Just bought some of these to put on my new Surly Crosscheck. Can’t get the top cup to press fully home – using a Park cup press (basic one- not the expensive workshop one). Have fitted loads of headsets in my time, but tried 3 times to get this feker flush (even trid some lube). No way is it going to go fully home, leaving a finger nail gap between top cup and headtube.

Bought SS bottom bracket before an it failed after a month – tried to return on the 2 yr warranty only to be knocked back with the suggestion that I must be an inept ****. So thought I would check with headset

CHeers – buy cheap buy twice

there’s a tool, I think:

Is the gap eevn all way round? If not the headtube may be on the piss and need faceing/reaming?

I will never buy SSC stuff again.

Is there sufficiant space on the inside of the headtube for the cup to press in? some head tubes have a certain depth milled away, if the ss h/set has a deeper cup than the frame has milled it might be this that’s causing it to stand proud?

for what it’s worth i have bought plenty of things through superstar and will continue to do so as none have failed on me and some have exceeded OE parts.

I fitted a cheap FSA headset to my Cross Check without having the headtube faced or reamed out. Admittedly its a different headset but I would expect the problem lies with the cup rather than the headtube. Surly frames in my experience are simple in design but pretty well made and seem to accept a range of headset cups from different manufacturers.

Superstar Uno headsets are pretty shallow so I wouldn’t think it’s bottoming out on the inside of the headtube. FWIW I’ve bought several over the last year or so and fitted them all with the hammer/block of wood technique pretty easily and with no problems.

thanks to everyone for replying – don’t think it is head tube as Surly frames are faces prior to painting and all they really need is any paint scraped off with a stanley blade. I have ordered a Cane Creek – hope this works

Cheers

Should have bought Chris King! 😉

Just bought a Crosscheck frame & suntour NRX forks. Fitted a Chris King head set by hand. No press needed. I froze the bearings for a few hours in bottom of freezer. Prepped the headtube by using P220 grade emery cloth. Smoothed off the edges of the tube and rounded the inside edge a little. I also smoothed the inside of the tube where the bearings fit.

I had read loads on how to do the next bit – Should bearing surfaces be lubed? Should a press be used? Should the head tube be faced? All very important considerations. But I decided having a go myself and being careful in the process was more enjoyable and rewarding.

As I have a removal tool just in case it goes wrong I thought I would chance my arm. Anyway I pressed the first frozen bearing in by hand a few mil and realised with a bit of extra pressure it would go further. I tapped it in purposefully and quickly with a 12″ length of 2×4 and it seated perfectly. No gaps. I did the same for the bottom bearing. Again no problems.

I fitted the crown race to the forks alloy steerer using the 2×4 and tapping gently around the race bit by bit, watching that one side doesn’t drop too far off the horizontal as it went on. Seated perfectly.

Finally I clean up the bottom bracket of all the metal filings and hand fitted a Hope BB bearing set to see if it fits ok. Went in very easily.

The important thing to remember is do not use too much force when fitting things together, whether it is a headset bearing or a threaded BB fitting. If you are using too much effort stop, take a step back and if necessary seek advice from you LBS.

BTW I bought the frame from Wiggle and I’m very pleased with it so far. 🙂

+1 for the hammer and block of wood technique.
ive fitted dozens over the years with no problems,
might be worth trying to hit it before you spend any more money.

Could be a large machined radius on the headset cup flange preventing it bottoming.

In defence I have just had a nightmare of a job getting my Chris King headset onto my new 2011 Talas fork. The rock tool eventually did the job.

It just slid off my old Fox fork!

MM