And all this gets really silly in light of the options of 1) A real sealed headset, 2) A rubber boot made from an inner tube, or 3) A fender. Mixing and matching bearings components is always at your own risk and requires judgement. Mixing bearing components requiring different bearing sizes is asking for trouble.
There- I said it. Back to my taxes.
Joe Bender-Zanoni
Great Notch, NJ
> fatcogtom@comcast.net wrote:
\r?\n>
\r?\n> > This all sounds so silly trying to measure and compare the gaps
\r?\n> > between crown race and headset cups. It looks to me like there
\r?\n> are
\r?\n> > gaps in both, with no other weather resistant sealing mechanism
\r?\n> in
\r?\n> > either. A gap of 1mm versus a gap of 2.5mm still lets in water
\r?\n> and
\r?\n> > grit. Neither are superior over another.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Arguably false. A larger gap both represents a larger area through
\r?\n> whichdebris can enter and a larger maximum particle size for such
\r?\n> debris.
\r?\n> > They are both effectively 'flow through' designs. Will someone argue
\r?\n> > that contaminants are flushed through on a constant basis so less
\r?\n> > dirt and crud build up in the races; as long as you overhaul the
\r?\n> > headset on a weekly basis, what does it matter?
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Ah, but how many of us -- or more to the point, how many of the great
\r?\n> unwashed out there -- overhaul their headsets on a weekly basis?
\r?\n>
\r?\n> As far as sealing goes, the old Record Strada steel headset had a very
\r?\n> tall crown race, and when mated with the proper cup presented a very
\r?\n> deep, narrow passage through which debris must penetrate before
\r?\n> enteringthe bearing. As seals go, it is very simple but still quite
\r?\n> effective.The alloy cups on the Super Record model required that
\r?\n> the crown race be
\r?\n> much thinner and some of the benefit of this seal was lost. My own
\r?\n> experience is that the old Record units hold up noticeably better than
\r?\n> the Super Record ones, and this may well be part of the reason.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> But I concur that the Levin was, and still remains the best bang
\r?\n> for the
\r?\n> buck in loose ball headsets.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> --
\r?\n> John (john@os2.dhs.org)
\r?\n> Appleton WI USA