I've got a Cyclus headset press. I need to install a 1-inch Chris King headset. Do I need to buy the CK headset press adapters? If not, can I safely press on the outside cup, not touching either side of the bearing rings inside? Any other advice or techniques?!?

I've installed CK (and other) headset cups using large washers that press on the cup edges and miss the bearings completely. I did make a couple of leather disks the size of the washers to give a somewhat resiliant pressure surface.

I never press aluminum headsets by the outer lip of the cup. It's too easy to distort or crack the cup this way.

If you don't have the adapters, you can safely press through the bearing, since the pressing force will be less than normal stresses in use. Don't over press at the finish, and do the lower cup second so if you're not sure you can leave it about 1/2mm short of fully seated. Riding will finish seating the cup and the only drawback will be having to re-adjust the headset once or twice as it settles.

Yea CK bearing holding cups come up to a thin Edge, at the top so be mindful to not damage that edge..

the leather face on the washers does seem like a consideration of that .

I just used a threaded rod/washers/nuts with a couple of wood blocks against the cups. The wood gets grooves pressed into it from the pressure against the cups and this helps to keep them from spreading.

Good. Your wood blocks serve the same function as the leather washers I use. They also develop grooves from the cup edges and act to reenforce them against spreading or crimping.

search for headset installation tool on ebay. Several specifically market to CK installers... Those tools have a thick felt protective pad building into the unit to protect said item. Most have pictures so you should be able to see what the trick is....

Many thanks for the expert advice. I am going to try this: reverse the pressing bits so the big ends face the cups, and add steel washers and leather or wood pads. Also, I asked Chris King tech support for guidance on which of their adapters (Park, Campy, etc have different inner diameters) would work on a Cyclus headset press. Will report back.

I received this information from techsupport at Chris King:


The Cyclus headset press uses a CKpress adapter with an ID (inside diameter) of 16mm. They have Cyclusspecific headset press adapters available and you can order themdirectly from CK at 1.800.523.6008 or you can order them through yourlocal bike shop.


The ID of various headset types are asfollows:


22.1mm ID = Park
20.1mm ID = VAR, Woodman, Hozan
18.1mm ID = Pedros, Campy, ICE, Nashbar
16mm ID = Cyclus, Bicycle Research


Also, the adapters are marked with A,B, C, and D. The code is as follows:


A = Park
B = VAR, Woodman, Hozan
C = Pedros,Campy, ICE, Nashbar
D = Cyclus, Bicycle Research