Anyone tried one of these?:

1 degree 1-1/8″ head tube fitting anglset

And if so are they worth getting?
Easy to fit?
make much difference to the bike?

I think that is the one I fitted to my Soul. To me, it made a difference. Bike seems more stable at speed and downhill is less stressful and more fun. I needed to make a few adjsutments to the bike set up after it was fitted, but nothing much. The very helpful mechanic at my LBS fitted it for me. You need to read the instructions carefully, but he didn’t think it was as tough a job as he imagined.

The only thing I would question is how you change the bearings (should you need to) as they seem to be fixed in the cups.

I have one. They are great, does what it says on the tin.

You do need to take care when fitting it. It is (obviously) important that the cups are aligned correctly with the centreline of the frame. Personally I’d get a LBS that you trust to fit it for you.

I got one last year. Highly recommended.

There is a noticeable difference in the way the bike handles. One degree slacker calmed down a nervous handling bike and it is now a much more enjoyable ride.

LBS fitted it as I didn’t want to use the hammer/block of wood method on a Ti frame. They did say that they had a tough time getting the cups lined up perfectly, though they are perfectionists.

Anyone actually installed one themselves? I fancy one of these for my 2009 5spot but not really sure which angle to go for 1,1.5,2!?

Bike mechanic struggled to line up- ending up putting the top cup plum line slightly off centre to make it work.. Plus the cups are quite tall (think Chris King)

Anyone actually installed one themselves? I fancy one of these for my 2009 5spot but not really sure which angle to go for 1,1.5,2!?

Don’t they only do a 1deg headset for 1 1/8th HT’s?

Why not try offset bushes?

doofdoof – I could be wrong but thought I could get any of them with it being a medium – i.e. shorter head tube

Hora – looked at those, but seem to remember hearing about clearance issues on a 5 spot – have yuo seen both in action as the offset bushes seem a bit more straight forward

From the website:

If you wish to purchase an angular headset there are a number of options. Please first choose the required angle (note 1 1/8″ fitment is only available in 1.0 degree’s)

aha! Now more intestested in those bushings

I’ve been eyeing up offset bushes too and will probably get some before I go for an angleset but I’m also interested in anything that might aid me with increasing the the slackness, From my rudimentary fag-packet maths I think I can get the rear axle to sit 9.8mm further into it’s travel using eccentric bushes, what this equates to in HA terms I’m not sure at the minute I need to do some measuring currently its ~66 degrees, if the bushes get me in the area of ~64 that could well be plenty…

I’ll admit the Alignment requirements for an Angleset also put me off a bit too, do the cups come with any features to aid alignment?
I seem to remember an earlier (I think from K9) angleset specifically for the Sunday required a small notch to be made in either end of the head tube…

I suppose you’ll always have these issues when trying to get one round thing pressed into another round thing in a very specific orientation, but a fixture or jig to help might well entice more people to buy them…

The headset’s come with notches to help eye them in.

When fitting mine, rather than use the headset press to push them in – which had the effect of rotating the cup – we used (well, Big Al at the lbs) the press upside down to pull the cups in place so there was no rotating force on the cups. Once we did that lining them up was pretty much a doddle.

I had one on my 5 spot and it made a difference, much more stable at speed. Worthwhile IMO, but for a 1/3 of the price, those bushings probably make more sense to most.

I’ve emailed the fella mentioned in this old review on SDH

I’ll see what he comes back with.

from what I can tell most people seem to see a 1~1.5 degree reduction in HA so about the same as the angleset would achieve, but I suppose it all depends on the frames layout and leverage rate…

Kevins’ good.

Get a pair of offset bushes. Fit just the lower shock mount one first. Take for a ride. Then fit the upper one if you feel abit more?

They helped me with my confidence (the bike made me feel nervous on descents). The offsets made me feel (only subtle) a bit more relaxed.

Cheers, What size are your shock mounts Hora (M6 or M8)?

I’m reasonable comfortable on the bike as it is, I really just want a bit more stability on steep sections.

