Integrated head set woes

[Marc]

Originally Posted by FunkE

Marc, I've been running integrated headsets for a few years now, never with a problem. My old Iron Horse hardtail frame had a Cane Creek unit and my Azure has an FSA and to be honest I prefer the feel of the Cane Creek but both are still nice. I've read the Chris King article previously and to be honest I don't really take everything he has to say as fact.

Well, I mean, of course the article isn't coming from an unbiased observer.

I took apart my IS headseat on my roadbike, cleaned out the steerer tube, cleaned the cartidges and greased everything with poly lube so it torqued together smoothly and I acutally haven't had a problem since.

I've had a couple rattles since then which have made me suspicious of it, but the first one turned out to by my mini pump and the second was my saddle bag. I guess I'm just paranoid.

I'll do the same with my mountain bike headset I guess. That probably should be part of my end-of-the-season maintenance list. That and wheel bearings.

By the way, in case anybody missed what I meant earlier when I said "They're definitely not upside down"... because integrated headsets (at least Cane Creek's) you can't install upside down. The two cartidge bearings are identical, and therefore interchangable.