silentbutdeadly
has some good things to say
Have had a issue with the Hope headset on the cross bike. I've just swapped the original alloy steerer fork out for a new Kinesis PureCX straight steerer full carbon fork.
One of beaut things about Hope headsets is the split crown race which makes both removal and fitment to a fork an absolute doddle. And so it was here. Popped easily off the old fork and fitted snugly to the new fork requiring only a light tap with the PVC tube to seat snugly and seemingly square.
The drama came about with the fork was installed back in the frame and the whole shebang is quite tight - the steering is no longer free and easy. It is tight with some hydraulic like resistance.
Now it all seems square but it appears that there is incredibly tight tolerance between the crown race and the inside of the bottom bearing which may well be the source of the resistance.
My query is though is whether the issue is the split crown race has expanded ever so slightly due to tolerances in the carbon steerer and made the bearing contact tighter or whether I've actually managed to get the thing ever so slightly out of square (still and despite doing the assembly twice). The other question is of course...does it matter? It still steers very well...just with some resistance.
One of beaut things about Hope headsets is the split crown race which makes both removal and fitment to a fork an absolute doddle. And so it was here. Popped easily off the old fork and fitted snugly to the new fork requiring only a light tap with the PVC tube to seat snugly and seemingly square.
The drama came about with the fork was installed back in the frame and the whole shebang is quite tight - the steering is no longer free and easy. It is tight with some hydraulic like resistance.
Now it all seems square but it appears that there is incredibly tight tolerance between the crown race and the inside of the bottom bearing which may well be the source of the resistance.
My query is though is whether the issue is the split crown race has expanded ever so slightly due to tolerances in the carbon steerer and made the bearing contact tighter or whether I've actually managed to get the thing ever so slightly out of square (still and despite doing the assembly twice). The other question is of course...does it matter? It still steers very well...just with some resistance.