I've had a properly installed King headset. It didn't give me any problems, however it didn't do anything for me that a $50 headset wouldn't do either. When I sold my IF frame I didn't even consider for a second removing the headset and putting it on another bike, I just wasn't impressed.

However, they do donate a whole $1 for each pink component they sell.

I once spent $180 on the deep cup CK headset. I cried myself to sleep that night.

I already mentioned that there's a lot of headsets that do just as well, doggie:

well, if u want to spend that kinda money on a headset....go for it, if u just want a good headset w/o the bling, listen to everyone else and buy a fsa, canecreek or something that'll work just as well.

I read through King's philosophy of domestic manufacturing and quality control and was real impressed with their business model. Unfortunately, I most often have to vote my wallet and so my answer is no. There are many other headsets out there that do exactly what a headset is supposed to do at less than half the price.

I got my CK headset for $40, and I'm happy with it.

You must have some ultra fast bidding skills in ebay.

I'm surprised nobody else mentioned this. They advertise them selves as a very well run and also a very green company. I'd think that adds a buck or two to their price.

Solos=good bang for the buck, and supposedly made in USA.

https://www.canecreek.com/solos.html


Here is my next headset.

I have one. It works just as well as a Cane Creek s2 I have on another bike.

It is shiny.

I've seen a couple of references to the "Just donate a dollar to breast cancer charities."

I would have preferred that more money went to the charities but I see the pink bits as something to help awareness more than a source of revenue. The fact is that the pink bits and all of the other various pink merchandise have done a great job at bringing breast cancer awareness to the forefront. In my opinion, they may have been a little too successful to the detriment of the various other causes.

The fact is that charities, like all other businesses, have to compete for a limited amount of dollars and mindshare. Without mindshare, people won't think to donate so anything that can be done to remind people of a particular cause will benefit it.

In essence the pink Chris King merchandise is just one little cog in this big campaign to keep people aware of the cause. The fact is, at least here in Canada, if you walk into any department store you will find pink kitchen appliances, utensils, t-shirts, hats, hairbrushes, etc. that are obviously targeted at women. The Chris King bits bring this to the attention of athletes and men. Speedgoat even has a yearly raffle raffling out a high end bike made up of a lot of pink bits with all proceeds going to breast cancer charities.

Anyway, to close off I'll provide some statistics.
- One in nine women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime and one in 27 will die from it.
- One in eight men will develop prostate cancer in his lifetime and one in 27 will die from it.

I like mine. Much better than the POS WTB that it replaced.

King stuff is built to a standard we hold medical instruments to, not bike parts. The stuff is component porn. It's built better than anything I've seen besides Thomson in the bike industry.

Will an FSA last you just as long and work just as well? For most people, the answer is yes. A Casio will last as long and work as well as a Rolex. You don't buy these things because they're practical--for the most part, you buy them because you have some sort of emotional resonance with them. And at the end of the day, if you buy something you like from a company that doesn't **** the planet, I say good times and enjoy your ride. Now go have a beer and stop worrying about the other guy's headset.

Bought it at the shop...

The Casio will probably be more accurate. Many of them will have a lot more useful features. Especially the G-Shocks. They also cost 2% as much. Blingwise, Rolex is undisputed winner.

Im still struggling with the best made headset that can't handle 150mm fork?

The workmanship is outstanding, but the design sucks?

Or the argument has no basis.

Best Engineering?
Superior design?
High cost due to excellent engineering?

Can't stand up to a 150mm fork?

I still call bull****. If thats the case then they should say they aren't made for 140mm plus forks. And the argument that companies don't do this is also bull****. Lots of companies make xc specific pieces and advertise that way.

I do not for a freaking second believe chris king makes "xc" specific headsets. Thats just an argument by people trying to justify spending a fortune on an average piece of equipment. Its as solid a headset as there can be, at triple the price.

Interestingly, my step-brother is a machinist who makes spine parts and the instruments used to install them. He has also worked in "regular" machine shops. Aside from the sterile environment he now works in, there is no difference in machining tolerances between the two.

I do not understand your metaphor. It seems more likely that you're the one who starts frenetically rubbing one out whenever someone mentions Chris King.

No it doesn't. That's just another incorrect assumption on your part. The failure of those headsets could have been due to a myriad of other factors besides fork travel.

That made me laugh out loud. Are you suggesting that I do not choose parts according to purpose? One of the reasons I bought multiple Kings was the durability exhibited by my first one, which continues to function properly after three or four frames and many more total miles than the latter two combined.

Perhaps. But consider some additional facts: The 11 year old King was never "properly" installed - headtubes were never faced and I typically "pressed" it in with a deadblow hammer and a chunk of 2x4, and hammered it out with a big screwdriver. The newer versions (the ones that failed) were installed "properly." Based upon that information, one might logically hypothesize that the older King headsets were somehow tougher than their newer offerings, no?

Naw, it just proves that the older one was specifically engineered and machined to be installed via the Jeff Laramore Rule of Thumb (Jeff was the head mechanic at the Suzuki shop I raced for when I was a kid) - - that being: "If I don't hit my thumb with this bigger hammer, that sucker will go in this time."

Wow, no kidding? That's pretty surprising actually. What was the regular machine shop making? Do you remember what the actual tolerance was?

Also, how about the feel of a King hub? The way everything feels incredibly tight and perfect? Or the flawless way everything threads together? Surely that indicates a higher tolerance? I don't actually know much about machining--only that the way Thomson and CK stuff fits together feels better than most bike parts to me.

I still don't understand why such an expensive hub needs to be tightened a couple of rides after buying it. I've never needed to tighten one of my cheaper hubs until many, many rides were put on them.

Back when I learned to run a lathe and milling machine +.001 was pretty typical. Nowadays for manufacturing, I believe it's typically less than 1/4 of that.

Machining tolerances are probably so close that it's more like a press-fit; things don't completely seat right away and might need some lateral pressures to do that. Hence the retightening. Less-close-toleranced parts will slide together easliy but slop will cause premature wear.

Ahhh, sounds good to me. I'll stick with Hugi and American Classic though. They have always worked well for me.

Have 16,000+ miles on our Chris King headset on our tandem bicycle. Never touched it.
Pricey? Yes!
Quality? YES!!!!