[Closed] DIY disaster, have I hurt my brand new Nicolai frame!?

+ another for hammer and wood. 😀

How often do folk replace headsets ffs? Is £10 to get a bike shop to do it really that much?!?! If you're friendly with the shop it may even get done for a doughnut!

I think, for most people, even the £1.50 threaded rod, big washers and nuts approach is safer and more controlable. I've done that on all my frames (but I've never spent more than £200 on a frame)

I tried that. It wouldn't go in straight and took too much faffing. I do LIKE hammers though..... 8)

Gotta say, bit of threaded bar & some large washers do the job very well can't see why anyone would spank £35-50 on the "proper tool" unless they were fitting them on a daily basis (i.e. working in a shop)...

Take your time, fit one cup then the other, don't attack it with a hammer, pretty simple really...

on a £1k frame I'd be using the proper tool for the job

.....I only have a £250 frame and I would still rather chuck my LBS a tenner to do it.

[b]Instructions for fitting headset.[/b]

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I just don't understand why everyone is so smug at penny-pinching? It's a risk for your frame and headset durability, and don't even think about having any warranty honoured!

It's a sort of Darwinistic, high risk, tool brinkmanship for me; I generally use a sledge hammer and a brieze block and an anvil I borrowed from the local blacksmith 20 years ago and I've never had any problems getting the head-set to stay straight, though it was slightly gutting when I 'mildly' dented the top of an Indy Fab ti with a slightly wild swing. That said, I'm not convinced that using some overpriced specialiast tool would have made any difference in that case.

Mostly, to be honest, it's about being able to come on here and ridicule anyone lame enough to buy decent quality tools. As some may recall, I also make my own allen keys from mild steel rods and am currently putting together a track pump from drainage tube I bought at B&Q. I honestly don't see why anyone would waste good money on expensive tools when you can simply make your own. Am I missing something here?

Edit: before people accuse me of skimping, I should point out that I do also own a Cyclus head-set press, but where's the excitement in using that?

Mostly, to be honest, it's about being able to come on here and ridicule anyone lame enough to buy decent quality tools

Hell, you wanna see my garage, and my tools (Fnarr fnarr) I've got some fairly specialist and expensive stuff in there. Including a specialist hammer for headset fitting... 8)

Anyhow, the proper headset removal tool works how, exactly....?

Hmm. Let me see.... You don't belt it with a hammer do you....? Nooooo surely not..... 😉

Anyhow, the proper headset removal tool works how, exactly....?

Hmm. Let me see.... You don't belt it with a hammer do you....? Nooooo surely not..

You do indeed but I can speak from experience that it can be a better option than using homemade alternatives... 😳

I've got that Cyclus tool - was under £30 with a voucher - well worth it imo.

I don't know, I just don't understand why people seem to get off on belittling others' choices on here. Yes, you can use a hammer and a block of wood and mostly it'll work. Yes, you can use a head-set press and mostly it'll work. But why all the triumphalist, sneering stuff about how stupid it is to buy a press?

Better to put the headset cup on the floor and then wildly swing the frame at it until it goes in, then you save money on the hammer and bit of wood.
Tend to find the right tools do make things a bit easier and if you spend two grand on a frame then I don't think spending thirty quid on a tool is a bad idea.

The Cyclus one is nice enough. Works better with some than others (totally failed with my Works Industries kit for instance). It's no better than my DIY one, just a wee bit faster in use, you're paying for convenience not results which is fair enough.

Never had any problem with a hammer either but I appreciate some people are cackhanded 😉

I "acquired" a home made headset press whilst a member of a bike club many years ago, it belonged to the club, had been made by the organiser who was also an engineer by trade and he'd machined washers to fit from 1 inch upwards. Borrowed it once, somehow never got returned along with the rocket tool that came as part of the headset tools bag.

Might afford an expensive frame at some point where I go pale at the thought of fitting a headset, but I like bike maintenance, and TBH the only thing I can't do is wheel building, there is something nice about knowing the bike underneath you has been put together by you.

I just find a fault in the Earth's crust, insert frame and headset, wait for the crack to narrow, and after about 6,000,000 years my headset is installed. No pissing about with blocks of wood for me.

