Techie Tuesday: Pt I - Headset R&R on Specialized '06 Roubaix Elite

This is part 1 of a 2-part series. Part II can be found here. 

I knew I was a little over-due pulling the fork off and inspecting, and maybe packing the headset, but WOW, I never expected to find it packed with mud and growing mold. It's probably been 3 yrs since I pulled the fork, but I do look at the headset every time I have the spacer stack off, or mount new bars.

The headset came out in pieces, although the stock FSA headset is a total POS, there are no replaceable parts, and repacking didn't seem to help at all, so if you have an early Roubaix, or some of the mid-2000 Specialized MTBs, just expect this is what you'll find, and have the parts there to do the R-n-R.

I was lucky, AFAICT, there is no permanent damage, but there might have been. The upper bearing cap seal on the FSA was just shot. Leaking like a sieve, and I never ride in rain intentionally.

Surprisingly, there weren't any good pics of the Cane Creek bearings out there on the web, so I took some. More Google hits for me. This is not actually the headset I will be using, because this is a Campy-style IS42, which is the size my last mechanic said I needed back in '09. Wrong again. I needed an IS41, just like Cane Creek's headset finder program said I needed. Other than the OD of the bearings, the IS41, and IS42 are identical.

Park Tools head cup remover - the RT-1

With the addition of the required 2.5mm finishing spacer between the top of the bearing cap and the bottom of the stem, the 15mm stack height of the high model was too much, so I changed my order to a short, 9mm stack. That opened the door to upgrade to the Cane Cane Creek 110 series, garanteed for 110 years. In the words of Danny DiVito, "Now THAT oughta do it!". Twice the price, but stainless steel and supposedly, bullet-proof, and I NEVER want to find this surprise again.

The removal of the press-in bearing cups - YES, they DO come out, and as one unit - was done by my go-to mechanic at MadCat Bikes on Marconi, Eddy. While I would suggest using the Park Tool fluted headset tool  to knock out the old press-in FSA headset, Eddy used a lot of patience and a screwdriver.

I think this was primarily because neither of us knew if the press-in was supposed to come out, or whether it was bonded into the headtube, or if the upper cup came out and was just butted against the lower press-in, or whether they were all one assembly (bingo).

You can see that at some point in time someone tried to separate the top and bottom part of the press-in with a screwdriver or ice-pick. It's all one assembly buddy. No upper and lower parts to the press-in. Perhaps Calistoga Bike Shop was bending the truth a little selling me the bike as NIB.

Rusty cups. Not a horse race for chestnut bays, just thoroughly shot races.

The FSA press-ins, showing the tapered leading edge and compression holes - or whatever those holes are supposed to do.

Eddy left a few tool marks on the upper, leading edge, but you really have to look to see them. The ratty pry marks happended while my bike was supposedly NIB up at Calistoga Bike Shop

As you can see, the relief groove is desceptive, but NO, this is all one piece, not a seperate upper cup and supporting press-in

A doom with a view

The two press-in cups sitting on a mirror for optimal lighting. It doesn't get worse than this and still turn.

My lower headset as a garden

Potatoes anyone?

Lower headset growing mold. Yeah, I'm just loving this R&R

OK, they're a bit rough, but hey, what's not to like?

The solution. Unfortunately I got the the wrong size, and it's too tall too.

Upside down view of a Cane Creek 40 Series IS42 carbon tall

Upside down, so that's the crown race you're looking at on top in brass. Gotta love those beautiful lip seals Cane Creek uses.

Trial assembly on a chunk of CroMo steering tube from my mtb. Note the male bottomed, flush topped, 2.5mm  finishing spacer that mates with the InterLok machining in the top of the upper bearing cap. They come in 5 colors. None in the package from Universal cycles though, but Cane Creek sent me one for free in the mail and even paid the postage. Now THAT's customer service.

InterLok machining detail showing top of carbon bearing cap, and 2.5 mm alloy finishing spacer

The 2.5mm finishing spacer is turned upside down to show how its machined surface mates with the top of the bearing cap.  A nce view of the O-ring weather seal in light blue here. Just my opinion, but EVERY single spacer in a stack should have such an O-ring. Water running down into bearings is nothing but BAD.

Bottom and top bearing are identical, except for being flipped over so the two 45 degree angles face each other

Close-up of the top cap, its O-ring seal, lip seal, and brass shim. I ordered a pack of 10 .25mm shims which are needed to get the lip seal perfectly positioned to seal onto the face of the headtube. I might have to reface the headtube though, as it is somehow a bit chewed. I will try polishing it with 600 -> 1,500 wet or dry sandpaper.

Close-up of crown race and bottom end of the headset assembly

 Eddy told me his first taps with the screwdriver were meant to turn the press-in to break it loose, and I asked him to support the face of the headtube with a wooden block to prevent the bonded aluminum sub-assembly the press-ins press into from separating, or delaminating from the carbon part of the headtube.

I still need to clean the inside of the headtube a little better, and then do some trial fitting when the new parts arrive from Universal Cycles. Right now I am waiting for them to issue a return authorization, and still have both headsets on my charge card until I get it. Not my fav situation to be in, but I want to get this thing done.

