Chris King Headset Bearing service.

[dyna-ti]

Anyone know anything about this ?. in what is the service exactly ?, do they replace the entire bearing unit, or just pop the cover and squirt in some washing up liquid :shock:

Bit of a distance to send, and likely not cheap, but its for the ti version, and id rather if its possible just replace the gubbings.

 

[eshew]

Re:

Servicing the bearings is pretty easy. Carefully remove the snap ring, it can be difficult. It's best to pull it from the outside.

Remove the rubber seal (note it's orientation don't reinstall upside down) clean bearings, grease and put everything back together.

If the bearing is too far gone CK will install a new bearing. They don't ship bearings so you'll have to send it to them for servicing.

 

[ishaw]

Re:

When I looked into this, admittedly a few years ago now, no one in the uk could do this so by the time you've posted it to the states and paid for new bearings, it was cheaper by a fair amount to buy a decent second hand complete headset.

 

[dyna-ti]

Re: Re:

When I looked into this, admittedly a few years ago now, no one in the uk could do this so by the time you've posted it to the states and paid for new bearings, it was cheaper by a fair amount to buy a decent second hand complete headset.

Then im stuck in the same boat with bearings that have had an unknown amount of use and could even be worse than mine, which are pretty much fine, and likely just a grease change. Lowers a little gritty, upper is ok.
Its also the fact the CKti is now discontinued, so it could be a last chance to put one back into as new condition. Expect 15+ years from that.

 

[eshew]

Re:

A clean and regrease goes a long way towards making a CK headset run like new.

The bearings are over engineered and last a very long time. Headsets don't see a ton of rotation either.

After cleaning and regreasing numerous CK headsets all have felt close enough to perfect after installing that it made no difference.

Only once did CK have to replace a bearing, the inside race seized to the fork and came apart.

Get to cleaning that headset!

 

[Tricky1977]

Might be of use:
https://chrisking.com/blogs/news/how-to ... g-bearings