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Old 11-30-21, 09:56 AM
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Andrew R Stewart 
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Bikes: Stewart S&S coupled sport tourer, Stewart Sunday light, Stewart Commuting, Stewart Touring, Co Motion Tandem, Stewart 3-Spd, Stewart Track, Fuji Finest, Mongoose Tomac ATB, GT Bravado ATB, JCP Folder, Stewart 650B ATB

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Reminds me of many folding bikes that had a compression clamp which would squeeze the slotted steerer onto the stem. In their case the headset was adjusted in the usual manor (for a threaded type) and this clamp would "float" between the upper race and the lock nut (much like a washer only much larger). To remove the stem/bars for travel one would loosen the clamp and pull the stem up and out with no headset adjustment issues.

I note that the imaged headset uses the "English" (my term) bearing contact angle design. This is where the contact points that the balls have with the races are nearly in line with the steerer (much like thrust bearings are done) as opposed to the more tolerant angular contact designs (Campy NR being a well known type). The "English" type was very common on many English bikes of low to moderate grade, like the thousands of Raleighs sold during the 1970s.

Why do I mention this? Because as the bearing contact angle becomes more in line with the steerer the less tolerant it is of miss alignment (think poorly faced frames or seated races). Also these headsets were (or with the Raleigh versions were...) sensitive to the ball count. I don't know how many dozens (of dozens) of Raleighs I had to overhaul the headsets right out of the box due to too many balls (and still not suffer from a ball riding up as the correct counts would leave more than a ball's space). Back then I had the ball counts memorized, the upper stack took one ball less than the lower stack did. IIRC the upper used 22 balls and the lower 23 balls.

To relate this back to the OP's situation. If my points are valid for your headset don't be surprised if you end up tinkering with the ball counts and adjustments only to find the fork will have a tight spot and a loose sopt as it is rotated, even with the best combo of ball counts and adjustment tuning. The floating races only add one more point of slop. Like the needle bearings of the Strongligh A9s and Deltas you might find that more preload is needed to reduce/eliminate the slop then what a angular contact headset with no added layers of parts use. Andy
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