Installing Headset

[ASC1951]

I've just got a new bare frame to build up into a fixed road bike. Over the years I have done all the elements of that apart from installing head races and headsets.

The Park Tool website suggest installing the races and headset on a threadless A-Head is fairly straightforward, but recommends various workshop tools which I don't have.

All the surfaces on the new frame look clean and true, but to me it looks like one of the jobs that in practice are not worth doing yourself i.e. the LBS can do a better job at small cost, particularly if they sell me the bits. Should I let them, or am I being a wuss?

 

[MessenJah]

I generally use a hammer, a screwdriver and a block of wood. Works fine.

 

[spandex]

Hi MessenJah welcome to CC. The hammer and a block of wood I know works But what do you use the Screwdriver for.

 

[Tharg2007]

i recently used i threaded steel rod from b&q along with some washers and other bits to construct a compression device. Worked a treat. Crown race I used a piece of upvc tubing to install that, also worked a treat.

 

[piedwagtail91]

i recently used i threaded steel rod from b&q along with some washers and other bits to construct a compression device. Worked a treat. Crown race I used a piece of upvc tubing to install that, also worked a treat.

my method as well

 

[Amanda P]

If the frame doesn't have too long a head tube, you can press the races in with a big bench vice.

As long as you're careful (don't distort the races, don't hit them with hard hammers without padding them with something, basically don't be stupid) you can do this yourself.

If the crown race is a tight fit, you need a bit of tube of just the right size to fit over the steerer tube and push it home.

If it's a really tight fit, you might need to make the seat for it on the fork a little smaller. An engineer does this with a special milling cutter, so that exactly equal amounts of metal are removed from all parts of the circumference of the seat. Ordinary folk do it with a file and a little finesse.

 

[Tim Bennet.]

I do like people's optimism: recommending to a lawyer that he uses an engineer's vice / fine file / milling cutter with skill and finesse. The man has a worn out set of allen keys (with 2 missing) and a half brick.

There are two issues here with the installation of a headset into a brand new frame. One is the simple pressing in of the cups which can be accomplished in any of the above methods and the other, as Uncle Phil said, is making sure the headtube is round and the faces at either end are parallel.

Whether you need to do this all depends on the care the People's Bicycle Factory No.3 took in implementing this part of their contribution to the Central Secretariat's five year plan for the 'Fleecing of Gweilos'. If the glorious worker assigned to the loving production of your bike was in a hurry to finish the welding in order to make enough time to wolf down a bowl of cold rice before rushing off to primary school, then some weld distortion could easily have occurred. This will either contort the headset causing uneven wear or possibly stress the headtube itself.

The solution is to take the frame to a reputable bike shop and pay a paltry £25 per hour for the mechanic to check the workmanship. As I appreciate this will completely mitigate the saving you made by exploiting child labour in the first place, you could just bash it in with your half brick.

 

[02GF74]

^^^ who is to say the bike shop doesnlt use the same methods? I got one headset put into a frame and the paint at the ends of the headset flaked off - now I dunno if had I fitted it the same would have happened but I expected bette from the shop.

anyways, the trick it to ensure the races go in parallel - the hammer method replies on the ends of the head tube being parallel and that the race butts up agains the tube, an assumpiton unfortunately; hence the threaded bar is better. You should check the races are parallel using a vernier calliper othersie the forks may bind.

 

[peloquin]

I was considering doing the conversion from threaded to threadless myself a few months back. Im glad I didnt!
If you are unsure on tech&installation ASC, take your bike to a cycle workshop and get it done professionally.
I did this after getting the parts I needed off ebay, luckily I didnt have to pay for labour so all I ended up paying for were the new bits [mainly the aheadset & Spacers plus a few other personal extras]

 

[ASC1951]

I do like people's optimism: recommending to a lawyer that he uses an engineer's vice / fine file / milling cutter with skill and finesse. The man has a worn out set of allen keys (with 2 missing) and a half brick.

A good point well made, Tim.

In fact I do have a bench vice big enough to take the headtube, ditto fine file. Even finesse - I once rebuilt the gearbox on my Norton Commando, including re-bushing all the cogs, which furthermore required Counting Skills.

What I don't have is any way of checking whether the bearing seats are round and parallel. The assigned glorious worker* seems to have done an excellent job to me, but then I was completely fooled by the 9 year old miming the People's Anthem. At least if I take it to my local South Yorkshire craftsman they will get the wear and tear on their half brick, not mine.

*Not child labour. You can still make out the tooth marks on the down tube where he has had to hold it while welding and it's definitely an adult.

 

[Amanda P]

One way to check if they're round and parallel is, of course, to install the headset, assemble it all and see if the bearing rotates sweetly. If it does, great: they're round and parallel. If it doesn't... knock the races back out and seek the advice of a framebuilder.

 

[rustychisel]

I've found in practise the crown race (and I dare say the other components) have this habit of settling down, ie aligning themselves with a couple of miles riding, so that I go back and check the alignment and binding, re-adjust and then I'm good to go.

Course, my half-brick has the right sized groove worn in it by now.