2008 cannondale F6 Headset advice

fozzy17

any chance of a picture of it with the new headset...

fozzy17

UncleMonty wrote:

Hey Fozzy, I've just noticed that your new forks are 100mm but the Dart 2's you replaced were only 80mm, will this be ok ? I guess 20mm in nothing to worry about.

Was going to get a pair of Tora 318's but I've just been offered a pair of 302's for FREE, these are 100mm though and I'm not sure if this is ok, I know I could change the spacer inside to make these 80mm but it would be nice just to drop them straight in.

Hi
yep they are fine, as you can see in the pictures with them fitted, it sits right.

sharpy1

fozzy17 wrote:

any chance of a picture of it with the new headset...

This why I replaced it!
Heres how it looks now:
Can just about see the thin reducers directly above and below the headtube, the Pig headset is then pressed into those. I have other pics if you want more.
Hope this helps.
Paul

fozzy17

it doesn't look to bad, is there any movement at all?

sharpy1

Looks better than I thought it would.
I ain't ridden it yet as it's been too icy but defo out this weekend, so will post back if there is any movement but don't think there will be as the reducers and the cups were properly pressed home by Leisure Lakes using dedicated tools.

fozzy17

So the spacers plastic or alu?

sharpy1

Aluminium.
2 are the original spacers from the standard headset and I needed one more as the curved rubber one that came with the original didnt sit proper. I got a bag of 3 black 5mm spacers from Halfords for £4.50 but they much cheaper on CRC.

fozzy17

finished fettling with mine today, fitted new wheels tyres and upgraded the front 160mm rotor to a 180mm rotar, hopefully give me more bite

sharpy1

fozzy17 wrote:

finished fettling with mine today, fitted new wheels tyres and upgraded the front 160mm rotor to a 180mm rotar, hopefully give me more bite

Sounds good. Can you tell a massive difference between the Darts and your new Rebas?
What you doin about your headset then?

fozzy17

sharpy1 wrote:

fozzy17 wrote:

finished fettling with mine today, fitted new wheels tyres and upgraded the front 160mm rotor to a 180mm rotar, hopefully give me more bite

Sounds good. Can you tell a massive difference between the Darts and your new Rebas?
What you doin about your headset then?

yep its chalk and cheese, i knew the rebas are good as i have a specialized fsr comp with a set of rock shox reba sl o them also, as for headset i will more than likely bite the bullet and get the 1.5 headrace, but not yet(im skint), as ive had my headset of and packed it with lithium grease, so it should last well, and i will strip it every now and then, the think i like it they suck up the bumps better and the damping control is great, im still fetling with mine, pls its got remote lockout which is handy, i bougt my F6 new for £300 delivered so im going to build the bike to my spec (thats the plan) so far £300 for bike £250 front forks not sure if i will change the crank yet but mor than likely will at some stag, so i will get a decent specced bike at wel unde a grand, ive also got some avid judy 7s on the way, but might put them on my speciaklized im not sure.

fozzy17

went out today on it, it was ferking freezin

UncleMonty

thats looks bad, I'd better take a look at mine now, how long have you had yours ?

sharpy1

Monty
I've had it since August but only really been using it properly since November. Prob been about 10 weeks til I noticed the headset not feeling smooth. I don't think there was much grease on the bearings from new so that won't have helped!! I have now put a healthy dose of lithium grease on my new one and will check it regularly. Does yours feel ok or is it a bit rough/grindy? If it's smooth you might be ok just whack a load of grease in there!!

fozzy17

mine was steering ok but when i inspected it, it was dry as a chip and just starting to rust, i bought mine just before crimbo aswell, its a piss eay job to do and could save you some money in the long run.

UncleMonty

I've had mine since early November and I've put a fair few miles on it as well. The last two times I've had mine out it did feel a little stiff at first, I keep it in a shed though and I'd put this down to the freezing temps we've had recently, will check tonight and advise

robmanic1

UncleMonty wrote:

I've had mine since early November and I've put a fair few miles on it as well. The last two times I've had mine out it did feel a little stiff at first, I keep it in a shed though and I'd put this down to the freezing temps we've had recently, will check tonight and advise

Phnaaar!

sharpy1

Thats exactly how mine was. Kept in shed, really rough at 1st but eased up after riding for a bit. I was told that my bearings would be completely shot which is why I replaced it. If yours doesnt look as bad as mine did then it would prob be worth trying to clean your bearings up and completely caking in grease. Get some pics of it aswell.

