ok I have had to explain this enough times to make a thread, this will save me so much time in the long run. I will post the link in my signature and I can direct people to it rather than explain it over and over again.

for those who do not know this, you cannot just swap the top cap from a race headset and turn it into a freestyle headset, in some cases it will work, but if you want to do it you must make sure the top bearing race is correct (the black part that holds the spring).

difference between the bearing race. left side is freestyle. the concaved part is more tall and narrow, it sits deeper into the bearing.

right side is the race version, the concaved part is wider and shorter.  I have seen some race headsets with the race that works for freestyle but not all of them.

this is what happens if you only switch the top cap. it creates a large gap because the top race is not sitting down far enough. of course you could use it like this, but it looks silly and lets much more dirt and water into the headset.

also you must use the bearing with the round retainers, like the ones seen here.  the oval type retainers will not work with the freestyle top bearing race, because the tall narrow part of the bearing race actually sits inside the bearing retainer and the oval bearing retainers do not have a large enough inside diameter for the bearing race to fit inside.   

here you can see how the oval bearing retainers don't fit over the bearing race.

round retainers fit.

PFT gyro cable variation. the lower cable on an 80's PFT is different than others. the double part above the split is much shorted for the PFT. this is a regular one next to the shorter one.

here is some GT tire differences. rare shinko race tires, freestyle, and the other race tires.

the shinko's have 2 larger GT wing logo's with a blue outline. the tread it a little deeper and the GT lettering on the tread is slightly bigger than the other race tires.

the more common race tires have one small GT logo.

the freestyle tires have a different font and tread pattern under the letters, it kinda looks like the top of a castle and some often refer to them as castle tread.

seat post differences

pink 87 large circle stamp
white 85 small circle stamp with cr-mo 4130 under it, this one bends back further.
green, same bend as the white one, but no stamp.

they are all a different length.

Last edited by caleb_k31 (2014-03-29 3:18pm)