Swap Headset Bearings?

During our last ride I suddenly began to hear and feel an intermittent
clicking in the front of the bike. I couldn't find any cracks in the
paint on the aluminum fork, so I took out the fork and discovered that
the lower bearing doesn't turn smoothly.

Since there is no LBS in my area I will need to mail order a new set
of bearings. In the meantime, would it be safe to swap the top and
bottom bearings? The headset in question is a Cane Creek S-1.

TIA,
Harry

On Oct 20, 6:03*am, HarryB wrote:
During our last ride I suddenly began to hear and feel an intermittent
clicking in the front of the bike. I couldn't find any cracks in the
paint on the aluminum fork, so I took out the fork and discovered that
the lower bearing doesn't turn smoothly.

Since there is no LBS in my area I will need to mail order a new set
of bearings. In the meantime, would it be safe to swap the top and
bottom bearings? The headset in question is a Cane Creek S-1.

TIA,
Harry

Sure. Also pry the seal off with a knife blade and squirt some grease
in there, replace the seal.

Harry B? wrote:

During our last ride I suddenly began to hear and feel an
intermittent clicking in the front of the bike. I couldn't find any
cracks in the paint on the aluminum fork, so I took out the fork and
discovered that the lower bearing doesn't turn smoothly.

What do you call not smoothly? Is it randomly tight like running over
sand, or does it have regularly spaced loose and tight positions,
generally called "indexed steering".

Since there is no LBS in my area I will need to mail order a new set
of bearings. In the meantime, would it be safe to swap the top and
bottom bearings? The headset in question is a Cane Creek S-1.

If it fits, the bearing will not complain. I assume the two bearing
are identical anyway. Is the upper bearing still running "smoothly"?

Jobst Brandt

On 20 Oct 2008 17:25:31 GMT, wrote:

Harry B? wrote:

During our last ride I suddenly began to hear and feel an
intermittent clicking in the front of the bike. I couldn't find any
cracks in the paint on the aluminum fork, so I took out the fork and
discovered that the lower bearing doesn't turn smoothly.

What do you call not smoothly? Is it randomly tight like running over
sand, or does it have regularly spaced loose and tight positions,
generally called "indexed steering".


When I rotated the bearing by hand, it had more resistance than the
upper bearing. Additionally, it did kind of feel like your description
of running over sand, and that feeling was indeed random.

As the other poster suggested, I pried off the seals and put a little
grease in the bearing. I then swapped the bearings and reinstalled the
fork. I took the bike for a short test ride and didn't feel the
clicking. But, the bike is a tandem and since my wife couldn't stoke
(she was preparing supper and a good captain would never interrupt the
making of supper for something as trivial as a test ride) I can't say
for sure that the clicking is gone because the bike handles so
differently without my stoker.

Since there is no LBS in my area I will need to mail order a new set
of bearings. In the meantime, would it be safe to swap the top and
bottom bearings? The headset in question is a Cane Creek S-1.

If it fits, the bearing will not complain. I assume the two bearing
are identical anyway. Is the upper bearing still running "smoothly"?

Jobst Brandt

Yes, the bearings were the same part number and the upper one did feel
much smoother than the lower one.

Harry