Engage sliding press plate onto hex shaft, and push plate upward until headset cup meets head tube. Release lever. Sliding press plate lever must be engaged in one of seven hex shaft notches. Pull downward on lower press plate to test engagement. A rider wishing a more upright position opts for a longer steerer, filling the gap between stem and headset with one or more spacers.

Place upper headset cup on top of head tube. Hold one cup guide onto top threaded press plate and lower assembly through top headset cup. If play is present, repeat steps “6” and “7” above until play disappears. Adjustment is finished when there is no play in any position as the fork rotates.Mounting a new headset will be explained in a separate article. Now, just a note: after placing a new fork crown race, clean all the excess mounting paste so it doesn’t get mixed with bearing grease.

Finance is subject to application, financial circumstances and borrowing history. Performance Cycling Limited FRN: 720557 trading as Tredz are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. We are a credit broker not a lender – credit is subject to status and affordability and is provided by Mitsubishi HC Capital UK PLC. Terms & Conditions Apply. The fork steerer is 1 inch in diameter. Steerer length is specific to the size of the bike into which it is installed. HOW DOES A THREADED HEADSET WORK? After crown race has been pulled, loosen plunger assemblies and remove the CRP-1 and the crown race from the fork. The key to making a threaded headset work properly is by tightening the top race or preloading the bearing, noting the point where fork rotation becomes stiffer. You want the whole headset unit to be compact with no play, but still easy to rotate left and right.

Headset Bearing Adjustment

We researched other brands and found that they were appalling quality straight out of the box and often more expensive too. If possible, disconnect cables shift and brake levers. Loosen stem and remove bars and stem from steering column. Having dealings with a paint shop in Taiwan is handy. You can usually convince the owner to do a custom job for you. Matching the Nishiki’s color is no problem. And it’s monochrome. No two or more color combos to complicate the spray.

A Deda Elementi stem happened to be hiding in a corner of the workshop—glorious find … had completely forgotten that this piece of goodness was there. So, on it went. Way more elegant that the original piece of ugliness, you have to agree! Use a hammer at end of RT-1 and drive cup from head tube. Use care as cup approaches end of tube, as tool may fall to ground on last blow of the hammer. What’s in a headset? This is an external cup headest. Right to left: crown race, lower bearing, lower bearing cup, upper bearing cup, upper bearing, cap or “dust seal”. A messy pile of components fit under the headset umbrella. Beginning from the base, there’s the crown race. This is a thin ring that slides onto the fork’s steerer tube and sits against the fork crown, allowing a specific headset to interact with a fork. The lower bearing in a headset can have a different shape depending on how it’s designed, so the included crown race “pairs” these two components.

Finally, the stem spacers and stem fill up the rest of the steerer tube. The star fangled nut (SFN), installed in the steerer tube, allows the top cap and preload bolt to pull the whole system tightly together. Then, the stem bolts are tightened to keep it snug. Now, on to some tips for headset installation and removal. The result is even better when you add an attractive new stem. There is still much work to be done on this bike however. A threaded headset works with a fork that has threads running from the top down towards the fork crown for several inches. These two gentlemen could not be any more accommodating if they tried, quality service that is a rare find in today’s crazy world, I can not recommend this company enough! Well, you’d need another connection with a design and printing company, get a set made. Applying the decals takes a skilled worker less than five minutes.

Rotate the fork by 1/8 of a circle (some 45 degrees), then repeat the process. In this first go around, don’t try to force the blade all the way in – just by about 1 mm.

Pressing Head Tube Cups

Headset bearing races are held by an interference fit into the head tube. An interference fit occurs when parts are held together by internal and external surfaces forced together. There must be a slight diameter difference between the two pressed surfaces. Typically, the pressed headset race outside diameter should be between 0.1mm and 0.25mm larger than the head tube inside diameter. When the cups are pressed, the head tube will flex and enlarge slightly to allow the cups to press. This tension is what keeps the cups tight in the frame. The exception to this rule is for threaded headsets that use sealed bearings which are much less sensitive to the amount of torque applied to the top race. CAN I USE A THREADED FORK WITH A THREADLESS HEADSET? It is also possible to replace retainer ball bearings with loose bearings. Grease cups to hold bearings, and place balls into cup shaped races. Leave a wide gap the size of two ball bearings, do not attempt to fully fill cup. Use a caliper to measure the outside diameter of the cups. Next, measure the inside diameter of the head tube in two places, each 90 degrees from the other. Average the two reading. If the head tube more than 0.25mm smaller than the race, it may be reamed using the HTR-1 Headtube Reaming and Facing tool. If the race is between 0.01mm and 0.09mm, a different headset with a larger press race should be used. It is also possible to use a retaining compound such as Loctite® RC609. If the race is equal to or smaller than the head tube, a different race should be used. See discussion of press fit standards below.