Head Tube

I've come up with my solution. After taking the head tube around town to the hardware stores and a few machine shops, no one had a die big enough or of the correct pitch to thread. I heard that bike shops could do this, but

A) There are no real decent bike shops around Anderson.
B) They were all closed for the holiday.

Instead I bought an 1 1/8th" hole saw, and used it to cut the welds off the head tube from the lower triple tree clamp. It worked well, and took about a minute. I then measured and sawed off 20mm from the head tube, which is hopefully the correct amount to fit it with no spacers.

Then I positioned the shortened head tube in a vice and clamped the lower tree exactly centered around the head tube, and welded. I think the welds turned out decent for as little as I weld these days, but at any rate, no one will see it and it is more sturdy than stock.

I will need to put a shim to hold the lower bearing race, as the old head tube had a bulge built in to keep the race steady. Oh well. I'm going down to the shop to fit this up with some new bearings. More pictures, as usual.