Fake Chris King headsets....? How to tell??

[d8mok]

I don’t think they look that bad Dom, they are only £15 so worth it.

I’ve had one fake one from a bike I bought. As soon as I got it off I could tell and I didn’t even realise they made fake headsets. I binned it as it was rough too , which I’ve never seen on a king.

For £20 you can get a nice FSA which will far nicer quality and legit.

I bought a bike about 6 months ago just for the king headset as it was turquoise. Bloke looked at me gone out when I asked if i could just whip stem off to check bearing race.

 

[ExpertBlay]

fair enough, I mean if you want the real thing and don’t want to spend the money then these would be a good option…

 

[Imlach]

fair enough, I mean if you want the real thing and don’t want to spend the money then these would be a good option…

Yeah nothing wrong with them. They're robust generic sealed headsets, similar to Ztto, runs smooth as butter and never had any issues. They're not the same quality as real CK obviously, but real CK is also overpriced bling at the end of the day.

 

[Imlach]

I should just add to my point there that I'm not trying to justify the counterfeit stuff. I own those knock offs, I bought them just to see how they compared to my real CK and because I was hoping for some dodgy branding. I really like novelty knock offs of anything, where there is obvious mistakes. An acquired taste of a hobby.

I like the headsets but I prefer the ones with no branding, just black. I have no complaints about my CK headsets except that their incredibly tight tolerances means that I do have frames where they aren't a good fit, sure we can argue that it's poor frame facing/reaming whatever but a cheaper CC or a cheaper Ztto has gone from frame to frame to frame with no issues ever.

I've never had a headset, cheap or expensive that didn't last. So I certainly see CK as a bit of a blingy product, but I have no doubts that they're manufactured well and long lasting. A basic FSA or CC headset will last practically forever as well though.