Measure carefully

We've all heard it: Measure twice, cut once. Even if you're not cutting, the advice stands. Measure carefully. Double check yourself. Otherwise things go awry.

This is advice I should have followed with the Nyala headset replacement.

The original no-name steel headset from the '90s had worked adequately for a long time but was well and truly shot. No problem, I thought, I'll grab another headset and it'll be a quick and easy swap.

And with those famous last words, I soon had a lovely FSA Duron headset on the way to me. It's a beautifully made thing that absolutely does not fit.

First off, the Nyala has a 27mm crown race, not the FSA's 26.4. More importantly, the FSA stack height is considerably taller than the Nyala can use.

It's a stupid, stupid mistake. The sort we all make at some time or another, but still, I should have known better and measured instead of guessing.

So, after measuring, I ordered a Tange Levin headset. Of course, with pandemic-era shortages and shipping slowdowns it's taking forever for it to get here. But this time I did measure, so with fingers crossed I'm hoping this works out better.

On the plus side, I'm pretty happy with the headset press I picked up. It's a nice upgrade from the threaded-rod-and-washers homebrew solution I had been using. For the price, I'm not sure it's worth whipping up a DIY solution.

And while I'm stuck waiting on parts, I did luck into a great deal on a Brooks B17 saddle which is just going to be perfect on this bike.

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See all the Bianchi Nyala posts.

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