I’m thinking of trying an 1 or 1.5 degree angled headset to lengthen the wheelbase of my Yeti 575.

Just after some real life reports of how much difference they make.

I have the -1 degree works component headset on my enduro , and I couldnt tell any difference in the way it rode. There must have been some difference , but I’m probably too ham fisted to detect it. I’m sure others who are more sensitive would be able to tell.

It was no problem to fit though.

I’ve just noticed there are a few more threads on this topic… Oooops sorry 😳

Julians

That’s what i’m thinking… will I actually notice any difference for the cost hassle of fitting etc?

That’s what i’m thinking… will I actually notice any difference for the cost hassle of fitting etc?

I think that depends a little bit on you. I slacked my Pace 405 by 2? and that made a very obvious difference – to be honest, part of my motivation was that I got very used to riding a Ragley, which is pretty slack and, on more conventional bikes like the Pace, I found it hard to adjust the steering effort, so I was forever over correcting and over steering when I swapped bikes. Two degrees is very obvious, one degree is less obvious, but still makes a difference imo. Saar, who makes custom anglesets, reckons less than one degree isn’t really noticeable fwiw.

I posted this on another thread this morning:

I haven’t ridden Hora’s ride/steed/rig, but I have a Works Components -1? headset fitted to my blithering ti singlespeed hardtail and I’d say that it makes a subtle but detectable difference. It’s a little hard to judge as when I singlespeeded it, I also changed a bunch of other things, notably dropping the front end as much as I could, but it’s taken a little nervousness out of the steering on steep descents (the geometry is early Marin Rocky Ridge) plus, though this is less clear, it’s also steepened the seatpost angle a little so it climbs slightly better – that said, flipping the stem and fitting ‘flat’ risers had a more noticeable impact.

I have another bike with -2? and that made a really big difference. One this you find with messing with the head angle is that it also changes a bunch of other things… so, BB height drops very slightly, seat angle steepens, though you can maybe compensate for this with saddle movement fore and aft and also maybe an inline/layback post, front end will be slightly lower with the same AC height to the fork, you may need a shorter stem to keep the steering from going barge-like and, because of the way the head-set works, the cockpit will also be slightly shorter as the steerer is angled back towards you – the more spacers below the stem are fitted, the more pronounced that’ll be, I guess.

That’s all far more noticeable if you take 2? off though. I went from a 90mm stem to a 50mm, I think, but that was too much even with the slackened head, going to stick a 70mm stem on, which I think will be about right.