I also ordered a new BB for my FSA Gossomer crank, now that I know what stellar quality seals FSA has. More blog fodder to add to this PART A installment of remove and replace an FSA mindset headset. It also just made sense because I got $10 off the shipping of a $42 part by including it this order.

Bottom line, Universal Bikes is either going to get glowing reviews or a battery acid spew. Fingers crossed, I look forward to a glowing review.

87 Cents

I picked up my wheel from Mad Cat Bikes on Monday. The bill for fixing, and truing my crashed rear wheel? A whopping 87 cents! :-O  Are these guys the greatest, or what?!

I have been talking to Eddy about Mad Cat starting an in-house wheel building service. The only thing better than having custom built wheels, is having them built by a local builder. You can see, and feel the materials before choosing them, make sure the builder knows your requirements, weight, size, riding style.

When things go wrong, there's no slow and expensive shipping getting in the way of your riding schedule either. Mad Cat offered to fix my wheel while I waited!

With a good build, and builder, wheels are forever. New spokes as needed, new rims when worn, but hubs last forever, so the wheel goes on. Besides, you can get cool builds like my 14/15 drive side, 14/17 non-drive side, or this cross-wind shrugging 2-forward, 2-back lacing! Factory wheels suck. You can do so much better having your wheels custom made.

See the 4 open voids cross-winds slip through?

Raining cats and dogs, a few small sheep, and a goat or two right now. Kind of goes with the 45 mph wind gusts that woke me up as they made my apt building moan. Man, that brought some old memories to life, living in Minn where the NW winds howled night and day, sliced right through our farm grove, and the side of our first farm house. To this day I love thick socks, because the floor was always so cold when I was a toddler.

Of course, it'll be great skiing weather for President's Day, if the wind dies down enough for them to reopen the lifts - as is forecast. There should be some epic Blue Powder days on tap this weekend. Dry powder too!

I'm half-way healed up from my collar bone break, and starting to get itchy. The shoulder sure is a complex matrix of bones, cartilage and tendons. When the thickness and shape of the collar bone changes, lots, and lots of things have to make adjustments. I'm hopeful I will make a full recovery, but suspect I will have rotator cuff problems on strenuous days. As long as the pain is tolerable, which I expect it will be, I'll take it in stride.

To cope with sitting on my butt for 3 months, I shut off all the feeds from my bike clubs. It's just too frustrating for me otherwise. I decided to check in the other night though, and saw that a friend did Solvang, and another is doing the El Camino Double this weekend. That might turn into a swim meet if the weather forecast doesn't change, but that's part of the challenge, isn't it?

One of our members was hit from behind by a car and is in bad shape. Coma, may be paralyzed below the waist - most of the Gabby Giffords issues. Matt was one of those guys that rides everywhere, all the time, and leads or rides the very toughest club rides. Lit up like a Christmas tree and in the bike lane, but clocked by a driver who drifted over a little paint on the road. Paint ain't enough. Cyclists need physical barriers to be safe.

What cycling needs, more than any other thing though, is a legal defense fund to try high-profile cases, and change the legal environment until we have the legal protections we deserve when we ride. MALDEF is a good example of one that works. The current environment is just intolerable, and that negatively impacts every aspect of cycling. Anyone know if Lady Gaga rides? This issue needs an advocate.

Although largely sedentary to date, I am hitting the books pretty hard these days as my fatigue has finally started to dissipate. As much as I hated having to lose a molar that was too far gone to save, not having the chronic infection is a huge boost to my energy level. I guess that's why they make implants these days. Looking forward to hitting the Elliptical Machine, and maybe the treadmill. Back to the books for now....

Black Days

Woke up a few days ago with Sound Garden's "Black Days" running through my head. My mood was even blacker. Four weeks on I shouldn't be so tired and hurt so much. Turns out I was right. My dentist appointment turned up a molar in bad need of some TLC. Root canal and 2 weeks of antibiotics, but a week into the meds my energy level is much better. Didn't think a broken bone should be kicking my butt that bad.

About that. I happened to be looking at the X-Rays again and noticed there is a scale ruler on the bottom of the straight-on film. Based on that, the longitudinal break was almost 4" long. That's a lot more bone surface to heal up than a clean snap break (with two very sharp edges that caused all the bleeding seen in the bruising), so pretty happy it's been healing up well the last week, and I've gotten a lot of my mobility back. I can even interlace my fingers above my head - and it feels good too.

Will have to pull the back wheel off the bike this week and take it to Mad Cat to get the kicked spoke replaced. Find myself looking at the Performance Bike Shop spam I get emailed, so probably be riding again by the time the Pro teams show up to practice for the Amgen Tour of California again this year.

It's going to be the best one yet, with some super tough stages. The one I'm thrilled about will be stage #2 from Lake Tahoe to Sacramento. That's about 7,000 ft downhill. Don't know what the course is yet, but AFAICT, I-80 is the only way down in parts, so look for a scorching fast stage.

I enjoyed myself a 2-day grunge-fest, after which my spirits were much better, and like the song says, "I sure don't mind the change".