Originally Posted by
Road Fan
Not going to argue about Campy right now, but honestly, have you tried to buy a needle-bearing A9? There are new Stronglight headsets called A9, but today precious little new product has needle bearings. I've seen two versions: ball bearing and cartridge bearing. No information presented by Stronglight about the nature of the cartridge bearings, so I assume they've cheaped out and are offerring some ball-type cartridge bearing.
I'd love to be proven wrong.
You're correct. The newer A9 use cartridge bearings and don't last very long. Mine only lasted 2 years, the older needle bearings lasted about 20 years.