Head Set Bearings ...... life span

[Jody]

DIY and about 30 minutes to swap the headset. You only really need a small hammer, screwdriver or similar flat drift and a block if wood (or a long bolt and some washers). The only bit you need to be careful of is getting the cups out of and back in the frame straight.

 

[Blue Hills]

OK - thanks for the reply - headset insertion is about the one thing I have never tackled on a bike, apart from wheel true-ing/building.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

I took my 6 week old Cube back for a retailer safety check, they asked was everything okay, I replied that wasn't really happy with the brakes they didn't seem as good as my last bike & occasionally there was a bit of a creaking noise. hilst wandering around the store the manager came over & asked how I cleaned the bike, my reply was "You've seen the state of it, you think I clean it?, no seriously I just use a watering can why?"
He went on to explain the bottom headset bearing already had rust on it & they wanted to know if I had used a pressure washer. They replaced the bearing & used a silicone grease.

 

[mrbikerboy73]

I recently bought a one year old Giant Trance and the lower headset bearings were dried out and knackered. A victim of too many blasts with a hosepipe I don't doubt. The lower race in my 2 year old Anthem are as good as new. It's been hosed once or twice but with care to keep it away from the bearings. Hoses and especially jet washes are bad news for bikes. A clean bike is not necessarily a well looked after bike!

 

[Motozulu]

True - I use my garden hose but on a very light 'spray' setting - effectively it's like a light rain shower. The headset on my Chief is approaching 3 years old and still fine - I've had it apart once and re-greased - that was it! I'll do it again next spring when I also service the Pikes and decide then if they need replacing or not.

NEVER use a jet wash anywhere near bearings.

 

[the_mikey]

Headset on my 2010 Giant defy 2 gets a clean and re-grease about once every 2 years, still working without a problem in 2016.