With regard to Andrei's inquiry about his Mel Pinto tandem, most of these were built by Urago or Lejeune. They had over-sized metric (28x1.00) headsets, so not the typical 1-1/8" of today's standard. Most used Bardon chrome steel headsets, which look similar to a Stronglight Competition, with the "toothed" adjustable race and matching washer, but have no markings. I have a tray of Bardon OS headset parts, but unfortunately no upper and lower fixed races or adjustable races. I do have lots of crown races and toothed washers and a few top nuts. An interesting aside to this discussion is a note in Mel's hand writing on the tray which reads "for better installing use 5/32 on top and 3/16 on the bottom". These headsets don't appear in the Sutherland's manuals I have, nor have I discovered any original Bardon literature, so I don't know what was "factory correct". I think I'll take Mel's word for it.
I also have some JPR 28x1 alloy headsets, which can be seen here:
http://www.wooljersey.com/
These headsets are unusual in that they do not use the typical adjustable race & top nut design, rather a one-piece adjustable race/cap that is designed to use thread-locking compound to hold it in place. I don't know that I'd want to trust one on a cross country trip, but it might be cool on a show or random use bike. I have both the 25x1 and 28x1 versions, in both silver and black, available for $45 each, if anyone is interested.
Wayne
-- Wayne Bingham Velo Classique PO Box 2069 Purcellville, VA 20134 USA 540-338-8376 http://www.veloclassique.com
From: Ancient Cycles <ancientcycles@gmail.com> Date: Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 10:46 AM Subject: [CR] WTB: 1 1/8" threaded headset parts for tandem To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
I have a vintage tandem project (Mel Pinto Special but maybe Urago built) with a damaged lower headset race.. so I am seeking complete headsets or only the lower parts (cup + crown race). original headset seems similar to Stronglight but is unmarked. the bike is French threaded but i guess that dimension is not important if only replacing the lower races, as long as it's 1 1/8 inch.. ...or was the metric size something like 32mm ?? is a french thread tandem headset a wild goose chase ?
let me know what you've got
Andrei Padlowski
Brooklyn, NY