Gp headsets

[daniel whiteley]

So .... gp headsets Italian and Indian , what are the differences , early and late , between the two and how can you see/tell the differences ? Bought myself A curry burner and the headset is fooked so need to know what I. See , it's a 77 so I'm guessing it's an early type ? Can someone BIG come along and tell me
Ta
It's

[Steve J]

The later Indian GP headsets use a gearchange casting and light switch housing which are considerable 'fatter' than the Italian versions, and the main castings are thicker to match - about the same diameter in that area as the Series 1 & 2 castings. Supposedly done to prevent the headset casting breaking on Indian roads.....
The early Indian GP headset castings are identical in shape to the Italian ones, and even have the same part number (although the part number stamping is completely different.) My GP curryburner is a 1976, and came with the thinner headset -which needed some welding. Good luck with getting an early Indian casting - they do come along from time to time, but some of the castings aren't too good, and need a bit of welding/filling/fettling. The alternative would be to fit the later type GP headset, but you would need to get the matching headset top, the gearchange casting and light switch casting. These later headsets often have the bosses cast in for fitting mirrors.

[daniel whiteley]

Thanks for that it's roughly what I thought I just wasn't sure , so I can use an Italian headset or the early sil headset to sort out my issue ... Anybody got one ????

[Steve J]

Daniel - PM sent!

[AlG]

Welcome to the club - I have a good early Indian headset bottom, but searching for a good early Indian or Italian top at a reasonable price...

[Leotech]

Ive filed down fatter top ones to match thinner bases before now. its not ace but you can get em pretty good. Just don't get carried away and take too much off.

[corrado]

To identify Italian "v" Indian size just measure the inside diameter of either the gear shroud or the light switch housing at the widest point where it's butts up to the headset. Italian is round about 34mm and Indian 37mm.

[daniel whiteley]

So I decided to get a replacement off corrado , ordered it yesterday (Friday) afternoon and he has just hand delivered it to me about 10 mins ago !!!! What a top bloke
Cheers martin