Success in the headset

Well I got the Ritchey Headset today and pressed in the cups and installed. All is well and now the steering is completely better. I was much easier to set the preload and get the whole fork in correct. The pitted race in the bearings was clearly making the deal much less efficient. One could ride the bike that way for probably a long time but wow what a difference. The steering moves flawless and smooth, no play feels much better. Hopefully a complete test ride tomorrow.

I had never pressed in EC bearing headset cups and the anti seize was a bit messy but it worked fine. It actually matches in color the titanium frame. I wiped the excess but the stuff does get all over. This time I used marine grease for the bearings sitting in the cups. The fork has an integrated crown race so that I left off. The bearing sits right on the fork. I am glad I manage this and will have to make sure to service this once in awhile and take apart and re-grease. Seem water kicking up from the front wheel getting into the headtube area. Thanks Andrew.

Seems to me a bit of a load setting right on a 8mm bearing? Maybe less than I think is it possible to calculate the figure?

Deacon Mark

On Mon, 16 Nov 2020 13:04:09 -0800 (PST), Mark Cleary
wrote:

Well I got the Ritchey Headset today and pressed in the cups and installed. All is well and now the steering is completely better. I was much easier to set the preload and get the whole fork in correct. The pitted race in the bearings was clearly making the deal much less efficient. One could ride the bike that way for probably a long time but wow what a difference. The steering moves flawless and smooth, no play feels much better. Hopefully a complete test ride tomorrow.

I had never pressed in EC bearing headset cups and the anti seize was a bit messy but it worked fine. It actually matches in color the titanium frame. I wiped the excess but the stuff does get all over. This time I used marine grease for the bearings sitting in the cups. The fork has an integrated crown race so that I left off. The bearing sits right on the fork. I am glad I manage this and will have to make sure to service this once in awhile and take apart and re-grease. Seem water kicking up from the front wheel getting into the headtube area. Thanks Andrew.

Seems to me a bit of a load setting right on a 8mm bearing? Maybe less than I think is it possible to calculate the figure?

Deacon Mark

Sure. Sit on the bike and weigh the load on the front wheel and divide
by the number of balls in the bottom bearing :-)
--
Cheers,

John B.