Crunchy headset

-K2-

Hi,

I've had my Giant Rapid 2 for 4 months now; it had a first service after 6 weeks.

During a long spin on Sunday the handling of the steerer felt a bit odd. On inspection afterwards there was a bit (a fair bit) of stickyness in the headset when turning with an accompanying crunching sound towards the limits of travel, which I guess is the bearings. The brake/gear cables are not snagging or impeding motion - the issue is all internal to the headset.

I'll be taking it back to the shop to get it sorted, but what should I look out for? Should, for example, the shop replace the bearings which are clearly under too much stress or have worn badly? Anything else?

Thanks.

Lumen

I wouldn't jump to any hasty conclusions, it's probably just muck.

blorg

I have a crunchy headset on the bike I am using on the trainer. Should I get it sorted now or is there any downside to waiting? I don't need to steer a lot on the trainer so it is not exactly a pressing issue for me, unless leaving it would screw it up completely.

Explosive_Cornflake

The problem I would find is if you are out on the road, with no hands on the bars, you'll find it quite hard to steer and the wheel won't return to a straight line to easily.
The head cap might have been put on too tight.
Open it look and have a look at the bearings/surface. See if it's smooth. Put it back together but don't tighten the cap too much and see how it feels.

Gavin

Takes all of 30 minutes to take off handlebars, stem, fork, clean and re-grease and re-assemble.

Sniipe

Gavin wrote: »

Takes all of 30 minutes to take off handlebars, stem, fork, clean and re-grease and re-assemble.

Yeah, but normal folk wouldn't go doing that?

Gavin

They don't ? All you need is a set of allan keys, some grease and a rag. It really is very straightforward. bicycletutor.com

kona

Sniipe wrote: »

Yeah, but Lazy folk wouldn't go doing that?

FYP

ElectronEng, Id imagine a headset is well within the capabilities of a electronic engineer.

You just need to slacken off the pre-load on the headset a tiny bit. 5mm allen key and your away.

Just make sure that there is no play in it when youve adjusted it.

kona

ElectronEng wrote: »

Hi,

I've had my Giant Rapid 2 for 4 months now; it had a first service after 6 weeks.

During a long spin on Sunday the handling of the steerer felt a bit odd. On inspection afterwards there was a bit (a fair bit) of stickyness in the headset when turning with an accompanying crunching sound towards the limits of travel, which I guess is the bearings. The brake/gear cables are not snagging or impeding motion - the issue is all internal to the headset.

I'll be taking it back to the shop to get it sorted, but what should I look out for? Should, for example, the shop replace the bearings which are clearly under too much stress or have worn badly? Anything else?

Thanks.

While you may be able to adjust it out. Id make damn sure that there is grease in there, believe it or not some bikes dont come with their bearings greased properly.

Could also be a issue with your cups not being pressed in even, either due to the frame not being faced, or just **** installation.

-K2-

So I pulled the headset apart, removed a large amount of road-crud from the lower bearing, regreased and reassembled. 20 min job, runs smoother than it originally did - there was very little grease there to start with.

Thanks for the advice!