New headset needed

triggermortis

I have a 2010 Cube Aerial which needs a new headset - or just the lower bearing race as it is out of alignment (more or less 'u' shaped).
From the website, the bike has a 'FSA No.10 semi integrated headset' but searching the internet has not found anything that physically looks like is fitted to my bike.
The Cane Creek site looked promising, but the bearings shown look sealed and mine are a semi open race with loose bearings in.
There is an awful creak from the front of the bike and I took it apart and found the lower bearing race distorted. I've cleaned it all up and regreased everything but won't know if there is an improvement until tomorrow, but I really need a new bearing set at the least.
Anyone know how to source this properly?
I can't take the bike into my LBS, as the bike is in Zurich and I have yet to find a bike shop (or any other shop) here that won't charge the earth for the slightest thing.
Any ideas/help appreciated

ashleey

My headset bearings cartridges were wrecked on my Focus. Uk bike store are good for FSA spare parts. You can read the cartridge numbers from the side. In the end I checked with the FSA site to check. Campagnolo format is 45/45. This is the angle that the bearing surfaces make with the head tube and the fork. Cane creek are different at 36/45. Mine were campag which is more usual. Check the diameter of the fork at the bottom, mine was 1 1/4 inch and top at 1 1/8 inch. Your top will be 1 1/8 but bottom could be 1 1/8, 1 1/4 or 1 1/2. Let me know and I'll look it up. Also the headset number, ie FSA orbit no 10 could be wrong on different sites! It's the cartridge numbers and sizes that matter most

ashleey

One other thing. The lower crown race ring on the fork will probably be fine but the equivalent compression ring into the top bearing may be rusted. These are specific to the bearing cartridge and are surprisingly slightly different for different manufacturers. Having said that there are standard sizes that are easily available. Especially campag fit 1 1/8 non tapered headsets, that is same size top and bottom

triggermortis

Thanks for that - I didnt notice any numbers on the races. They're not sealed, just open cages with exposed bearings and the lower one is trashed.
I cleaned both sides out as best I could and packed the lot with grease and refitted it all. There was no noticeable improvement on my ride in this morning, so I'd say it's terminal. It's now a matter of sourcing the correct parts and getting my hands dirty

ashleey

I would be surprised if a bike from 2010 of that quality comes with exposed bearings. Did you maybe remove the inner seal of the cartridges when you dismantled it? Maybe they were stuck to the crown race or compression ring. The other thing to watch out for is when you reassemble and pre load by tightening up the stem cap before the stem bolts that it's not too tight.

ashleey

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/head-set-od-head-tube-id-query

Try this page.

The techinfo link on the windwave site has the full fsa headset book. Good luck!

And I see that your exposed bearing races are from dismantled cups not cartridges, so ignore some of my earlier stuff. The tip about searching for Hope mix and match cups might be your best solution

Bottom
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=70727
Top
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=70725

triggermortis

ashleey wrote: »

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/head-set-od-head-tube-id-query

Try this page.

The techinfo link on the windwave site has the full fsa headset book. Good luck!

You sir/madam are a star. I spent over two hours in work today trying to get somewhere identifying what I need and that helped greatly. I have a part now, just got to source it!!
Thanks:)

ashleey

It's no problem. Learned a lot about headsets myself over the last couple of weeks with end of season maintenance. Fsa don't make it obvious. My headset is called no. 43 and no. 33 depending on what site. Best of luck.

triggermortis

From the FSA 'bible' I've deduced that I have a ZST10 headset fitted to the bike and the bearing packages are MR013. The ZST10 is no longer available, but I can get new bearings from Estonia for 3.99 each plus 9.99 p&p, or a headset with those bearings from the UK for about 15, which works out cheaper, but that headset won't fit if I find the cups are damaged too.
The nearest replacement headset I can find is a FSA Orbit ZS-3, but this has a stack height of 14 compared to my current 9.3. Would this make much difference? Could I just leave out a spacer if I got and fitted this headset?
What would be my best option? (apart from finding old stock of a ZST10)

ashleey

Now it has got complicated!

Your frame will be constructed for cups and not internal cartridges. If you think the cups are still good then buying new bearing races will suffice. If the cups are deformed at all, and removing the bearings can damage the seals easily then you should buy new cups.
You may be able to switch to an integrated or internal headset but it would be unlikely.
Get the exact dimensions of your existing cups and then look for replacements would be my advice.
If the new headset has those cups then get it and use the spacers etc from your existing headset to match stack heights!

triggermortis

The Orbit ZS cups are 0.3 less in depth than the ZST ones and are alloy instead of chromoly. I don't see a problem with this size difference. If the new one was deeper then the cup would not fit into the head tube fully, but this should sit in there ok.
Both are for 50mm OD headtube and everything else looks the same apart from the custom cone spacer that sits above the headset.
I'll take it all apart tonight and see if I can assess the cups and take it from there.

ashleey

triggermortis wrote: »

The Orbit ZS cups are 0.3 less in depth than the ZST ones and are alloy instead of chromoly. I don't see a problem with this size difference. If the new one was deeper then the cup would not fit into the head tube fully, but this should sit in there ok.
Both are for 50mm OD headtube and everything else looks the same apart from the custom cone spacer that sits above the headset.
I'll take it all apart tonight and see if I can assess the cups and take it from there.

Sounds like 0.3mm would be fine and could even just be a more accurate parts description rather than actual difference. As could also be the case with the materials. Then just use whichever cone spacer you prefer. Good luck

triggermortis

Do you know if the cone spacer comes with a headset or do you have to order that seperately?

All the dimensions I'm getting are on the data sheets from that FSA pdf

Thanks for your help

ashleey

ashleey wrote: »

triggermortis wrote: »

The Orbit ZS cups are 0.3 less in depth than the ZST ones and are alloy instead of chromoly. I don't see a problem with this size difference. If the new one was deeper then the cup would not fit into the head tube fully, but this should sit in there ok.
Both are for 50mm OD headtube and everything else looks the same apart from the custom cone spacer that sits above the headset.
I'll take it all apart tonight and see if I can assess the cups and take it from there.

Sounds like 0.3mm would be fine and could even just be a more accurate parts description rather than actual difference. As could also be the case with the materials. Then just use whichever cone spacer you prefer. Good luck

The cone spacer normall comes with the headset as it acts as a 'seal' at the top of the head tube. An external headset such as yours may be different though. The best thing is to try and see a picture from chain reaction or other site maybe?

triggermortis

ashleey wrote: »

The cone spacer normall comes with the headset as it acts as a 'seal' at the top of the head tube. An external headset such as yours may be different though. The best thing is to try and see a picture from chain reaction or other site maybe?

I don't see any on the sites I've looked at (crc, wiggle, shinybike and a few others) but I'm not too worried about that yet - I'll see what I find later on when I look at the state of the cups and decide what way to go then.
Thanks again