Chris King Sotto Voce Headset Help

[BirkWinn]

Just had my shop put on the beautiful Chris King Sotto Voce Headset. I was told that that the very thin gray plastic ring that comes with the headset needs to stay on. I don’t like it at all and takes away from it being all black and clean. Can someone please help me understand why it does need to stay or can it go. Does it have benefits?
Also, they told me I had to use a spacer between my Enve stem and the headset. I was hoping to drop the stem down to the headset. Is this correct?

Built my dream bike and want to come correct before posting

Thanks for the help

[thirdgenbird]

The plastic ring is to make up for faces that are not square. Apparently, they could make noise without it.

A spacer helps reduce load on the steerer. The conservative thing is to use one, but many do not.

[11.4]

If your shop does a really good job of being sure that the head tube is reamed properly, faced perfectly square, and the headset is a good tight fit, the spacer under the stem is really only needed to protect your headset if the stem then isn't square. If the frame prep was correct and the headset is seated very straight and smooth, then slide your stem on the steer and see how well it's aligned to the top of the headset. I've seen in the same brand and model one stem that fits really nicely, another that's awful. Thomson stems usually are perfectly square, and I have no problem putting a Thomson X4 right down on the headset. I actually think it works better than with a spacer because the spacer allows a little bit of sliding which can create some out-of-axis twisting that isn't preferred. However, I've also seen stems such as Dedas and FSAs where there was at times 1-2 millimeters of mis-alignment. Those will eat up your headset pretty quickly and affect your headset performance from day one. I've seen pro team mechanics have a machinist square off the top and bottom of some sponsored stems when the whole batch aren't finished well.

The white plastic washer was put there to minimize wear from side-to-side movement, which with the old Chris King neoprene o-ring design was always a (minor) issue. With the newer design with the nested split ring, there's no longer any movement so the washer is really just for chafing from vibration. That's more about cosmetics than actual wear. However, I still prefer to put the washer in. If you take a Marksalot permanent marker and do 2-3 coats of black on the washer, it's nicely black and meets your needs.

I used to believe in the spacer on the bottom and the white washer, but I've only seen them needed when the frame prep was poor. The spacer on top of the stem is more important because steer wall thicknesses are so thin these days.

[wallymann]

black sharpie -- it does the business!

fwiw...it's called a "scuff washer" and using it is a good idea.

[illuminaught]

The spacer is supposed to go above the stem.
The washer helps with creaking... but if frame prep is good that should be a non issue.

[guyintense]

From the Chris King web site:

Where does that little plastic washer that came with my headset go?
Answer: The 'scuff washer' is intended to go between the bearing cap and stem or stem spacers to help offset the effects of unfaced stems. It will help reduce the adjustment problems and creaking commonly caused by unfaced stems.

With the proper size spacer you can face your stem with your headtube reaming and facing tool.

[thirdgenbird]

Originally Posted by illuminaught

The spacer is supposed to go above the stem.
The washer helps with creaking... but if frame prep is good that should be a non issue.

A spacer above is to prevent crushing the steerer.

Some manufacturers also recommend at least one below the stem to avoid point loading the steerer. I think trek is one such company. Whatever the case, you see lots of slammed stems with no issue.

[BirkWinn]

Thanks guys I truly appreciate the help. The spacer is pretty thin so I probably will keep it for now. I'm a dingus and never thought about using a sharpie just wanted it gone because I'm a perfectionist and want the bike to look right. Heading to the kitchen miscellaneous drawer now to get me a proper marker