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New, Chris King Inset

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New, Chris King Inset
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flag Borgschulze
Posted: Mar 1, 2009 at 9:23 Quote
My Steelset creaks only when I turn the bars all the way till my Shiver hit's the frame.... after a muddy ride.

It creaks because the crown race is beat to Hell from being taken off and put on so many forks, can literally push it on with your fingers.

King bearings still last seemingly forever.
flag laurie1
Mod
Posted: Mar 1, 2009 at 10:40 Quote
Most of the issues stem from the o-ring design which by no means is great. There are better designs nowadays than the o-ring design but CK stands by it and still utilizes it. Although it is a tried and tested design with minimal problems it doesn’t mean that the o-ring design is the be all end all. Also, there seems to be an issue with CK headsets and Rock Shox forks. They are notorious for creaking because the machining of the headset is off by thousandths of an inch. Confused
flag iggz
Posted: Mar 1, 2009 at 10:44 Quote
stryke wrote:
Borgschulze wrote:
You buy a King for the bearings and quality, not for the looks.
]

yes i love tightening my headset all the time yet having it creak once tightened thanks to a flawed design!

id much prefer to run a race face diablous, some cheap fsa headset or a sunline then a king for downhill use

for light trail use kings are pretty cool though, not that any other headset wont do the same job and feel exactly the same as a king these days
No, Sunline are the biggest garbage ever produced.
flag Hummeroid
Posted: Mar 1, 2009 at 10:52 Quote
laurie1 wrote:
Most of the issues stem from the o-ring design which by no means is great. There are better designs nowadays than the o-ring design but CK stands by it and still utilizes it. Although it is a tried and tested design with minimal problems it doesn’t mean that the o-ring design is the be all end all. Also, there seems to be an issue with CK headsets and Rock Shox forks. They are notorious for creaking because the machining of the headset is off by thousandths of an inch. Confused
its not so much that the headset isn't machined to correct tolerances, its that the mass produced steerers aren't all the same. One thing ck does have is their machining tolerances. .ooo5 inch, and its there, I've measured a good number. Shame the o ring isn't suffucient, even if they put just a different material ring it would probably suffice
flag stryke
Posted: Mar 1, 2009 at 10:52 Quote
iggz wrote:
stryke wrote:
Borgschulze wrote:
You buy a King for the bearings and quality, not for the looks.
]

yes i love tightening my headset all the time yet having it creak once tightened thanks to a flawed design!

id much prefer to run a race face diablous, some cheap fsa headset or a sunline then a king for downhill use

for light trail use kings are pretty cool though, not that any other headset wont do the same job and feel exactly the same as a king these days
No, Sunline are the biggest garbage ever produced.

work better then a CK, as long as you dont want to remove your fork
flag iggz
Posted: Mar 1, 2009 at 10:54 Quote
I disagree. Sunline's are much shittier than King's.
flag hampsteadbandit
Posted: Mar 1, 2009 at 12:12 Quote
CK's article was directed towards completely internal headsets "integrated" as in NO CUPS, but rather bearings that rest directly on inside of frame. CK believes that under stress, the bearings cartridges are able to flex and move around inside the headtube and eventually wear out the headtube causing improper alignment and all sorts of troubles.

I don't believe their BS - I've been using internal headsets on bmx for several years, and every bmx rider I've met uses one, and we have NO issues with them

BMX is the harshest riding discpline around for wear and tear and sheer impacts and the 45/45 internal has worked just fine - I also know guys running 45/45 internals on aluminium alloy dirt jump and street mountain bikes and they have no issues either?

having killed both my Chris King headsets (on a Specialized Big Hit with Super T dual crown forks and a Banshee Chaparral with Totems) within weeks of getting each one, I would never touch their headsets again!

for cross country and light trail riding, no problem...but not for dirt jump, street, skatepark, freeride or downhill


it comes down to patent protection, FSA and other headset manufacturers did deals with Cane Creek (the designer of the original "A-Headset") years back, and it allows them and FSA to use the seperate "compression ring" which is fundamental to a headset system using a clamp-on stem - in comparison to the old, threaded headset and quill stem system

C.King cannot use the compression ring, and use a unique top cap with a very shallow lip and an "o"ring

under extreme use, this allows free movement, which starts chewing into the fork steerer tube, which starts an endless cycle of creaking, tightening, creaking, wear and more wear

King and their representatives will tell you that you installed their product wrong, didn't face the headtube, didn't use the white plastic shim between the top cap and headset...blah blah...

