Headset

[JAYPEE]

Good day,
I have bike with old style h.set, champag chorus but recently had a prang and bent the forks so i plan on changing from steel to carbon, can i use my existing h.set which is in good order or do have to go for a new fangled jobby. I have some mechanical knowlege so should be able to fit it!

cheers.
Is it me or are the roads harder than they were?

 

[Steve Austin]

As long as you are not going from threaded to A-head then you should be fine.
and
if its a carbon steerer you might need to use a 'bung' rather than a star fangled nut

 

[Tim Bennet.]

I think it's unlikely that you will be able to find a set of new carbon forks with a threaded steerer. I might be wrong, but I would still question whether it is worth hunting a pair down just to re-use your headset.

I think you would be better off going with an A-Head, threadless fork and enjoying the benefit of having more choice of forks, and being able to adjust your headset with an allen key instead of a pair of enormous spanners. In my experience, the threadless headsets last longer because they are easier to adjust properly and as a result, get stripped down and lubed far more frequently. I think threadless headsets are one of the 'improvements' made to bikes that really are an improvement.

 

[Monty Dog]

As said, apart from ebay, threaded carbon forks are going to be hard to find. You can get an Ahead headset converter - it's basically a top race cover, cap that replaces the top race cover and locknut of your existing headset - but whether it would look right on your headset is up to you:
http://www.ultimatepursuits.co.uk/products/details.aspx?ref=14132&pRef=33063&vertical=1&v=