How many ball bearings needed to pack a headset?

[Smurfy]

I'm going to venture a sensible, possibly even useful, answer.

Last time I took apart a headset with un-caged bearings, it had, I think, 25 in each race (top and bottom). It was a 1" threaded headset.

That is my experience as well but there are oddities. My pre-war Elswick take about a billion 1/8" bearings top and bottom and my early 70s Pug uses 22.

23 top and 23 bottom, after I had hunted down every one of the little blighters, as I was expecting a caged setup.
I dare say 50 would squeeze in, but I don't suppose that's such a good idea. So I just reassembled the thing as I found it, not having a fresh set of bearings anyway.

Thanks everyone! Looks like I'll need 22-25 for my 1" headset. I also need to do a 1 1/8" headset, but that one can wait for a while as the 1" headset is the priority at the moment.

I disassembled and replaced the cartridge bearings with caged ballbearings in my integrated headset due to indexing in the ball race, and the lower-lower ball race being corroded to the crown race. I think I got 32 in. It wouldn't fit a whole number so it was an easy decision. I find you need at least 3 extra (see Cunelobin's post above).

Svendo, can you confirm if your headset was 1" or 1 1/8"? Maybe that explains why you needed more than everyone else.

 

[Svendo]

Thanks everyone! Looks like I'll need 22-25 for my 1" headset. I also need to do a 1 1/8" headset, but that one can wait for a while as the 1" headset is the priority at the moment.



Svendo, can you confirm if your headset was 1" or 1 1/8"? Maybe that explains why you needed more than everyone else.

It's 1 1/8" top and bottom.

 

[ufkacbln]

I always was told you fill the race with as many balls as possible, with all of them fully seated, then remove one ball.

I did warn about his!

 

[byegad]

I did warn about his!

Who in their right mind would want to lose two balls?

 

[ufkacbln]

Who in their right mind would want to lose two balls?

Apparently it gives more room and makes moving the shaft around in a tight headset much easier and smoother.

 

[ayceejay]

So much fun, I headed down here to reply and forgot the question so I checked, which is just as well because I was trying to find a witty answer to "How many ball bearings does it take to change a headset?" and I knew the answer must be an odd number.

 

[Cyclopathic]

Just one big un.