A friend of mine told me because of the way you have to prep the frame to install a king headset, once you put it in youre kinda stuck with em, and can't switch in something else. Is this true? I have a hard time beliving it, but I just wanna double check before I do some work to my bike.

He is wrong. You face the the headtube and stick it in there just like any other headset. There are a set of spacers, made by King, that fit the press to the cartridge, other than that no issues.

great to hear, thanks! what he said was just plausable enough for me to believe it, and I needed confirmation before I did something stupid. And now im gonna blow some money and do something else stupid. woo!

nope

in short -no

but i must warn you if you have more than one bike you will need a similar amount of king headsets.. they are that good.
and their customer service is off the chart..

don´t say i didn´t warn you..

I'm not getting rid of my king headset, I just wanna replace it with a hatta swan on my current bike and move it to the bike im building thats more geared for toughness (all weather commuter)

You guys are crazy.
Once you install a Chris King headset, not only can't you ever remove it but you will automatically be labeled a hipster and your significant other will break up with you for your best friend.
Listen, 128, you seem nice so I'll do you a favor and take it off your hands.
Just send it to me and forget you ever considered using it.

Aaaarrrrghhghghghgh, They Are Just Headsets!!!!!

i said im not getting rid of it, just moving it to a different bike. and im single, so I have nothing to worry about. and my best friend is totally effin gay.

+1

what about the pixie dust though?

Aaaarrrrghhghghghgh, They Are Just Bikes!!!!!

I never had the hots for a headset until I got my new frame, that came with this neo-cubic-futuristic cnc-machined Stronglight from hell.. It actually looks sort of overbuilt to the point of sillydom, but I love it. It's all sharp angles and brushed alu.

false. name ONE other headset that you can leave in for 10+ years with ZERO maintence, and that has manufacturing tolerances to .001mm. can you do it? i dont think so..

Raceface, Cane Creek, and even good ol' sealed DA last just as long without any more maint. than a King. And even if they didn't, who really rides the same frame for 10 years, or rides it for 10 years without tearing into parts just because the literature says so?


Look, I like King stuff. I've probably ridden or worked on most of the products they offer. I used to know a machinist who worked in the factory when they shared a facility with a surgical tools company. Yea they make good stuff, and yes there is always a premium to be paid for nice handmade products.
That said, what annoys me is that a King headset for whatever reason has become some kind of status symbol despite being the least important rotating assembly on a bike. Why aren't people going ga-ga over the killer hubs or the big talk about the super BBs they've been developing? Headset performance can only go so far. It's still just some cups and a pair of bearings, but people have some werid perception about them and how they should be installed, hence threads like this one.

best head I have ever had

i started this thread just to quell a rumor that my friend told me, so i didn't make any grave mistakes/waste my time when I worked on my bike, as it was the only part i didn't install myself. that having been said, shut up, shut up, shut up. they're good, they're not the end all, whatever. noone cares. let this thread sink to the bottom of the page where it belongs.

can't you index it if you misuse it like that?

bwahahaha! Better than the **********?

The **********? Oh man, that's really bad...

Spittin' truth.

i go ga-ga over their hubs. i've wanted a pair for years, and now that i've finally scored a set, i want a set for my road bike, i want a set for my BMX bike, i want a set for my 'cross bike, i want a set for my yet-to be built-SS MTB......you probably won't see too many people on this forum go wild over geared hubs though...maybe their SS hubs, but seems like there's more "fixie" folks here.

their BB may never happen, as it seems standard 3-piece cranksets are going the way of the dodo, with the influx of so many MEGAGIGAEXOHOLLOWXDRIVETECH II cranksets out there now. i could be wrong...they might be working on an external BB, but it's not likely. hmm...isn't it funny how headsets used to be external and now they're internal (for no good reason whatsoever), and BB's used to be internal, and now they're external (for some pretty good reasons)? they've gone and flip-floped our bearing thingies!

perhaps because CK doesn't make a track hub, and the BB's currently don't exist and when they do they'll have ISIS interface. not a fan.

the true technical problem with the ISIS BB isn't the interface, it's much better than square or octalink, it's with bearing longevity. i think most people would agree that if anyone out there can make the bearings in an ISIS BB last into infinity and beyond, it's CK (or phil)

what about cranks for ISIS?