[Closed] Can I over-grease my headset?

Grease everywhere for me, particularly on the lower. All over the outside of the bearing and the race. Keeps water out and stops any annoying creaks. If I don't grease like this I always get creaks in no time. I can't see how you would ever get slippage on the steerer once everything is tight.

A couple of things:

Crown races normally aren't interchangeable. They are designed to pair with the lower bearing of a specific headset. Some might work together okay but don't assume a Hope crown race will work with an FSA headset bearing without checking.

Sealed cartridge bearing don't need greased. A thin film of grease on the bottom of the steerer will help stop the lower race binding to it but I wouldn't bother greasing anything else except maybe the normal amount on the threads of the top cap bolt

I always slather mine in grease, just to help keep the water out. Used to have a wtb grease guard on one bike. Great idea, just squirt fresh grease in through the greaese nipple and watch the old manky stuff get pushed out.

oh yes, I had the WTB greaseguard as well. Satisfying to flush out the crap, like squeezing a spot

Some might work together okay but don’t assume a Hope crown race will work with an FSA headset bearing without checking.

This. Aren't some FSA bearing angles 36x45 whereas Hope are 45x45..?

In theory, it's probably best to use anti-seize on the bearing cup / outer race as it should not be actually moving (i.e. not spinning in the cup). In practise a smear of grease should be fine.

On some types of bearing adding too much grease can make the balls skid round rather than roll. This doesn't apply to a headset though so loads of grease to keep the weather out would be the way I would do it.

I'd be concerned about chucking too much grease in if I had a carbon steerer (although basically you'd hope they would select resin that could cope with grease for that application).

Other than that, I'd go for it with gay abandon. It's probably not necessary but it can help things not to rust up on the outside of the bearing.

smother everything in grease. even on carbon.

In my experience a little grease replaced often, just a smear on everything - especially a steel bearing in an aluminium frame.

A local mechanic diagnosed a headset creak as too little grease and near enough filled the frame up. That turned out to be engineering tolerances on frame versus bearing and needed a single 0.25mm micro spacer to sort it.

Sealed cartridge bearing don’t need greased.

That is pure nonsense. They come with some grease in them, but often there is not enough for bike purposes and the grease may not be sufficiently water and corrosion resistant for the wet conditions a lower headset race on a British bike will see.

Sealed cartridge bearing don’t need greased

Any grease around the bearing will stop **** getting in. Slather it in on the lower one.

Greasing the bearings internally will help too.

Specifically, if there is grease between the inner surface of the cartridge bearing and the steerer tube...

The bearing shouldn't touch the steerer; it "wedges" on the crown at the bottom and the split collet at the top to keep the steerer central in the headtube

Can I over-grease my headset?

If you pop the seal out you can overfill the bearing with grease and you'll struggle to replace the seal properly until it's squidged some grease out
You just want enough grease around the components during assembly to prevent corrosion and squeakage

I pop the seal off cartridge bearings and fill them with marine grease.

My Jeffsy has drop in bearings and I just smear the outside of them a little with grease, not much.

If I cover them in it, it actually attracts dirt, learnt that one last year!

This. Aren’t some FSA bearing angles 36×45 whereas Hope are 45×45..?

Yes FSA are a funny angle but...
I got so sick of the crapply sealed FSA bearings that came with my Mondraker constantly being destroyed after every wet ride that I swapped the lower bearing for a hope one with sealed crown race. I wanted to keep the cups as they are 1 degree angle offset and zero stack (something I haven't seem anywhere else). So the cup/bearing interface angles are different for me on the bottom though is seems to be working fine so far.

I couldn't get away with it in the top race as the angled bit is much more pronounced

OK, so I would say the 'max greasers' have it...

The bearing shouldn’t touch the steerer; it “wedges” on the crown at the bottom and the split collet at the top to keep the steerer central in the headtube

Cheers for this timba, I'd been struggling to visualise exactly how the whole assembly works. Makes a lot more sense now!

Aren’t some FSA bearing angles 36×45 whereas Hope are 45×45..?

The OEM FSA lower headset on my Specialized Chisel 2018 (semi-integrated type) came with an MH-P25 bearing (40mm x 52mm x 6.5mm / 45° x 45°) rather than the more common MH-P25K (40mm x 52mm x 6.5mm / 36° x 45°). I couldn't find an MH-P25 anywhere, and FSA couldn't or wouldn't supply one, so I ended up buying a Hope HSCJ (integrated type) pick'n'mix headset, which consists of an Enduro MH-P16 bearing (40mm x 52mm x 7mm / 45° x 45°) and a crown race with integrated seal.

I used these to replace the FSA bearing and crown race. Surprisingly everything fit together perfectly with no evident gaps, despite the MH-P16 being 0.5mm taller than the MH-P25. The Hope crown race is also several mms taller than the original FSA one, but this doesn't seem to affect the bike's handling at all.

Just getting this down in anal detail in case any other Chisel owners out there are undergoing the same frustration I went through!