no love for the “old” king headset design from me with the “o” ring top cap design (patent issues prevented the use of the Dia Compe ‘aheadset’ design that all other headset manufacturers seemed to use without issue / paying a royalty)
did not appreciate the headset constantly working loose, creaking, moving and top cap deeply scoring the steerer tube of my expensive forks
yes, king were beautifully made, and had lovely bearings, really liked their manufacturing / company ethos;
but based on the short life of both the “old” King headsets I owned, and the experience of many of my customers, and the poor warranty support we all received from the UK distributor, it was an item I could never recommend for aftermarket sales or custom bike builds
if their newer design using the compression ring under the top cap has solved this issue (it should have) I cannot comment as I have no experience with the newer model.
since the bike industry diversified with seemingly, a zillion different headset combos, people seem to run whatever actually fits, rather than worrying about the quality of the headset
with many of the modern frames running internal headsets (many carbon frames using bearings seated straight to the head tube or bearing seat), I would say that a regular routine of dropping the fork, wiping off moisture/dirt and and smear of anti-seize is more beneficial in the long term.
