There were a lot of decent headsets back then but none emerges in my mind as eminent.
TDC came on British frames and were OK. Stronglight was a good bet. Lots of no name headsets on ordinary quality bikes of that era are very impressive when you rebuild them.
To me a headset need not be silky smooth to be a good headset. It needs to allow small movements under load and be resistant to brinelling. A certain amount of smooth resistance (damping) is desirable. The steering forces generated by countersteering and lean are very large so "smoothness", that is a silky bearing at no load, is not a good measure of headset performance.
The interesting thing to me is that somehow headsets moved backwards during the 1970s. Even the Campagnolo headsets seemed not as durable. Maybe it was just that the headtube and fork race facing was worse!
Joe Bender-Zanoni
Great Notch, NJ
> Other than a Campagnolo headset, what came on most high end road bicycles
> and/or were considered among the best back in the late 1960's?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Eric Elman
> Somers, CT