Are they really a bugger to get out without the need of a vice – also what would be best to replace it with.

Mine was a bit awkward, hard to get a good blow on the bottom race, but it did come out (2nd gen medium).

Wasn’t very replaced with the Smoothie headset, the bottom bearing was getting a little rough on mine after around 10 rides, unimpressed. I switched over to a Works Components headset though so can’t really comment on standard replacements.