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I have a 2016 Trek Emonda ALR 5 with a carbon fork. I am assembling the bike after general maintenance, and have noticed that I am missing (or: think I'm missing = am not sure) a crown race for the lower headset assembly. The fork is full-carbon and the steerer is tapered, and (surprisingly, for me) there is a bevel at the edge where the steerer connects to the crown (i.e. where a crown race would usually reside).

Does this mean that the lower headset bearing is meant to be in direct contact with the fork, with no crown race inbetween? Trying this out "by hand", the bearing does in fact rest snugly against the bevel, and there is also the regular ~2mm gap inbetween, as there should be (so that the crown doesn't grind against the frame). Is this correct, though?

See pic below.

Emonda ALR carbon fork - crown close-up

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That looks like an integrated crown race for sure. Does the rest of the headset use integrated bearings as well? If so, that would also reinforce my suspicion. It's certainly safe because you've been riding for years already without issue.

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    Deffo an integrated crown race. They do it for a variety of reasons, it works on different headsets, don't risk damage on the fork by changing races, "usually" lower stack to the frame, weight reduction and more. Also, this doesn't only have to work with integreated headsets. Can work on others too.
    – abdnChap
    Commented Jun 15, 2020 at 9:06

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