I am on the last stages of my restoration of a Pinarello Prologo. It had a shimano 105 headset on. In building it with all c-record, I went to put on the Campy headset and due to Campy being longer the fork threads do not come out the top. Will I have to use the 105 or is the steerer tube replacable. (The fork must have been cut with the 105). Thanks…I no mech, so sorry if this sounds stupid. I understand there is no such thing as a stupid question, just stupid people asking questions;)
You’ve got other options besides Campy C-Record and 105… If you can find some NOS Campy parts kicking around I seem to recall them having quite a low stack. Tange also makes a low stack headset. It ain’t C-Record quality, but it’s nicer than 105. You can also get a Chris King. That ought to be low enough as well (and is much nicer than the Tange).
As far as installing a new steerer tube, I suppose it’s possible in theory. You’d need to cut off the old one and weld on a longer one - likely with some sort of a plug in the middle for strength. I have no idea how strong that would be though… (or how heavy it might be).
I’d go with the King.
Thanks. I am bummed, after insaling the c-record headset, I never have felt on so smooth.
I suggest speaking to a reputable bicycle framebuilder. It depends on the type of fork crown, but the steerers are typically brazed into the fork crown, and there may be a possibility of removing the old steerer and brazing in a new one…it may be worth investigating…
Thanks
.
I’m thinking that the most practical solution is the lower stack headset. Next would be finding a different fork with a longer steerer, maybe on ebay. I will bet your current fork is pretty sweet, though.
The original 105 will work. I just love the c-record,thats the build to the rest of the bike. I will be posting pictures soon, its this years race bike. The fork(bike)is for a 650 front (700 rear) and the paint is smoke…white that a torch was taken to to make the smoke look. So finding a fork is out. I will just have to use a different headset.
Which part is taller? If its just the lower you can use the 105 bottom and C record top. Most lower HS look pretty much the same. Also most HS have a bit extra material in places. Depending on how important it is a machine shop could thin the C rord base plate and thin the top lock nut ant the top of the HS Upper race. If you are looking for a millimeter or two you can probably find it.
Last suggestion, most good bike shop have a Headtube cutter. You have take a bit of legnth off the headtube.
Styrrell
I hear ya, but I really don’t think you’re losing anything going with a King. Make sure you get the Grip Nut rather than the Two Nut as it has a lower stack and is the one often used to bail people out of your very situation.
One more totally non-kosher solution which has worked for me… same situation, restoring an older Italian bike, wanted to swap in a taller Record HS that I already had from another bike, but the upper locknut won’t grab enough thread at the very tip of the steerer… I just used a bunch of threadlocker on the lower piece, and the upper nut w/ the inner o-ring just hugs the stem quill so it looks normal but really isn’t doing anything functional (a pretty dust cap, I guess). Of course if it fails, it’s my own fault, but I thought about it for awhile and didn’t see why it wouldn’t work as long as you get the bearing adjustment dialed in just right before the loctite sets. The upper nut’s main purpose is just to lock the lower nut/cup in place; most of the load is on the lower cup at the fork crown, so I don’t think it weakens the system much.
Dude, that’s pretty freakin’ sketchy. I would absolutely 100% **not **recommend that anyone do that, and will tell you that you’re gambling with your face hitting pavement with that setup.
If you *must *have a Record headset on the bike, find NOS parts (or even used vintage). The stack height is pretty low. Otherwise go with a Chris King Grip Nut headset.
I don’t know you, but I’d hate to read about your face getting smashed in.
One of the above posters mentioned brazing on the steerer tube. This was common on some older forks, and if you combine a good welder and machine shop they could easily put a new steerer tube on if you needed it. I’d treat that as a last (and expensive) resort, but if it’s made of steel someone talented can weld it/repair it…anything is possible with a TiG!
“…that’s pretty freakin’ sketchy.”
It is, but it’s also not all that unsafe. The biggest hazard is damage to the frame through gradual ovalization via loose HS, but with a quill stem it’s pretty unlikely that any kind of catastrophic failure would occur - and as long as he stays on top of things loosening up, it should be fine. Heck, my rain bike has been running on a HS installed in pretty much the same manner for about 5 years…
If fredly says that it’s “not all that unsafe” you can take it to the bank. But bear in mind that he’s a damned good wrench and that while he’s happy enough to have his bike set up that way, I doubt very much that he’d ever let a customer’s bike go out the door that way…
If you do decide to run it like that, make sure you’re up on your regular maintenance and check it often.
I know, my first recation at the thought was that’s just reckless and stupid, but after puzzling on it some more I tried to reason out what the most likely failure scenario really is… There’s plenty of surface for the loctite to work with (that vintage of Record is really a pretty robust unit), so I honestly don’t see it loosening up under regular use, and even if it did, it’s not like the fork is gonna fall out unless it completely stripped while I’m trying to bunny hop a ravine. The main vertical load is borne at the crown race, so even if the upper loosened up the quill and bars should still be secure in the steerer (as Fredly agreed).
I’d be less likely to gamble like that on one of my other bikes that sees more/harder use, but since this is my lone Italian semi-vintage quasi-restoration bike it only gets out for “show” rides in good weather; no real hammering or epic mountain treks. In this particular case, anything other than full Campy would render the whole build kinda pointless, as there isn’t really any other niche to justify that space in the stable. Otherwise, I’m a CK whore just like you; I only wish I could replace the integrated POS on my P2 with a proper King unit.
Given all that, it’s probably “safe but certainly not recommended”. 
Don’t get me wrong, I loved my old skool Campy headset that I had on my first ever roadie that’s now been reborn as my cruiser fixie - and I was quite disappointed when I discovered that it was roached and that a new Campy headset wouldn’t fit… At the time I wasn’t all that keen on dropping $$$ on a King Grip Nut so I went with the Tange I described above, which does a perfectly adequate job. But it sure would have been nice to have a NOS Campy headset on that bike…
Re your P2, King may actually be a possibility. Have you seen this?
Oooh! No, I did not realize that CK is finally caving to the market – Just the ticket for a serial upgrader such as myself…