Well I had the fork off my frame today for a routine checkup, and found the lower headset bearing had seized hard. Anyone had this happen before?
The bearing was greased well on assembly, and still had plenty inside when I checked. So it must have actually pitted itself or something, I managed to get it to turn it again with some difficulty but it felt quite notchy.
Well that's the first issue - the other is one I know has been discussed here at great length but after searching I couldn't find a good answer. How on earth are you supposed to get the bearings out of the E13 reducer cups? It's a horrid design, the only reason I want to find a solution here is because the E13 reducer + matching headset is the lightest solution for a 1.5" reducer headset by a long shot.
Some previous discussion is here, check vitox + davep's posts
http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/showthread.php?t=167768
Anyway, I knocked the old bearing out but like vitox I probably violated a few rules, and got very lucky. On tapping the inner race of the lower bearing from the top, it smashed out (so I thought oh no, now the outer race is stuck forever). Thankfully I had cracked the outer race in the process so the remains of the bearing came out smoothly, and I installed a fresh bearing with no dramas.
But like I said - I got lucky. So first, I'd like to know if there's a neater way to get bearings out of the cup (I sure can't see any options that don't damage the bearing or cup, and I really don't want to have to pull the cups out when I need to change a bearing).
And second, did I just get unlucky with the FSA IS2 bearing or have other people killed them? are there stronger/longer lasting bearings I should be looking at?
Cheers
Udi
The bearing was greased well on assembly, and still had plenty inside when I checked. So it must have actually pitted itself or something, I managed to get it to turn it again with some difficulty but it felt quite notchy.
Well that's the first issue - the other is one I know has been discussed here at great length but after searching I couldn't find a good answer. How on earth are you supposed to get the bearings out of the E13 reducer cups? It's a horrid design, the only reason I want to find a solution here is because the E13 reducer + matching headset is the lightest solution for a 1.5" reducer headset by a long shot.
Some previous discussion is here, check vitox + davep's posts
http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/showthread.php?t=167768
Anyway, I knocked the old bearing out but like vitox I probably violated a few rules, and got very lucky. On tapping the inner race of the lower bearing from the top, it smashed out (so I thought oh no, now the outer race is stuck forever). Thankfully I had cracked the outer race in the process so the remains of the bearing came out smoothly, and I installed a fresh bearing with no dramas.
But like I said - I got lucky. So first, I'd like to know if there's a neater way to get bearings out of the cup (I sure can't see any options that don't damage the bearing or cup, and I really don't want to have to pull the cups out when I need to change a bearing).
And second, did I just get unlucky with the FSA IS2 bearing or have other people killed them? are there stronger/longer lasting bearings I should be looking at?
Cheers
Udi