I bought my Chris King nothreadset back in 2005. Its been on two frames since then, but has never been serviced. partly because i didnt even consider that you needed to service it, and largely because its been perfect all this time. Now its starting to play up. feels a bit grabby. i am about to strip it down. I am trying to prepare myself for what i will find. is this just the end of the natural life of the headset? i notice that unlike say Hope, you cant seem to buy any spare bearing sets. so i spose if the bearing are ragged, then i will need to replace the whole thing.

if it needs anything, just pop the seals with a stanley knife blade, then either repack with good grease if dry, or degrease and flush before repacking if particularly full of grit.

what stoner said.

I’ve done that with mine. make sure you dry it properly after flushing.

Did mine yesterday for the first time in 6 years as an annoying creak had developed – everything was still spot on so a quick wipe & a smidge more grease in each end & job’s a good ‘un.

Turns out the creak was actually from a shifter cable…… :-/

thanks for the encouragement chaps. Even the Chris King website says [to paraphrase], pop the caps off, clean and re-grease.
I have done so, and currently all is well. The bearings didnt look too badly pitted, but were not perfect. all seems fine after the re-grease.

I was about to moan, why not proper sealed bearing? but then re-greasing every 6 years isn’t too bad is it.

I am not entirely convinced how good those seals will be now.

Pull it apart, clean it, grease it, put it back together (in the right order of course) all with the deft touch of a nimble fingered sweat shop sewer.

yep, do it. it’s so easy i can do it

tis done. 😀