With all the different headtube~headset configurations out there nowadays, just thought I would throw this question out there and ask what do people actually prefer?

Is it a case of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and people still prefer the traditional press fit style headetube/headset (and all that’s associated with it – e.g. facing, headset press (or blocks of wood & mallet for most people)).

Or do you think internal/integrated (no tools required) is the way forward?

I’d be interested to know what people think.

Thanks for reading/responding.

Integrated is much better, Much less hassle

Anything that uses the frame as a bearing surface is a nightmare.

The most flexible would be my choice. So 44mm?

Press fits are hardly hassle. Just took me 20 mins to knock out an old headset with an old seatpost, knock the new one in with a block of wood and fit the crown race with some old plastic pipe. sorted.

wwaswas
+1

On a steel frame I’d prefer integrated – looks neat and dead easy to fit but as wwaswas says it might not be ideal on an alu frame designed for hard use. I love the look of an oversized head tube on an alu frame so reckon I’d go for 44mm too – spot on for tapered or 1 1/8 use. I’ve had a couple of frames now with 1.5mm head tubes and always used a reducer headset (1.5 steerer forks are pretty cheap now but there is very little stem choice – a thing of the past I reckon).

Standard headset I would choose a frame with this over the other designs. I like my bars high and some of the zero stack headsets make the bars low as I would want plenty of spacers under and they look stupid with zero stack headsets and quite a few 1’1/8 spacers under them. Even more so if they are oversized.

Not really an issue fitting them, lump of wood does the job easy enough for me, brass drift for the headset crown or to knock the old one out. Buy a decent headset and as long as you don’t change frames then its not something you will be doing much at all really.

A lot to be said for inch and an eighth.

Shops have facing tools
Loads of headsets
Factorys good at making them
Integrated in steel adds a LOT of weight, OK for bmx, but heavy for MTB
Wont take tapered forks, but Lyrics come in straight steerer.
Never been very convinced about sealing on bmx style integrated headsets
Works Components can make a 1deg inch eighth angleset

I’m keeping inch and an eighth on our on one steel frames now, but will do 44mm on some higher end steel stuff and tapered on ti, alloy and carbon.

Integrated – easier for sure, what happens when the faces corrode?

Quite happy with press-fit, but ignore me, I never buy new stuff 😛

It aint broke dont need to fix…..

A vote for 44mm here too.

Pressfit and 1.5 tube pls. The standard that can incorporate all standards without inventing any new bloomin standards.

The standard that can incorporate all standards without inventing any new bloomin standards.

nowt wrong with what we have IMHO it is just an attempt to convince us we need something new like 10 speed to sell stuff. Obviously it needs to be sufficiently different so everyone can tell my stuff is newer than theirs.
Press fit is better as it can be sorted if there is an issue…it means I can swap my forks between bikes by using the same headset as well ..do all integrated have the same crown race or would there be lots of different standards for that as well?
OP you might need to make both given this debate 😕

From what I can make out from Cotic the 44mm head tube on their new Solaris frame that the tester gave up after 500,000+ on the CEN test as they got bored (or something. figure might be wrong but it was definitely a factor of 10 on the required iterations. Can’t remember if it was a thread on here or on FB ).
Seems that the bigger head tube helps a lot in that regard.
I might have got hold of the wrong end of the stick though…
Edit: as it’s a 29er I’m gonna need new forks anyway so the fact i can get a cheap pair of reba’s off brants lot is a big plus 🙂

44mm deep cup.

jam bo, that’s a great cartoon but 1.5’s an old standard, it just happens to be able to cover every single standard that’s come out before or since. Downsides are that it can be ugly, and in steel it’s a little heavy.

Hijack… Mike, sent some nice things away this week for some nice people to play on.
Will update you next week or so.

Monday morning bump 😉

mike, what you thinking of getting made now? 🙂
love the stay strong bmx

I’d still go for Std or semi-integrated for MTB – but I think a 1.5 tube it the way forward as you can fit any steerer combo – my HT has a 1.5 tube with a Hope reducer running a 1.5 and its spot on 🙂 If I want to fit any combo of fork I can 🙂

However a integrated is easier to fit and if you use stainless or ceramic bearings it’ll last ages – just needs more regular servicing on an MTB.