That may be the case, but who knows if a higher quality headset may have been take that impact the same way. I don't think I want to do this as an experiment though. I don't mean to say that cane creek is a low quality product. I was happy with its performace, I just noticed a huge difference when I got the ck. I got the cane creek because it was a decent price when I was building my bike. I messed it up and decided to upgrade.