I want to upgrade my headset to a Hope, but I have a Recon fork, and whilst I think it's a great fork, the rust off the steerer tube makes the lower headset bearing a beatch to get off the steerer tube. If I spend a fair amount of dosh on a Hope, will it knacker the headset eventually, or is it just surface rust that won't affect the headset?

Im using a King headset on a steel steerer'd Pike. no problemo.

grease on steerer FTW

Clean up the rust and then grease everything when you reassemble. Bearing in hope is easily replaced if the worst happens