Merlin Malt 1 to Kinesis Maxlight frame swap

milese

Hi,

Might be a basic question, but I've got a Merlin Malt 1 that I'm swapping over onto a Kinesis Maxlight XC Pro 2 frame.

Will the headset just swap over?

Anything else that might not be compatible?

The frame is smaller so hopefully cable / chain length will be ok.

Need to check seat posts.

Both got top pull front mechs.

Need a new king pin.

Cheers

Miles.

nicklouse

headset only if they take the same type and are the same size.

other issues can be.

Fork
seat post and clamp
front Mech band size
BB width.

and what do you mean by King Pin? Bike dont have one. very old cars have 2. and some vans did till the late '80s.

milese

Thanks for reply.

How do I find out about the headsets? They are both 1 1/8".

Fork steerer should be the right length.

King pin, ok, link pin for chain.

Didn't think about BB width. Its LX hollotech BB, if width is do I just need to get a new plastic tube? Are MTB BB threads universal?

benpinnick

If its hollow tech then hopefully its ok. All hTII BBs are 73mm, they just have 5mm of extra spacers if you have a 68 frame. Simple way to check if you'll be ok is to measure the two BB shells. If they are the same then ok, if the Malt is 68mm then ok, if the malt is 73 and the kinesis is 68 then you will probably need to buy 2 x 2.5mm spacers.

nicklouse

Milese wrote:

Thanks for reply.

How do I find out about the headsets? They are both 1 1/8".

Fork steerer should be the right length.

look at the info in the FAQs and Parktools about the different headset standards and compare with what you have infront of you. But if they look and measure the same there is a very good chance they are the same.

Steerer much depends on the above. I know of many people that got a surprise.

men1pal

I have the xcpro3 and this is what headset it needs if it helps:

HEADSET: The XCPro3 uses a 'ZeroStack' headset for 50mm OD Head tube. The bearing cups must be press fitted into the frame and the bearings drop into these. Use a standard ZeroStack headset for straight 1-1/8" steerer, or Taper headset such as 'FSA Orbit-Z 44' for a taper steerer fork.

They have updated their website so no longer list the xcpro2 but im pretty sure when I first looked it had the same details for the xcpro2. Was a while back though

Peter

men1pal

Just to add if you find that is correct and you need a new headset this is the one I bought which works fine for my frame:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=15888

Peter

nicklouse

Milese


I see they are both for same now but if you look at the head tube you can see they are very different.

One is a internal/Zero stack/ Semi integrated and the others is a standard one.

I guess this topic can be closed now though?