Using a hammer to fit a headset isn't 'fitting' it, it's 'getting away with it'

walleater - Member

I just find a fault in the Earth's crust, insert frame and headset, wait for the crack to narrow, and after about 6,000,000 years my headset is installed. No pissing about with blocks of wood for me.

akira - Member

Better to put the headset cup on the floor and then wildly swing the frame at it until it goes in, then you save money on the hammer and bit of wood.

😆

nickc - Member

"Using a hammer to fit a headset isn't 'fitting' it, it's 'getting away with it'"

That really is nonsense... It has more potential to go wrong if you're cackhanded but there's nothing wrong with the approach.

If you are going to put loads of headsets in then the right tool allows you to do it quickly and easily. If like most of us its an occasional thing then a threaded bar with bits of wood or washers will allow you to do it easily and safely if you take a bit of care.

akira - Member

Better to put the headset cup on the floor and then wildly swing the frame at it until it goes in, then you save money on the hammer and bit of wood.

It's not belittling each other, it's mildly ribbing, and suggesting that there is another way to do it. Personally I got my headset fitted by the frame-seller; I got my cranks fitted by the LBS because I couldn't be bothered buying the tools and wasn't confident enough to bodge it.
Chill TF out about people suggesting you don't need tools - they're not belittling your tackle FFS!

[i]I was going to say I've always tapped mine in with a rubber hammer, then the stem cap/star nut does the rest.[/i]

I knew someone was going to say this sooner or later. Quite possibly the stupidest way of pressing the headset into the frame, you're much more likely to pull the threads out of the star nut, pull the star nut out of the steerer, crack the top cap and / or knacker your headset bearings before you can put enough force in the right place to press the headset in adequately.

Yes, you can use a hammer and plank, or jump on it in clogs, or swing the frame repeatedly at the wall, or build your own tools out of earwax and sawdust. But really, most of the time there's a reason people have made tools for this sort of thing. And in this case the [u]best[/u] (though of course not the only) way to do it is to use the right tool for the job. As usual.

: P

2 lumps of wood and a G clamp is a pretty safe bet tbh acts just like a press...

I fitted a 1.5 headset into my carbon frame like that with no problems at all goes in nice and evenly.

walleater - Member

I just find a fault in the Earth's crust, insert frame and headset, wait for the crack to narrow, and after about 6,000,000 years my headset is installed. No pissing about with blocks of wood for me.

I did this and the ****er opened up on me and I lost my very expensive Hope headset down a volcanic fissure.

I'd need to be a very rich man before I'd buy a headset press. I've done many with a bit of wood and a hammer. Patience and care count. Mind you if I ever have an old threaded bar to suit lying about I may make my own press some day.

that cyclus one - seems to be described elsewhere as 1 inch or 1 1/8 (but not 1.5 ??)

If so, I'm out til they bring out a 1 1/8 or 1.5 one

(I use threaded rod & washers but i would buy one of them if it did bigger headsets too)

I'm with PeterPoddy and the others. Spent most of my bike building career doing it with a couple of chunks of wood, a hammer and some care, never once damaged a frame or got one in wonky. Can't really see how you could,especially with a threaded rod method, it's slow and rather obvious long before it gets terminal. Ah well, providing you've not ovalised/scoured too much from the frame material you'll be just fine.

Nicolai frames are notoriously tight for headsets. They are deliberately just fractionally too small so that there is some deformation of the headtube on fitting the cups. This means you get a decent fit no matter how many times you remove and fit them.

So all these suggestions for using bits of wood and a hammer may well work on your average frame but they are not going to work on a Nic.

Get a bloody shop to do it!

geetee: I'll bear that in mind when fitting mine soon....I'll be using a headset press as i work in a bike shop.

If you work in a bike shop you can probably ream and face the headtube with the proper tools then. Which means it will be headtube-size standard. No problem.

: P

I did mine with a couple of blocks of wood, a trolley jack and 2.5 tons of Mercedes van. Jack up back axle, place block of wood, frame, headset cup and other block of wood under towbar rail, steadily lower van.

But this was a £150 456 Summer Season frame. For a frame 6 to 7 times the cost, I'd be buying the proper tool.