WizardOfBoz

Bought a Ritchey 1" steerer CF fork for my 1999 Lemond Zurich. Base is nominally (IIRC) 26.4mm. Cane creek headset 40, size EC30. I think that the bottom part of the headset is supposed to be 26.4 also. But it won't go on. Am I off on the sizes? Interference fit, sure, but this is ridiculous.
Thanks.

Andrew R Stewart 

Any measurements actually done? Is the steerer base/crown seat AL? If so then the usual seat milling could be done. Andy

dsaul

According to the tech info at Ritchey, that is a 26.4 crown race seat. Have you ever installed a crown race before? They usually require a good deal of force to drive them onto the seat. Its not something that you can just push into place.

blamester

First you have to determine how close a fit it is.
Look and see us it just tight or no way it will fit.
​​​​​​If it is just tight i rub the leading edge of the race with emery paper or wet and dry.
A small curve just go get a start. Just taking the sharp edge off. Start by hand and gentle taps after. Minimum material removed.

Crankycrank

If you determine that everything measures out properly and still having trouble getting the race on it helps to put the race in boiling water for a few minutes right before installation and the fork can be put in the freezer if you have room or at least chilled with an ice pack or stuck in the refrigerator for an hour or so. Usually helps a little with getting a difficult race on.

WizardOfBoz

dsaul, I've installed crown races. That is TRUE crown races that actually have a bearing race (Campy Nuovo Record). But not new crown ... bearing seats? Is that a clear name? Also, never installed one on a CF fork although the steerer is Al on this model of Ritchey.

But the critical thing, which your post pointed out, is that to do the job properly and easily one should use a pretty stiff piece of pipe (like the Park tool) and a proper fitting to distribute force. I dropped by the nice people at the Trek store in West Chester, PA. They had that device and Jason took a couple of whacks and my ... crown bearing seat was installed. Jason's a nice guy, too.

The nominal diameter for the place where the bearing seat is, well, seated, is 26.4mm. I'll have to get my calipers out as I can't get my mic near enough to the shoulder to measure.

Thanks to all for the help.

Andrew R Stewart 

Actually the crown seat should be about 0.1mm bigger in diameter then the ID of the race to have the right interference fit. Andy

WizardOfBoz

Andy, the neck near the crown appears to be 26.41mm, which is larger than the 26.0mm about 10mm above the crown. And the tube is 25.4mm. I'm not sure what the ID of the crown bearing seat was, but it was a plenty tight interference fit. The good thing is, thanks to Jason, its seated now.