ultra-g

I just picked up my new LeMond yesterday, have only ridden it about 10 miles now.

Today, just out of boredom and curiosity I took apart the headset and saw just how crappy the Cane Creek Aheadset that came stock on the bike is. I also had a hard time putting it all back together...
there's a little jiggle room in the headset, but I notice a similar amount of play on my Pista too (and I've never taken that apart).

Anyway, I'm thinking of having the LBS install a Chris King headset as an upgrade.


Is it worth it? I paid $1300 for the bike and plan on riding it for a few years. One of the water bottle mount braze-ons are loose too, I have to have the LBS fix it.

OneTinSloth

i will say no, it is not worth it. and others will disagree with me, and they will

here is my reasoning. YES, the chris king headset is a fantastically well engineered piece of equipment, however, a well-maintained old style (cup and cone) headset of decent quality will work just fine for what it has to do. a nice tange headset, like the techno-glide will work just about as well as the CK, and cost you about 1/3 as much.

it would be nice to have one, but i'm not going to shell out $100+ for one when most of my current headsets are doing their job quite well (i say most because an old tange headset that's served me well for about 5 years, and lord knows how long before that, it on it's way out). i expect that all of my headsets will continue to function as i need them to for the next 10-15 years. at which point, paying $20 for a new tange levin headset or whoever is still making threaded headsets at that point in time, won't seem like a whole lot of money.

CPcyclist

Ride the Cane Creek Aheadset til it needs to be replaced then get the King. If it ant' broke don't fix it

steveknight

my CCA had all of the plastic seals crack by the time I got my bike to the shop the first day I owned it. so the grease got rained on.
so I replaced it with a chris king. FSA are good too. I got mine off of ebay for a ltitle over 89.00 including shipping.

ultra-g

A Chris King is $180 freaking dollars! Jeez, I thought it was like $120. I was thinking of getting a Cane Creek instead, like the Solos. I dunno now. I'd probably have to special order a Chris King, I need the Cyclo-cross compatible headset, forget the model name. But I'm sure the LBS won't have one in stock. My bike needs a 1 1/8" headset.

Raiyn

Chris Kings ARE $120 https://www.pricepoint.com/detail/114...ss-Headset.htm
I love mine. Well worth the money and PITA to get my shop to become a "Authorized Dealer"

ultra-g

I need this model: 2Nut

Raiyn

You didn't mention that above

slider

Funny- I have spacers and a cable hanger on my cross bike with a normal CK headset. Not sure what the 2Nut is needed for. I have CK headsets on all my nice bikes. Sure I don't need a headset that good, but I sure do love them.

-s

ultra-g

Hey, thanks for mentioning that Slider, so a regular Chris King No-Thread headset will work on a CX bike?

mrballistic

as said above... check the fsa orbit series. they're super well-designed, and you can get 'em for about 50 bucks. i'm tempted to get one for my pista (which should arrive next week), as it's super smooth in my roadie.

sydney

Yeah, a HS is pretty much a HS. It won't make you faster, but can lighten your wallet and add to the poseur' points.

sydney

If you have a threadless steerer.The 2 nut is for a threaded steerer. Might pay to figure out what you have and how things work before starting to throw money around.

Jakey

I got a chris king for a couple reasons... first I could have it anodized to match my bike, which I thought was really cool..... secondly, its cartridge bearing, so you really don't have to worry about it, and its got a ten year warranty.

drroebuck

I got a Chris King, along with a Thomson stem, Easton bar and straighter fork. The difference in handling was MIND-BLOWINGLY obvious. I can't vouch for how much was the headset vs. the bar vs. the stem vs. the fork. I've upgraded components before and either noticed a small difference or told myself I did. But the difference the above items made to my bike simply blew me away.

sydney

Don't atribute anything to the freakin HS unless the old one was totlly trashed. If that was the cse, a new $20 replacement would have the same effect as a CK!.

jfmckenna

Agreed.

My 1985 Nashbar touring bike has the same Tange HS in it from day one and that bike has been to hell and back as my cyclocross racing bike.

sydney

The CK worshipers will never buy it.

Trev Doyle

Disagreed. A headset is not a headset. Unless a 1 year warranty is a 10 year warranty. Chris King headsets, are good for varoius reasons. The company is VERY enviromentally responsable. Most (or all) of the employees ride in some respect or another. The have a quality that is matched by no one. And they also have an unbeatable warranty. I don't know why everyone doesn't ride a CK headset. they are well worth the extra bux. I have one on my XC bike and on one of my road bikes. The headsets on my others are either Integrated or are very old style. The King headset on my LeMond is Ti. How many poser points do I get for that.

P.S. What the hell is a poseur?

Fox Farm

If you can afford $100 for a head set, do it. If you have the parts and skill to regularly take apart your head set to clean, grease, and replace parts, you can go with a less expensive model, such as a Stronglight, Tange, Ritchey, Campy, Shimano, etc. I guess the other thing to ask yourself is this: If the Chris King head set did not say KING on it, would you justify the cost?

ultra-g

I called my LBS and they told me a CK headset is $125.

This bike is going to be my main ride for the next few years so I think the money will be a good investment. The headset that's on the bike now is a VP aheadset and it's really low quality.

So how does buying a $125 CK headset make me a Poseur? Is it because I'm willing to spend money on a quality product and instead of buying a cheap part from the used parts box at the shop?

sydney

Well,think about how may cheap I year warranty HS you can buy for a big $$ CK.The rest of it is just all BW. You have maxed out the poseur' point meter.

sydney

So why not use the HS that is on it till it goes TU? You might be surprised how long that might takes And even if it does go TU,it's not a critical part that is going to leave you stranded somewhere. Don't think I just have a hard one for CK HSs. I use em, but never paid more than $50 for a new one. But I'm not gonna abe a CK shill or puppet either. I got plenty of other stuff that works as well for alot less money.

ultra-g

Is Chris King related to George W. Bush? There seems to be a lot of hate out there for his headsets.

That is a joke.

Anyway, I'm gonna go with the CK, my main concern is not having to maintain it more than once a year when I get a tune-up.

NeoBinary

If we continue to employ your logic, we should all purchase entry level bikes and slap each other if we upgrade. Something that is equally as ridiculous as purchasing things based on name, is the drive to want to be different so badly that you behave exactly as you have. I'm sorry to break this to you, but discussions like this are one of the reasons message boards like this exist. Your logic is geared to give youself an aura of cool, which is getting tiresome on these boards. People like to make upgrades and discuss their bikes, live with it.