Bicycle Mechanics - What does it mean to ream and face?

The directions say to do the following:

In order for this headset to perform properly, you must ream and face the headtube before installation.

Thx!

Reaming is to remove burs on the internal surface of the headtube to ensure a proper inside diameter with a solid full surface to interface with the bearing cups.

Facing is to plane material from the top and bottom edges of the head tube where the bearing cups are to be pressed in. These edges need to be parallel to each other to achieve the bearings seating square and true to the head and steerer tubes.

Hope that helps.

Reaming is cutting the inner diameter of a tube to a specified diameter.
Facing is cutting the face(front) of a tube flat.
Nowadays, you are mostly removing removing the paint, but it is still a good idea to do it.

Campy and Park make simple tools to do this in a few minutes.
They are not cheap though. A few LBS will have these and can do the job. Most large bicycle frame companies will do this as part of manufacturing the frame. Smaller frame companies or individual frame makers may not. The headtube has to be faced and reamed, the bottom bracket shell faced only. Steve

I recently installed a Chris King Aheadset in a Giant OCR. The Park & Campag tools would NOT work in the head tube, so I resorted to hand filing - it was the only way...

Originally posted by esophagus6
The directions say to do the following:

In order for this headset to perform properly, you must ream and face the headtube before installation.

Thx! Based on the wording... is this a Chris King headset?

Originally posted by mechBgon
Based on the wording... is this a Chris King headset?

:D It is a Chris King Headset.

My 2c worth: take it to the best LBS you know of and have them do the full meal deal, including the pressing of the headset (special CK adapters are recommended for the job, a good shop should have one or more sets to go on their headset presses).

(nice choice by the way! what color did you get? :D)

Originally posted by mechBgon
My 2c worth: take it to the best LBS you know of and have them do the full meal deal, including the pressing of the headset (special CK adapters are recommended for the job, a good shop should have one or more sets to go on their headset presses).

(nice choice by the way! what color did you get? :D)

Black to match my black frame which also matches my black CrossMaxes. :D

Me too, the black ones look classy! :cool:

Once you go black, you don't go back! :p

See the process at Reaming and Facing (http://www.parktool.com/repair_help/howfix_headface.shtml)

The process is needed, but hopefully it has been done by the factory already. If the ID measures out acceptably, and the bearings adjust adequately, the bike is adequately machined.

Originally posted by Calvin Jones
See the process at Reaming and Facing (http://www.parktool.com/repair_help/howfix_headface.shtml)

The process is needed, but hopefully it has been done by the factory already. If the ID measures out acceptably, and the bearings adjust adequately, the bike is adequately machined.

Thx! This helped a lot in understand the process. I'm going to take it to a LSB to have them install the headset.

Are we talking porn or bikes here????