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Slightly ovaled headset suitable for commuter bike?
Hi All-
A few years ago, I bought an early '90s Ritchey mountain bike frame off of Ebay with grand designs of building myself a "vintage" mountain bike. However, when I received the frame and started assembling it, it became apparent that the top of the head tube is slightly ovaled. The headset doesn't exactly drop in, but it's a looser fit than is optimal. My LBS cautioned me about riding it as a mountain bike for obvious reasons. Does anyone here have any opinions as to whether or not I could get away with using it as a commuter bike? It's otherwise a nice frame, and I'd hate to throw it away. Are the stresses generated by mountain biking significantly more than by commuting? Cheers, Casey |
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Slightly ovaled headset suitable for commuter bike?
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Slightly ovaled headset suitable for commuter bike?
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Slightly ovaled headset suitable for commuter bike?
On 5/19/2014 9:27 PM, John B. wrote:
On Mon, 19 May 2014 15:23:04 -0700 (PDT), wrote: Hi All- A few years ago, I bought an early '90s Ritchey mountain bike frame off of Ebay with grand designs of building myself a "vintage" mountain bike. However, when I received the frame and started assembling it, it became apparent that the top of the head tube is slightly ovaled. The headset doesn't exactly drop in, but it's a looser fit than is optimal. My LBS cautioned me about riding it as a mountain bike for obvious reasons. Does anyone here have any opinions as to whether or not I could get away with using it as a commuter bike? It's otherwise a nice frame, and I'd hate to throw it away. Are the stresses generated by mountain biking significantly more than by commuting? Cheers, Casey The head tube is actually an oval? Or the bearing race just pushes in easier? If the former I believe I would investigate further, if the latter I wouldn't worry about it as the head bearing race fit seems to vary somewhat from bike to bike. I'm guessing here but I believe that you could break a fork before you would ovalize (is that a word?) a head tube. -- Cheers, John B. (invalid to gmail) Yes, a head tube can be oval and/or enlarged without fork damage. The repair is to fill in new metal and cut a round bore of the correct diameter: http://www.yellowjersey.org/photosfr...t/headfill.jpg -- Andrew Muzi www.yellowjersey.org/ Open every day since 1 April, 1971 |
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