I've seen too many professionally built heavy-use bikes with Kings causing creaking, repeated looseness and deep steerer tube scoring over the years to write this off as improper installation or user error....


i found in the UK their "legendary warranty" didn't mean sh*t, I was asked to pay for their agent to degrease, regrease and reassemble my 2nd headset (4 weeks old) and when re-installed the creaking returned - nothing had changed

on each occasion I have had problems with a King, I have gone to a FSA Pig Pro DH when money is tight, or a Race Face Diablous, and never touched the headset again...

I have several riding buddies who had exactly the same problem, especially guys running long travel single crowns like Totem or 66, and each guy swapped to another brand and never had an issue

the King is beautifully machined and finished, but in my opinion, fundamentally flawed

unless they've changed their compression cap design, their "inset" is going to suffer the same problems
flag howdyitsconnor
O+
Posted: Mar 6, 2009 at 13:20 Quote
I break headsets frequently. I have had 4 since september. I now have a chris king and it is fine and I love it. Don't be hatin.


What is so bad about headset creaking though?????
flag Shoe2190
O+
Posted: Mar 6, 2009 at 13:34 Quote
Never understood the hype. Never had a problem with a cheap or low end headset on any of my older bikes or my xc bike and as for DH the Diabolous is fit and forget and in my old DH bike i had a old FSA that just kept on going, it had needle bearings in it never seen another headset with them in it.
flag pbuser102331
Posted: Mar 6, 2009 at 13:38 Quote
Shoe2190 wrote:
Never understood the hype. Never had a problem with a cheap or low end headset on any of my older bikes or my xc bike and as for DH the Diabolous is fit and forget and in my old DH bike i had a old FSA that just kept on going, it had needle bearings in it never seen another headset with them in it.

you mean chris(hype)king.
flag Shoe2190
O+
Posted: Mar 6, 2009 at 13:40 Quote
marquis wrote:
Shoe2190 wrote:
Never understood the hype. Never had a problem with a cheap or low end headset on any of my older bikes or my xc bike and as for DH the Diabolous is fit and forget and in my old DH bike i had a old FSA that just kept on going, it had needle bearings in it never seen another headset with them in it.

you mean chris(hype)king.

Not exactly sure what you mean with putting that in the middle of chris king but i just meant they seem to be bigged up when theyre no better than another companies.
flag pbuser102331
Posted: Mar 6, 2009 at 13:43 Quote
Shoe2190 wrote:
marquis wrote:
Shoe2190 wrote:
Never understood the hype. Never had a problem with a cheap or low end headset on any of my older bikes or my xc bike and as for DH the Diabolous is fit and forget and in my old DH bike i had a old FSA that just kept on going, it had needle bearings in it never seen another headset with them in it.

you mean chris(hype)king.

Not exactly sure what you mean with putting that in the middle of chris king but i just meant they seem to be bigged up when theyre no better than another companies.

its like the proper name but the hype is silent type of thing.
flag lionel17
Posted: Mar 6, 2009 at 13:47 Quote
I'll stick with my non-creaking 440c steel bearing Chris King Headset, enjoy your rust.
flag Shoe2190
O+
Posted: Mar 6, 2009 at 13:47 Quote
Its friday evening and you confusing me but it dosent take muchVery confused
flag AqueousBeef
Posted: Mar 6, 2009 at 15:55 Quote
Inset sounds like incest.

 


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