Tricross SS

4 Days Ago 10:13
mechanical_vandal
They used an indecipherable combination of shite quality headset components for a while meaning that once the original shit the bed it was mission impossible to remove the old one and clean everything up adequately and virtually impossible to get a properly fitting replacement.

Funny you should mention that. I stripped the headset for powder coating and was surprised to find ball and cage bearings! After a bit of Googling it seems;

'According to Specialized, the Mindset (listed as a “Specialized integrated headset with cage bearings” in the specs on my 2010 Tricross and as a “Mindset” in others) is a proprietary headset and can only be ordered through an authorized dealer.

Aye, right.

The head tube is, I discovered, machined according to the Cane Creek IS41 standard, but rather than the drop-in cartridge bearings, a set of cups of the same dimensions are pressed in and hold a set of cage bearings much like a traditional headset. Why the fuck they didn't just use the IS41 cartridge bearings in the first place I don't know.

Anyway hammer in hand. Simply drift out the pressed in cups for the aforementioned cages;

The offenders,

Leaving you with the machined recess for your cartridge bearings;

Then drop in any pair of cartridge bearings which fit the Cane Creek standard (45/36, 41.2mm OD, 6.5mm high)

Steering is now shit hot, and if I need to replace bearings it'll be a piece of piss.

Yaaas.