My shock mounts are M8 top, M6 Bottom, so I’m assuming I can have more offset in the lower mount (~2mm?)…

Temped to get one of those 1 1/8th slackers – it will slacken the 222 out a bit, without the tyre-buzz…

I’d speak to Kevin on that- hes pretty clued up and good. The machining is spot on.

Tempted by some offset bushes here too. Any recommendations on the best place to get them?

Burgtech do some Titanium ones (For ~£45 I think), and I found some other fella knocking about on a forum who was adamant that HE30 was more than up to the job (but I’m not convinced), TBH I’ll be happied with Stainless so I’ve emailed the fella who’s email address is at the bottom of the SDH review I linked above as he’s apparently done these for a few people now…

If I get some I’ll maybe pop up a mini review…

if I don’t get sufficient Slackness then maybe the Works components cups will be the next investment…

I’ve got 2 degree reducers from Works in 2 bikes now. Fab kit, not even very expensive for what they are. Only downside is that the bearings are exposed- they take Cane Creek S3 bearings so decent quality and not expensive, but I do go through top ones a bit more than I’m used to.

I had a set of Steamer offset bushings but the holes ovalled in both after not very much use at all. That was an 8mm kit with 2mm of offset on each- I think the combination of soft aluminium and quite a small wall on the hole was too much. Not a bad concept but they didn’t work for long.

Also do remember that they won’t work in all frames, my Hemlock doesn’t have the spare clearance to allow it in 120mm mode frinstance.

Anybody fitted one in a remedy 09 with the tapered headtube,Been thinking about one for a while now.

Do the offset bushes also slacken the seat tube angle?

I was thinking of a works headset for my 2005 Heckler as I want a slacker HA but don’t want to lose anything off the SA (steeper would be nice).

Am I getting muddled?

Nope Shackleton you are Bob on the SA and HA will both go back with offset shock mounts, where as an angleset will only change HA…

In fact, an angleset-type device will steepen the seat angle slightly.

I fitted one to my epiphany made a headset press using the ladder clams of the van. Bit tuff to line up but made the bike better and more stable.

Oh yes, forgot- I fitted both of mine with my precision headset tool.

I actually bought a “proper” headset press just for the job, but in the end the mallet was better and easier. Very straightforward job, just needed a little patience.

Update – Had an email from Kevin (At 01:18 this morning – does the fella not sleep?)

He believes he can manage offsets of 3mm an M6 and 2mm in an M8 Fox mount (1/2″), by my estimation that makes for some pretty thin walls but I’m willing to trust him on this and go with the maximum available offset at both ends as a bit of an experiment as they are relatively cheap given the current Euro exchange rates.

All together that will take an effective 5mm off the eye to eye length of my shock, not an insignificant number IMO…

You’re happy with what that will do to the BB height?

Happy? Who really knows until I’ve fitted them and tried riding the bike a bit…

I will say this though I’m not fitting these parts to a “Modern” Bike as such, its a ~6+ year old Kona Stab, My “Poor Mans DH Bike”
Kona DH bikes from the late 90’s / Early 00’s being known for their not particularly DH steeper angles and higher BBs, plus it’s not like this will be an irreversible change either…

Fag packet Maths says that the full 5mm reduction in shock length equates to a ~14mm BB drop, but I can choose to only fit one of either the 2mm or 3mm offset bushes, giving ~8.4mm or ~5.6mm BB changes respectively…
On top of all that I’m using 165mm Cranks so I really don’t have an issue with pedal strikes at the minute anyway…
My gut suggests it will work out well, but I want to try and be a bit impirical about it all if I can…

The geek in me means that I’ll probably measure HA, SA, BB Height, wheelbase and anything else that gives an indication of the bikes layout before and after.
It will interest me seeing what actually does change and what real effect this has on the bikes handling…

A lot is written about the angles and geometry of bikes, DH bike in particular have changed radically and gone from having much steeper HAs when they first appeared in the mid 90s to the current lot which seem to typically be in the 64 – 61 degree range…