best way to romove a crown race?

just been trying to remove the crown race from my old forks and i can't get it off,what's the easiest way?

thin screwdriver plus hammer and lots of patience

1: Remove forks from bike.
2: Invert forks.
3: Place forks in vice or workstand with steerer clamped.
4: Add a few squirts of penetrating fluid to the race steerer interface.
5: Wait a few minutes.
6: Use a large flat screwdriver and gently tap on the front and back of the flat surface of the race.
7: repeat until removed.

I find an old, blunt 'butter' knife works quite well to get it started

Depends if the edge of the crown race is "exposed" at all…for example on my RS forks they have the indents so you can get to the edge of the crown race; you can then turn the fork upside down, get a friend to hold the forks then use a nail punch with a hammer alternating sides after each strike.

Where its not exposed, I've found you can use a chisel very carefully putting the flat side of the blade against the crown then the sloping side against the crown race. Again, rotating the fork after each strike.

As daffy says, use a bit of penetrating lube first and also a bit of insulating tape of exposed bits of the fork will prevent some potential marks.

an axe and a large rock.

You mean you don't have one of these??

Pesant.

hammer and wood work chisel to remove and scaffold pipe to seat

Take it to local bike shop. Cheaper than gouging your forks if things go wrong.

Next time, cut a slot in the race and it will come off easily. 🙂

>Take it to local bike shop

Last time I used my old LBS to remove a crown race I think they *did* use an axe and a large rock 😮

I've found tapping a screwdriver in under the race where it meets the crown is more effective than hammering the race vertically off the stearer. I really struggled to get the race off my Van's when I bought a new frame and after a major struggle this worked to get the damn thing off.

Neil @ Fawkes

ended up giving in,took to bike shop,good news is they got it off,bad news is that it was a pain in the arse and they took some of the paint off the top of it.

Park tool seems a bit steep, in fact I have built a bike for less.

I have the Ice toolz remover which is a slightly more sophisticated verion of bash it off with a chisel and a screwdriver. Cyclus also make one see here but I have no experience with their version.

+1 for the screwdriver approach. Wrap some tape round the screwdriver before you go at it, so you don't scratch the crown.

jond – Member
"Take it to local bike shop"
Last time I used my old LBS to remove a crown race I think they *did* use an axe and a large rock

Revised post: Take it to a lbs where the mechanic's knuckles don't hang below his knees.

Probably a stupid headset question 2. Here we go.

Get it regularly with certain FSA headsets, can't figure out why anyone would design a crown race with a squared off lower edge that allows no access to remove it(my dad's favourite saying- whoever designed the bl**dy thing ought to come back and work on it.), usually resort to tapping a Stanley knife blade in to start it off.

Did your headset come with a crown-race? If the old one is now spare The Swede may know someone who needs it…

i use a chisel a hammer and it takes just a few seconds.

1) place chisel – flat side to crown, wedged side to race
2) tap with hammer
3) rotate forks round and attack the front in the same way.
4) use chisel to lever the race up rotating the forks so it goes up evenly.

Alternatively, buy a Hope headset with a split crown race.

I find a wallpaper scraper makes an excellent starting point – just thin enough to open it up before moving onto a screwdriver.