Stronglight A9 is the needle bearing unit? Very high quality, and sealing is more than good enough for road/commuter use IMO, not good enough for a winter MTB or winter commuter that lives outside though, but then no loose ball would be that I can think of.
Cane Creak C1 were a fiver each on chain reaction last year, I bought 4 of them. Still on the first headset, think the lower cup is steel rather than alloy but it has a low/medium stack height, the same sealed cart bearings you see in just about all good (FSA/VP etc) 1" headsets and an extra little o ring seal on both cups. For a fiver, even for £20/25 I'd buy them all day long.
Now cartridge?
Hmmm, may have to consider one of those, as finding a 6400 is proving difficult. Is it easy to spot the difference in bearing type when buying the A9?
Stronglight A9 is the needle bearing unit? Very high quality, and sealing is more than good enough for road/commuter use IMO, not good enough for a winter MTB or winter commuter that lives outside though, but then no loose ball would be that I can think of.
Cane Creak C1 were a fiver each on chain reaction last year, I bought 4 of them. Still on the first headset, think the lower cup is steel rather than alloy but it has a low/medium stack height, the same sealed cart bearings you see in just about all good (FSA/VP etc) 1" headsets and an extra little o ring seal on both cups. For a fiver, even for £20/25 I'd buy them all day long.