Hi guys. just purchased a new Iro Frame.

I was wondering...I want to chase the HT and BB myself. While doing some research as to how to do it myself, i came across a Bike Forums post about someone NOT needing to chase the BB and HT, while a friend of mine who has the exact same frame chased his by himself, not exactly revealing how or with what tools he did it.

Do I absolutley need to chase the BB and HT? If so, and if I intend to do it myself, how should I do it and with what tools, and what should it look like once I finish?

I could not find any videos on youtube regarding the chasing of a BB or a HT.

Thanks a lot guys in advance.

Oh and ftw, for installation of a threadless headset im assuming that it can also be done without any of the special tools used in videos by shops to install them am I correct?

FTW....Outbearing Bottom Brackets! SRAM OMNIUMS WOOOO!!!

Its hard to tell if the frame needs it or not without actually seeing it. I have not seen a factory direct frameset from IRO before, so I dont know what they do to the frame pre ship. Either way, I dont think doing this yourself is that good of an idea, mainly from a financial standpoint. The BB and HT tools for this are ridiculously expensive for someone that might be doing this once a year. The headtube reamer and facer (Park HTR-1B) and the BB chaser and facer (Park BTS-1) will each run you in the neighborhood of $500. EACH.

These are shop tools, not consumer tools. They are expensive and worth it, but only to a shop that will use them regularly and will make their money back from them. Go ahead and support one of those shops. They will let you know what needs to be done, do it for you, and make sure its done right.

It would really suck to drop $300 on a frame, another $1000 on tools, and then crossthread your bb. Take it to the guys that know what they are doing and support your local in the process, everyone wins.

You would hope that they had faced/chased the frame prior to shipping, but they probably didn't. The thing is that it removes any finish on the faced surfaces, which might not be the best thing from their perspective. Most stock bikes are not faced/chased even though most need it. Most custom bikes are faced/chased. The LBS I go to does this on every bike they sell, and they report that most of them need it.

This is the sort of thing that is worth taking a bike to a competent bike shop for. Pressing a headset in is not something that is as trivial as it looks.

Here is video for the BB:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwjnZfNO1DE

FWIW, I assembled a few IRO frames 4 or 5 years ago- they were brand new and came fully prepped out of the box. I'd say that if yours doesn't have paint on the bb/ht faces you're good to go.