Hello fellow bikers!

I have a standard 9/8′ Hope Headset (threadless)and have just replaced both bearings with identical replacement Hope races. The bottom race & cups are a perfect flush fit, but strangely the top race & cups are not. I’ve tried several times to get a snug tight refit on the top set but cannot. I have diagnosed the problem to be the silver split collar ring that fits on top of the upper race, which does not quite want to fit down into the cup, leaving it raised about 2mm too high, meaning there is an exposed gap of 2mm of upper set. This will allow debries to get in. Without causing any damage, I have tried everything I can think off to get that ring to sit deeper in the set, but can’t.

Has anyone else had simular problems with Hope Headsets?
Greenbikerider.

No problems here but I did find Hope helpful when I’ve had historic queries with their kit. ? email photo to them

Bearing fitted upside down ?

The big chamfer on the inner race should face up.

OK, thanks guys. Dave, I pretty sure I fitted the bearing right way up, but I will double check tonight.

Otherwise, I will email Hope with a pic. (although it took them 3 weeks to reply, the last time I did!)

GBR.

Under the top cap, there’s a number of thin silver washers. These can be added or removed to fine tune the fit. How any of these do you have in and where?

Onzadog: All three washers are fitted just under the top cover. I never really thought about them! If I remove them all, they make little difference – still big gap.
Dave: Bearing is fitted correct way up.
I’ve also tried squeezing the split collar smaller, and even put it in my freezer for a while (in the hope *no pun* it would slightly contract smaller, in case it was not fully bedding down onto race).

I’ll show a local workshop to see what they think.
Simple yet odd problem, eh?
GBR.

Swap the bearings over so the top one is in the bottom cup. See if the gap follows the bearing or stays with the cup. If won’t solve it but will help us work out what is happening.

Is it still the same fork? Have you spotted this during assembly or did you actually preload the headset and it was still there?

Success!! I nearly did not bother to, but I tried your suggestion of swaping the bearings over. It worked! With the previous ‘top’ bearing swapped into the bottom/crown cup, it fitted perfectly, with only a very slight gap (less than 0.5mm? I can live with that!) resulting. The top race is a seal tight fit. It looks like the race that moved from top to crown was very slightly wrong size. Using digital calipers to measure, this race is very slightly too thick/high.

As a purchased (matching?) pair of bearings from Hope, I’m surprised they do not perfectly match exactly, but thankfully my lower/crown cup is slightly more roomy to accomodate.

My steering has never felt smoother and better :o)))

Greenbikerider.