Originally Posted by
63rickert
Constant maintenance does a headset no good. I too have trashed Campy headsets way before their time. OTOH the original HS on the Cinelli went 100k and was regreased maybe twice. And was still working smooth when I let that old warhorse go. To waste a headset all you have to do is turn down the toprace 5 degrees too far. If you service the bearing compulsively it doesn't matter how good you are, sooner or later the bearing will be too tight and that's the end.
I have to disagree. Proper maintenance does no harm. Conversely, riding a HS with washed out grease and/ or grit will prematurely wear it out. It is true that riding a HS that has been adjusted too tight or too loose can damage it prematurely, but this is not the same thing as maintenance. Adjusting a headset properly is somewhat tricky it's true.
The old ROT was, if you were an every day rider/racer, repack your headset once a year, plus whenever you got caught in a rainstorm. In practice this usually meant 2 or 3 times a year. I'm lazy and won't repack more than necessary, even though as an ex mechanic, it only takes me 5 minutes. The lazy person's method was to listen to the HS (or other loose bearings) with your ear right against it. If you can hear grit, repack. If not, don't bother. Also, with campy white grease, if it was turning grey, it was time to repack.
If you are a once a week recreational rider who only rides when it isn't raining, yeah, you can
easily go a few years or more without touching a campy record headset.
Originally Posted by
Narhay
Stem is too long to pull out without disconnecting front brake. That is another issue altogether I will eventually resolve by getting new bar and stem but I am thinking of the whole front end for now.
Oh, I see what you mean. Yeah that would be annoying. If you don't need the tall stem obviously replacing it would make repacks easier.
OTOH if your conditions are such that you are infecting your bearings enough that a repack is warranted more than a couple times a year, I'd probably be looking at a sealed HS too. Have you thought about finding some old semi period 1970s sealed HS? Stronglight, EDCOR, Ofmega, etc? There were a few others. That's what I would suggest.