3Roch

And are not too particular about it's vintage etc.
I needed one for a Motobecane Le Champion frameset that i'm building into a frankenbike 8 x3 go fast bike needed 37mm stack height which meant velo orange 41 mm height
would not work. Turns out the tang passage lower cup 26.4 has 4mn less height than velo orange lower cup so for $15+$30 got a 37mm headset...and lot of extra bearingsl
I did look at the auction place but didn't want to spend $200 and got tired of "I think it's French threads" etc

SurferRosa

Years ago, I wanted a Super Record headset for my Moto. The least expensive way to go was to buy a standard threaded headset and, separately, the two French threaded pieces. I also had to mill the fork crown.

I mean, that all worked, and it looks great, but I don't think I'd do it the same way again. And it might even be impossible to build one that way today for under $100.

verktyg 

It's usually only the lower headset cup and crown race that go out on decent quality headsets.

I've used Tange Levin CDS lower headset parts with upper parts from Stronglight P3 and similar ones. They have a classic look too.

They're high quality with through hardened chromoly alloy steel, precision ground and polished races plus plastic dust seals.

The standard ones come with 26.4mm crown races. They're hard to find but available with a 27.0mm crown race. They used to be available with metric threads too. The 11mm lower stack height is the same as the P3.

They are available in polished chrome plus harder to find satin chrome and black finishes.



The Tange Passage headsets are lower quality with chrome plated unground case hardened races. The chrome plating peals off and the flakes damage the bearings. But, if you need a cheap headset with a 30mm stack height these are a good choice.



Easy way to measure the stack height on a bare frame:




verktyg

bark_eater 

What year is you bike?

3Roch

The frameset is .one of the sorta 73's-silver color and dropouts like a 72 but it's different than my 79 le champ-and headtube is different length
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bark_eater 

What headset is on the 79? I've got an 81 I haven't figured out yet.

3Roch

[QUOTE=bark_eater;22188006]What headset is on the 79? I've got an 81 I haven't figured out yet.[/QUOTE

it's Campy, I have no idea which one. If this is your $95 le champion I, being me, would take the fork out, measure what stack height you need (if a headset is too big that won't work, if short just make spacers) and find something that will work even if it's something like I described in this thread

SurferRosa

Does it need to be replaced?

bark_eater 

Yup, its heavily indexed. I'm assuming its a Campagnolo Record, French threaded and low stack, but its kind of inaccessible for the time being. So I'm fishing for data points.