I ride a road bike that I got about 20 years ago. I ride it with a fixed gear. Nothing on it is original except for the frame and fork. (threaded, 1") For those of you who care about the details, it is a 56cm Battaglin, SLX tubing. I really like it.

Today I noticed that the steering is indexed. This is not a big deal except that I just changed the headset at the beginning of this past summer. I rode the bike on our dry days this winter, but it did get wet some days.

When I changed the headset I considered pulling the trigger on a Chris King but I could not decide if I should stay threaded or switch my fork to threadless.

Thus my question:

I am going to replace the headset very soon. I am going to do the Chris King thing. I usually like to get my bike parts used or free but this time I am just tired of playing around.

1. I am not even sure my steering tube is long enough to take the King. When I switched from Campy to Tange I cut the fork a bit so maybe it is a non starter.

2. If my tube is long enough should I keep my fork and get a threaded headset?

3. Or should I get a threadless fork and threadless headset. Which also means new stem.

4. My other bikes are all threadless, but they are 1 1/8" so I think that might be moot.

5. My fork is chrome. It has the Battaglin engraving. But I can always go back.


EDIT - as I think about this I realize that the Chris King might be overkill. I'll take suggestions as to the brand and model I should get.

If you like the way everything is set up, especially with your stem, stay with the threaded HS. The king IS overkill, but that's kind of the point. You might still have plenty of life left in your current HS, it might just need to be adjusted/overhauled. I dunno. I really like stronglight headsets, but good luck finding one. The aesthetics of the threaded HS are better too.

cane creek 110?

110 year no questions asked warranty.

I have a nice 1" steerer aluminum bonded fork with a Dura Ace headset id let go of for cheap... assuming it fits.
snapped a chainstay on my first ever (converted) fixie and I will not be returning to the land of 1" anytime soon.

If you want sealed, go King- there aren't a ton of options in 1'' threaded, you can't really go wrong with the high end cane creek either, but who wants to be like "check out my cane creek?"

I think the King GripNut is specifically designed for no spacer situations, so that might be the way to go. If you want loose ball, there are still a ton of options- Tange Levin (alloy), Hatta Swan, Dura Ace 7600 (somebody still sells those)- all really nice, just need that yearly-or-so service.

If you go threadless, consider that there aren't too many fork options; however, threadless is a nice system in terms of stems and bearing design. Unless you have a reason, or a specific fork in mind, why not stick with threaded?

Thanks for all the feedback. ebbmart - PM sent.

I am ok with sticking with threaded. I really like the ease of installation of the threadless system. Not having to coordinate the two wrenches, being able to make a repair on the road... etc.

I have a Tange Levin on the bike now. When I bought the Tange I bought two, so I have another one sitting here. I think I will break this thing down and see what is going on. And replace it with my backup Tange if needed. Then wait until the next failure for the upgrade.

I think my downfall might have been a few rides in crappy weather. Maybe even one ride in really shitty weather followed by zero maintenance.

Am I off base to think that sealed bearings are way easier to maintain? As it is, if I find pits in my cups I need to wack out the old and press in the new. With sealed bearing you just pop out the bearings and drop new ones in. Right?

Not off base at all. I think it depends on your maintenance style. If you are likely to overhaul your whatever at regular intervals, it's cheaper to have loose bearings, and if you have your own workshop all you have to have on hand are standard bearing sizes. . .but it is so simple to just pop in new bearing cartridges.

Big Block forks come in 1" threadless. White only.

Yes, indeed- it seems most 1'' threadless forks are "track forks"- Milwaukee has one, All City, & I recall some other one too. For some reason, it was/is a de-facto track frame size. Great if you like no rake, no braze-ons and no clearance.

32 is totes monstercross, brah.

I'm curious why the headset (presumably) failed after less than a year. As long as it's sufficiently greased at assembly and properly tightened, it seems like it should resist brinelling at least until a spring overhaul. Did the winter rides include fenders, or is the bike 2fast2furious for them?

I hope to know more about the whys once I get this thing broken down. Which might be this weekend.

I am confident that tightness is not the problem. Not too tight, not too loose.
I do not know about the grease. I use the Phil stuff in the green tube and I am liberal with it. Again, I will know about grease soon enough.
One concern I have is that I did not ream and chase the head tube. And I pressed things together using hammers and big screws and stuff. But still - I think I did a pretty good job!
No fenders. I mostly rode it because of those great days we had this winter and I wanted to take a break from the winter bike. I got fooled into thinking roads were cleaner than they were. That said, I have a hard time believing that a few rides wasted the headset. I sort of suspect that the bearing cages were the problem. I am hoping that is it.

the "indexing" is formally referred to as "brinelling" - bearings and bearing surfaces can be damaged if you use a hammer to install them, and no amount of grease will help this - you have dented your races - the balls are softer than the races, but a good hammer shot will damage both. Be careful when installing headsets, or let a shop do it - I am still riding with 1980's headsets (service is only clean and grease on occasion) on several bikes - they will last a lifetime with proper care - only had to change out bearings on my daily once in 30 years.

explanation

Essentially, with caged ball bearings, the headset can be in trouble pretty fast- those cages don't let the bearings move around, which means the lubrication doesn't get replenished on the contact surfaces- this is why I like to use loose balls in headsets, and make sure to use a really tenacious grease like polylube as well.

Got it apart and put back together. Only the bottom race was damaged. The top was fine.

I 86ed the cage out and added five bearings. Put it all back together. Things are smooth again. I also ordered a Cane Creek 100 which can be had right now for $65! Once my patch job fails I will upgrade. Hell, I might even pay a professional to install the new one properly!