 You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I picked up one of the stumpy frames from Bikescene and I am currently building it up. The bearings sit in the integrated carbon headset so working how to set it up. I would normally use grease but I gather grease isn't good for carbon. The shop tells me run dry. Any other ideas? Maybe carbon assembly paste without the granules?
Any ideas greatly appreciated.
Many thanks
Rich
I'd follow the shops advice, but I'd get the headset as cold as I could first.
Why get the headset cold , the bearings normal go in by hand , I have never put them in with grease and have not seen any problems
Thanks chaps. The bearings do just just drop in.
Oops! 😳
Must read OP properly. Didn't read the integrated bit.
My headset bearing for an Ibis Mojo SL run the same, in the carbon cups in the frame and dry, though I do flip the seals over the bearings and repack with grease every now and again.
Thread resurrection 🙂
When you bought the frame did it come with bearings or did you have to source them yourself?
Cheers
I don't think decent carbon with proper coatings give a sh1t about grease, unless you're using some with battery acid for extra lubrication 🙂 I'd be interested to know why you think that (checks frame for grease spills....)
Grease the hell out of them. If its like mine (tapered integrated) then there is no lower seal on the headset and they'll last about 20seconds in the wet before seizing.
Can be fixed by finding a big o-ring and putting it between the crown race and bearing (I used an old internal ring off a rear shock).
Plus they developed a really irritating clicky-creak which was traced back to the lower bearing moving a tiny amount in the headset. Fixed with some super-thick grease and cleaning and tightening the headset up.
If you need bearings, superstar were doing them much cheaper than Specialized (if its the rare 45deg chamfer ones, see http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/help-stupid-specialized-proprietary-parts). It was the originals that seized on mine, superstars with the o-ring have been fine for the last 12 months.
+1 for the creaking plenty of grease on all contact points.
here's the gen (I work on Specialized bikes day in, day out..)
you don't want any grease or other funny lubricants between the steel bearing and the carbon fibre seat in the headset
the forks tend to have a metallic seat on their crown. I would always add a smear of Shimano Anti-Seize to this seat before dropping the bearing into place. and then wipe off any excess Anti-Seize from the fork steerer.
regarding the bearings into the headtube, its always a dry fit after degreasing the bearing seat (Iso Alcohol is ideal). If the frame has a metallic seat for the bearing in the head tube cup, then a light smear of anti-seize is ideal
Once the fork is sitting in the head tube with bearings installed, I'd put a light smear of Shimano Anti-Seize on the metal compression ring before sliding it down the fork steerer onto the top bearing. Headset top cap can be fitted dry onto the compression ring.
If you find your steering binds once the steerer's compression bolt is torqued to 5nm using torque wrench, add a shim (or two) between compression ring and headset top cap, as something you can get a spacing variance causing the skirt of the top cap to compress or drag on the frame head tube