Help needed: gap between lower headset cup and fork

[Racing roadkill]

The only place I could get the correct bearing was from the Specialized shop,I think they said the bearings are machined for their frames.

That sounds about right. I imagine they aren’t the only bike company to do something like that.

 

[bleach100002]

if you rebuild your headset and you end up with a small hairline gap between the bottom cup and frame, a way to fix it is to take remove the cups, bearings and dry-fit them. Dry-fitting is when you remove the frame itself out of the equation and try to fit the bearings and the cup onto the crown race on the top of you hand. That way you could compare the top and lower bearings and cups together to see if there's any differences among them like small size or different dimensions. For example one of the cup's could have a longer outer shield than the outer and you jsut didnt know because they look identical to eachother, or if the bearings have a slightly higher or different angle than the other - you wouldnt know because they look so identical and you wouldnt have givent he second thought)

 

[Ajax Bay]

@bleach100002 Be aware that the OP only hung around here for 10 days in 2018 and all but one of those on this thread were last seen in the 2010s. Please don't disheartened by a lack of response. @spiderman2 was around a few months ago.