UncleMonty

I'll keep this short, double-entendre police are about and I just cant help myself

Mine were just filthy, and they smelled of cow s#*t, I used de-greaser and really scrubbed but only half of each set came up shiny, they are fooked but I've had to put them back in for now. Very poor show for a 3 month old bike. :evil:

top set



and bottom

fozzy17

i think from new they dont have much if any grease, so anybody thats got one get it stripped and greased, you should be ok.

sharpy1

I think it's cack that a 'quality' bike could have a headset as rubbish as these!! I know it's a cheaper bike and the component quality suffers to keep costs down but how much does a good squirt of grease cost??
My top set of bearings came up like montys, half shiny half pitted, but the bottom set were totally sha**ed!!

UncleMonty

Do anyone know any online retailers that sell these bearing cages, I've not found any so far and the Cannondale site only list bike shops.

sharpy1

I tried Halfords 1st but they were as useful as t*ts on a bull. When I went into Leisure Lakes and they tried to flog me an expensive headset I told them to stick It and to just sell me the bearings. They said they would have to do a special order from Cannondale and it may be weeks before they come in!!! The manager, who was the most knowledgeable of them, did say that you can put separate bearings into the race that you already have (the race is the bearing cage that the balls are held in, sorry if you already knew that but I didnt before this all happened!)
He said you can generally get bearings from any engineering works near you, they will probably do you a bag for a few quid!
In answer to your question, no, I dont know any online retailers. I did a quick Google when I 1st looked but it turned up nowt.
How does yours feel now you have cleaned it up and greased it :shock:
Ooops Im sure the double entendre cops will get me for that one!!!

UncleMonty

It does feel better and now it clean & greased but i wouldn't want to ride it in this state for long, I've seen loose ball bearings on ebay for just a few quid so that's what i'll probably do, don't know what size though so I'll have to strip it again to measure one.

I tried Evans where I bought the bike and they were useless too, didn't even question the fact that it had rusted after just 3 months lol.

Cheers !

3110neil

hi guys
well i had a visit to york today ,60 miles from where i live ,got my self tora 318 u-turn with poplock fittrd for £160 ,fitted on the same bike cannondale f6 disc ,bought just before xmas
tod the mechanic to check the headset bearings as on your messages ,mine were fine no rust ,
going back to change the headset in a month or so ,

sharpy1

Big lesson learned today.
After having my new headset installed I was told I wouldnt need any more spacers, I thought I did so put an extra 5mm one in. I then pre-loaded the bearings, tightened everything up and finally got out for a ride this aft.
Turns out that I should have had a quick spin up the street before going off road as everything settles quite a bit! So I tried to pre-load again but had no more adjustment, looks like I needed another spacer.
Having never had a headset problem before I didnt think there would be too much of an issue just carrying on with a loose headset ( I was only doin a few miles!).
How wrong I was. Bottom bearing cage is completely goosed, bent out of all recognition.
Lucky I wasnt going too far otherwise it could have turned very nasty!!

sharpy1

Big lesson learned today.
After having my new headset installed I was told I wouldnt need any more spacers, I thought I did so put an extra 5mm one in. I then pre-loaded the bearings, tightened everything up and finally got out for a ride this aft.
Turns out that I should have had a quick spin up the street before going off road as everything settles quite a bit! So I tried to pre-load again but had no more adjustment, looks like I needed another spacer.
Having never had a headset problem before I didnt think there would be too much of an issue just carrying on with a loose headset ( I was only doin a few miles!).
How wrong I was. Bottom bearing cage is completely goosed, bent out of all recognition.
Lucky I wasnt going too far otherwise it could have turned very nasty!!

3110neil

hi
when i got the new forks fiited the mechanic took all the spacers out
he said with the headset i had didnt need them ,and too many spacers can be dangerous, when new headset is fitted they fit flat to the head tube so agin if spacers needed then i could use them

UncleMonty

for the benefit of people reading this thread in the years to come

finaly got round to putting new bearings in tonight, they are 7/32" I put these in loose without the cage and you'll need about 30 per race, it's now smooth as silk, woot !

fozzy17

didn't know this thread is still running, nice to know you can run 7/32" ball bearings

Livia1521

I have a 2008 Cannondale F6 and went to my local bike shop (Edinburgh Cycle Co-op) to ask them to source me a replacement headset (I wanted it to be their risk not mine if they got the wrong size...). Anyway, what they've got for me is the Cane Creek Zerostack ZS49/28.6/H8/K ZS49/30/H4/K (http://www.canecreek.com/component-head ... ct=40.ZS49), for £60.

Looking online it seems that the Superstar Components Grande Bambino Headset is the same size (http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/product_ ... cts_id=113) [SHIS identification - ZS 49/28.6 | ZS 49/30] so this might be helpful in the future. Only £40 and comes in pretty colours.
Whether this actually fits, I'm not in any way qualified to say. But the numbers match...