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Running a Ritchey Pro Dropin headset on my road bike. The lower race is properly installed on the fork but there's a tiny gap between the race and the headtube. This means that gunk gets in there. The bearings are cartridge with a rubber seal but after some months of riding in winter weather and washing the bike the bearings are finished.
Are all road headsets this bad? The lack of seals at the lower end seem ridiculous. What can I do to weatherproof it better?
Get some decent mudguards?
You need some sort of gap, otherwise the bearings would bind. Could be that the machined bearing recess in the frame is slightly shallow. Get some marine grease and smear it all over the bearing and make a boot out of an old inner tube and use some sort of mudguard.
have been using crud raceguards for a while. they protect me fine. but are they not up to the job of protecting the bike?
where do i get marine grease from?
When you replace the bearings, carefully pop the shield on the lower bearing using a needle or scalpel so you don't damage the shield. I'd recommend popping the upwards facing shield for this reason. Then pack the bearing with waterproof grease, push it in whilst turning the inner race to work it in. Then pack some more in! Push the shield back into place and make sure it's seated properly.
Inside the head tube you can use liberal amounts of grease on fork crown seat, over the bearing external surface and bearing seat inside headtube. Bottom bearing gets a drenching, top doesn't need as much.
Wipe off excess once all put back together. I'd still advise dropping it all apart every 6 weeks in the winter to check for corrosion and repack any grease that has leached out.