Originally Posted by
MKahrl
"Brinnelling" is caused by loss of lubricant in the headset and not by misadjusted headset. Even if you hammer on the headset it will not create indentations. If you look at a bearing race that does have the indentations you'll notice each one is surrounded by rust. See
Jobst Brandt.
Overhauling your headset once a year will prevent it or you can put fenders on the bike and overhaul it every five or ten years. Adjusting threaded headsets correctly is pretty easy for even the most casual of home bike mechanics.
So this eliminates one of the threadless headsets purported advantages.
Hmmm. It's been a long time that I've delt with the problem, but a couple of my former bikes had continuous headset problems even though there was sufficient lube and still had divots in the races.
Maybe it was because I had bought these bikes used, it was from the days where parts from bikes were interchanged more freely than they are now, and incompatible parts used in the headsets (ie, they didn't fit together). I know the adjustments never held. Sometimes the HS was too tight and later, it would loosen up.
Maybe it was because, I was new to fixing bikes and I didn't know what I was doing. At any rate, to my relief, I haven't had this problem for some time now