John has looked at the Stronglight roller headset harder than I have. I have the tools to reface everything so I don't really have the experince of trouble except for V4s long ago.
Consistent friction (damping) is probably a good thing in a headset. We won't get into biketech fork oscillation stuff, but damping helps.
Anyone else think the V4 is less than durable?
I have an Avocet tapered roller headset I put on a Jim Redcay. It is tough to install but works great on what is probably a very precise set of faces. It is true tapered bearings as far as I know and made by Edco. I don't know if Edco ever sold these under their own name.
I have a Galli roller headset but I have not tried it yet.
Joe Bender-Zanoni Great Notch, NJ
John Thompson wrote:
> joebz@optonline.net wrote:
>
>
>> I like all the Stronglight headsets and find them very durable. I
>> just wanted to add a warning that the v-bearing and tapered roller
>> bearings require better facing alignment and concentricity alignment
>> tolerances than a cup and cone bearing. If you retrofit and it
>> binds, wither reface or go back to a conventional headset.
>>
>
> The Stronglight roller bearing headsets are actually quite forgiving of
> misalignment; the reason for this is that the bearings are not in fact
> tapered, but cylindrical and run in floating races. Cylindrical bearings
> arguably have slightly more friction than tapered bearings, since there
> is some sliding contact rather than rolling contact due to the
> difference in radius from the inside end of the bearing to the outside
> end of the bearing. I say "arguably" because this sliding contact is
> only a factor in rotation. Unlike hub bearings, headset bearings are not
> in a state of continuous rotation so the increased friction of a
> cylindrical bearing was felt to be insignificant. The greater capacity
> to accommodate thrust loads (vs ball-bearings in a parabolic race) means
> the headset can be both lighter and stronger than a ball-bearing/
> parabolic race headset, and the lower manufacturing cost and ease of
> installation (vs a tapered roller bearing) allows the best of both
> worlds IMHO. I don't think there's a better headset out there.
>
> The V-race Stronglight headsets, OTOH, can be a royal PITA to set up
> without binding and in my experience at least are not even as durable as
> a ball-bearing/parabolic race headset.
>
> A true tapered roller bearing headset would likely be as fussy as the
> V-race headset and considerably more expensive than parabolic and
> cylindrical roller bearing headsets