You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
So I managed to slightly flare the bottom of the head tube on my 456evo when I took a little tumble. The lower headset cup is now virtually a push fit, not good.
I'm never going to sell the frame so I'm not averse to setting a cup in semi-permanently by taking up the slack with a bit of chemical metal. But, to give this blatant bodge a fighting chance I'd like to use a steel lower cup with a decently long insert, say 20mm, so it can pick up on the un-flared section of head tube a bit further in.
Back in the day I ran an FSA Pig which outlasted two different frames and now I'm tempted by the Pro version. But I'm open to any other suggestions.
I was going to say the stock answer to this was always a Pig…
Or Chris King deep insert
I had that last year, push fit Hope cup in an old Kona frame. I 'bonded' (glued) it in with the remnants of some Devcon epoxy I had in a drawer. Still going strong 5000km later.
I used a nukeproof one on the tandem for exactly this. I actually had to get the cups reduced a bit as they were longer than the reamed part of the headtube .
I also used loctite bearing fit
Is it 44mm for straight steerer.
Really like the both the standard pig for road based stuff and pro headsets for muddier things, the bigger bearings just last so much longer.
Bike discount DE has the pro for about £24, I would get two as whilst the lower bearing is crazy big you can’t remove it from the cup.
Not really a major issue though as I’m six years into using and the sealed bearings are still nice and smooth.
Thanks for all the input.
Unfortunately anything Chris King is way out of my budget.
Yes it's a straight steerer.
I don't like the sound of non-removeable bearings in a possibly non-removeable cup. Hmm.
Maybe the epoxy suggestion would be okay though.
£24 is a lot less than anywhere I've seen, thanks.
The Nukeproof looks good and deep, though I'd assume it's alloy.
Hmm.
If you use something like Loctite 641 bearing retainer, it's possible to disassemble by heating the headset. Or use normal loctite as you say that the fit is now a push fit.
the nukeproof is alloy but its lasted years on the tandem. the one I have has sealed bearings that are stock sizes but I have not had to replace them. its so deep tho that I had to get it turned down a few mm to fit the tandem