Having looked at a certain website for afore mentioned headraces, an deciding the price was frankly unacceptable, i mentioned this to friend, who is of the opinion they could be made for £80. If there is demand, it would be worth doing a batch, So, is anybody up for ordering a set? This is for the Sloper/blue star girder/rigid frame. At this moment, there are no guarantees, we are investigating, but it would be good to know of any interest, as, obviously, the more that can be ordered, the cheaper they are. Y'health, Mark.
Hi Mark
My apologies for not replying to your post sooner but I've been offline for about 6 weeks due to technical error on my part , i would be interested in a set of headraces if you decide to have some made
If you still have your original head races it may be possible to have them repaired I had mine done when i sent my forks off to be bushed etc to Jake Robbins engineering they came back very good and they weren't notchy you at all
Hi Mark,
It may be possible to use Taper Roller bearings instead. Simply Bearings supply two alternatives which will fit with some simple machining. The dimensions of each type are listed below:
27 x 48 x 14mm
30 x 48 x 12mm
The bearings are £17.95 + VAT.
Although the material is hardened it's actually quite easy to machine. There is enough depth on the inner core to allow it to be gripped in a lathe chuck so that it can be bored out.
It's also quite straightforward to machine the 10 degree taper on the outer. I've bought samples of both bearings and 27 x 48 x 14mm item seems to be suitable for both the upper and lower head sets. I haven't tried the bearing yet on my Sloper because it's currently off the road but they certainly fit a spare frame and set of yokes - in fact they probably sit better in the taper than the original units.
My Sloper is currently fitted with a set of thrust bearings which are bit like a caged ball race. I machined these in a similar way described and these have proved reasonably OK - there's a slight amount of play which I haven't been able to eliminate. I've always had problems will ball bearing head sets which is why I'm going to try the Taper Rollers instead.
Hi Mark,
I experimented a bit more and have found that the 30 x 50 x 14mm Taper Roller is a better option for the lower bearing. I could cut quite a long taper on this and ended up with a bit of a lip. I then turned to outer race around in the lathe and machined the lip off along the longitudinal axis - i.e. the height of the bearing remains unchanged. This sits well in the lower part of the head stock.
The overall height of the two bearings is slightly smaller than the originals but the top yoke can be packed out so that the links are parallel.