Steel fork and steel race. No notch, seemingly no gap between race and fork either. Tried butter knife, stanley blade and numerous screwdriver. Will the proper tool fare better?

Its a Pinnacle from 2016 I believe (Lithium), are all races removable?

Got a Dremel? Grind a gap in it. Bonus of being much easier to get on and off in the future.

nixie, thats a decent idea unless its an expensive set of forks. Ive used a specific tool for this job

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/x-tools-pro-crown-race-remover-tool/rp-prod55939

Heating it with a hairdryer can sometimes help. Do you know if it has been helped to stay on with Loctite at any point? If so, some warmth might do the trick.

Also some LBS carry the enormous Park tool that has never failed me yet. It does tend to like taking paint off crowns a bit though.

Heat and hammer in a Stanley knife blade

Hammering in a Stanley blade worked for me. That was a Pinnacle lithium too…

Nice sharp chisel has never failed me.  All gets a bit nervous when it’s a tough one but always OK in the end

I’ve used a tool like that X-Tools one (think mine was Superstar) a few times on stubborn ones, it works great for getting it moving.

Bonus of being much easier to get on and off in the future.

Yeah, it’s a bit impertinent if it’s a shop-bought bike but I always cut my crown races before fitting them; makes life so much easier 🙂

If it’s one which really won’t budge without risking damaging the fork then I’d just take it to a decent shop. If my experience with Pinnacle frames is anything to go by, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a bit of a challenge… 😉

I love that all of the more modern headests I have bought now have split crown races.

Such a good idea.

In the end heat didn’t work, but the dremel eventually thinned it down enough to split vertically. I always cut a slot in races before fitting and this just confirms that’s the way to go!