Friday, April 15, 2011

No More Headset Fret or Regret

I've recently acquired two older Fuji models, the Royale II ('83) and the Sports 10 ('76).  Well, when I went to remove the headsets to clean them, my 32mm wrenches did not fit!  I was perplexed by this because I thought all headsets were that size.  The 32mm was just a bit too small actually.  Google came to my rescue (like usual, is that bad?).  I discovered that Park Tool has made in the past, a headset wrench to fit the nonstandard headset lockring and cup race sizes of 33mm and 34mm, which is what these two are that I've acquired.  After some searching on the web, I was not able to find this park tool model (HCW-8) though.  However, a quick call down to one of my area bike shops, Auntra in Phoenixville, solved my problem.  Joe down there had one, thankfully, and at a good price!  I was very relieved, and it felt nice to be able to remove it properly without having to go through some kind of rigmarole.  So, if you run into this same problem, don't despair.  First, measure the lockring to be sure it is in fact 33mm, and start looking for this wrench.  I did find one at MountainBikes.net by a brand named zogs, so maybe you could try that one, and let me know how it is.

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