/or reaming the tube. headset press i use for cups may even have fitted.

good to know my instinct not to cut this race may have been right bikewhisperer. beware internet experts, well meaning but without the parts hehe 😉