Headset Bearing Advice

Secteur

Not sure of the terminology here, but...

my bike: Specialized Secteur Comp 2011
bit holding the forks to the bike (?headset) says Cane Creek on it.

When cleaning & regreasing the bearings in the steering tube, I noticed that quite a few of the little ball bearings are missing. It looks like this:



There's one at the lower and upper ends of the head tube, just inside it. The steering is a little rough feeling. I noticed that if I loosen off the cap a tiny bit, the steering is a tad less rough. The grease I used to lube the bearings has exuded out of the gap between the steerer tube and fork - perhaps I put too much on?

Does this make sense so far?

So, I looked into buying more ball bearings to replace the missing ones, but the Cane Creek website (http://www.canecreek.com/headset-fit-finder ) tells me that this is what I want:

SHIS:IS41/28.6|IS41/30 (1-1/8" Cane Creek Integrated IS Standard)



which I can buy from Wiggle here http://www.wiggle.co.uk/cane-creek-40-s ... h-headset/

But there is nothing that looks like this on my bike.

Could someone advise me what I should be doing.

davecara

Stick your head into your LBS and get a new set of bearings. Should only be a couple of quid.
Make sure that the races (where the bearing run/sit) are all smooth and theres no pitting or corrosion on them.
If there is pitting, then its new headset time. Easy enough to do if you take your time pressing the cups in
Dont worry about overgreasing. Whatever wont fit in will always squeeze itself out somewhere!

Secteur

But can anyone explain how the above is compatible with my bike according to the Canyon Creek website - my bike has the cage bearings, not these discs? Where would they even go? How do they act as bearings?

davecara

I think the cane creek site is directing you to a complete new headset rather than just replacing the bearings.
Easy enough to do, but a little more involved than just doing the ball bearings.
Might be best with a new headset to be honest. If youve lost bearings, chances are the bearings races may be damaged

AioxyJ

I'd definitely do as Dave said, shoot it into your closest respectable store and let them direct you.

Stops all the faffing about, and you know it's gonna be 100% right when you get it back!

springtide9

There are lots of different headset standards - you basically need to know which one to buy for your bike.

Personally I would swap out your current headset and fit one with sealed bearings. They are a lot easier to replace and last a lot longer.

I would pop to a local LBS and get the headset replaced and note down the type. Replacing the full headset can be a pain without the right tools as you need to press the lower part of the headset onto the forks (but is possible)

Once you have a cartridge headset (headset with sealed bearings)... you can just swap out the bearings without having to replace the whole headset - which only takes about 10 mins.

ilikecycling

I had the same problem with my Secteur last year and emailed Cane Creek for advice, they emailed back to say that the replacement headset should be the IS-3 or 110-IS. If you want to double check the email address I used was askcanecreek@canecreek.com

I bought the IS-3 online then chickened out of fitting it myself so took it to the LBS, they fitted it (and it has been fine since) but I seem to remember that they had to use extra spacers.

Secteur

Well, for now I just bought some new ballbearings (99p for 30), so I replaced the whole lot (not just the missing ones) - regreased it and reassembled it and it seems to be very smooth now.

If it starts feeling rough again then I will probably get the sealed unit.

Thanks for the advice...