Chris King headset: is this normal?

[Bob Ross]

Wife's brand new bike arrived today. It has a Chris King Sotto Voce No-threadset, and an Easton SL-something fork. When I unpacked it from the shipping container -- and fwiw it appeared to be packed extremely well -- I noticed the top portion of the headset (the part that the spacers rest upon) was sitting about an inch above the top headtube bearing race (or whatever-the-heck the other part of that King headset that presumably mates with this is called). See pic:

http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/3484/betsyheadset.jpg

That baby is on there pretty tight. I'm no mechanic, but it seems like it's stuck. Definitely would take an inordinate amount of force to get this to slide down the steerer tube to sit on top of its mate.

But since this is only the second time in my life that I've assembled a threadless stem & King headset, I'm more than willing to believe that I'm simply overlooking something obvious that's supposed to get done to this.

Stem obviously doesn't fit on the steerer tube with this piece up in this elevated position.

Any ideas? My wife wants to ride her new bike!

Thanks.

[akelman]

I'm not there, so I can't know what you mean by an inordinate amount of force, but it often takes some serious doing to get that race down where it belongs.

[akelman]

That said, that's not a Sotto Voce CK. Not that it matters, but that one's practically shouting.

[Chris]

Yes, they are very hard to push down sometimes. Put a little grease on the steerer tube.

[StellaBlue]

Normal tap it down. I switch between two forks on a bike and it slides freely on my Uzo pro but needs some elbow grease on my steel fork..

PS: It's had to tell on that tiny pic..

[oliver1850]

I think the compression sleeve is stuck in the black top cap.

Using something that won't mar the top cap, like hard plastic hammer or a nylon punch, tap down gently on the top cap. By top cap I mean where it says Chris King, not the spacers above. It should come free of the compression ring, allowing both to slide down.

Tapping down on the spacers might tighten the compression ring in the taper of the top cap.

[phoenix]

As already mentioned it usually takes a good amount of force to get the race down where it belongs. It is also easier to push it down with the bike on the ground instead of in a stand also. Just be careful not to pinch the palm of your hand between the race and the bearing. Don’t ask me how I thought to add that little disclaimer.....

[dave thompson]

There's an O-ring up inside the top cap with a death grip on the steer tube. Sort of normal. Take off the spacers and plastic ring and use a piece of PVC pipe or something equivalent that you can put down over the steer tube and on top of the King upper, then tap down into place. A little vaseline on the steer tube under the top King part will aid the job. Replace the plastic ring, spacers install your stem, set your headset tension and you're in business. Actually quite easy.

[oliver1850]

Perhaps they have changed over the years. My top cap has no o-ring. The bore is tapered and a split tapered bushing seats inside it.

[Ti Designs]

That's 8 answers for what must be the simplest design in the bike industry - wow. Yeh, that's normal.

[Bob Ross]

That said, that's not a Sotto Voce CK. Not that it matters, but that one's practically shouting.

Probably an artifact of the camera's flash & the macro lens setting; I can assure you, in normal lighting those logos are practically invisible.

That's 8 answers for what must be the simplest design in the bike industry - wow. Yeh, that's normal.

...and one trolling non-answer. Thanks for playing, Ed.



fwiw, the builder wrote me and essentially confirmed what most of y'all have been saying in this thread: That it's normal for it to be a tight fit, & I just have to gently but persuasively push it down. Will give it a shot tonight. Fortunately we just got hit with what's supposed to be a 12-hour snowstorm, so the urgency to get the missus out on the road is somewhat lessened. Thanks for all the suggestions.

[David Kirk]

Good morning,

The King upper headset race should be a very close fit to the steerer but it can be hard to tell just how tight the fit really is because there is an "O" ring set into that upper race.

Here is what I would do - slip the upper race up and off the fork and take some kind of pick or razor blade tip to pull the O ring out of the race. It is not glued in place and will come right out if you can get something underneath it.

With the O ring removed slip the race over the fork and slide it all the way down to the place it needs to be when the bike is assembled. If it slips into place without issue you are all set - put the O ring back in the race, give the steerer a light coat of grease and then push the race into place and call it a day. If it will not slip down with moderate hand force then you need to do something to make it fit better. If there is paint on the steerer you can sand it off. If the steerer is not painted or if it's carbon you can sand the inside of the race itself until it will just slip over the steerer. It's not ideal but it works.

I hope that helps.

dave

[ergott]

Perhaps they have changed over the years. My top cap has no o-ring. The bore is tapered and a split tapered bushing seats inside it.

That sounds like you have the newer design they went to after the Cane Creek patent ran out.

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/eurobike-2010-chris-king-tweaks-headset-design-for-2011-27701

[tv_vt]

In any case, that's normal slippage from shipping/packing. It can be pushed back down without damaging anything. Friction fit. I wouldn't use any grease though on the steerer tube. Get the spacers out of the way before trying to push it down.

[chismog]

I've had this problem before as well. Could be the O-ring is out of place. Also could be that the skirt is slightly skewed on the fork steerer. I find that adding a large spacer stack on top of the skirt, that sticks up above the top of the steerer, allows you to tap the spacer and apply pressure evenly to the skirt. Should get it back to straight and make it easier to move it down the steerer. It should be tight, but it shouldn't be impossible to move, so don't force it.

Hope this helps!

[avalonracing]

Looks perfectly adjusted to me. Clamp on the stem and ride.

[11.4]

Chris King just modified their headsets slightly. The traditional design had an o-ring inside that top race that slides up and down on the steer. Just a little grit or cosmolene or a tiny bit of resin or clearcoat on your carbon steer is enough to make it very tight. A bit of Scotchbrite is enough to clean the steer off. But the fit can still be (and should be) quite tight. I have a handful of 25 mm tall spacers that I just stack on and press down with a wooden block. Never pound on or near the carbon steer itself, and go gently in any case, but use the spacers to slide it down smoothly if it doesn't just go down by hand. It shouldn't be inordinately tough because then it becomes difficult to get the right adjustment on the headset anyway.

The newer design has a Cane-Creek-like ring wedge. This ring is on the top of that race, but pressing down can cause the wedge to tighten into the race and make it even harder to slide the race. If you have this design, the final headset adjustment can be a little trickier since tightening the wedge tends to move the race a bit. However, be sure to remove the wedge completely before sliding the race up and down. Then it should slide easily.