Hope to Cane Creek S8 headset…upgrade, downgrade or about the same?

Surely a headset is a headset? I’ve had the very cheapest brand x ones last ages and ages and the top bearings never go. Just very very occasionally replace a lower one. Cane Creek headsets are fairly decent in my experience - had a 40 I think it was - for 3 years and it felt the same when I sold the frame as it did when I bought it.

Agreed Cane Creek are good. I have an S3 headset on my tourer built in 2008. Thousands of miles with nothing but a bit of grease any time I took the fork off for packing to fly.

Cane Creek high end stuff is really, really nice.

is this an upgrade? Downgrade? Or is it about the same?

Out the box the only discernable difference is bling, if you consider that an up or downgrade then it's personal choice.

A 1.125 headset is likely not on original bearings by this point anyhow so any bets as to whether one is actually any good or not are off, there is in practice a good chance the bearings in one are identical to those in the other and that either out both are good/crap.

S8 was at the expensive end of Cane Creeks' offerings when new (it predates the 20/40/110 series headsets).

However as above if it's not on the original bearings, that's mostly moot.

Cheap-ish and nice black headset: https://www.tredz.co.uk/.M-Part-Elite-1-1-8-inch-Threadless-Headset_45202.htm

Thanks for the replies all

Being my first bike build I was after getting some nice parts for it, still have a bit of time as there’s no takers for the Hope just yet, is very much a case of sell that first, then look at others

Have seen some new cane creek 40 headsets for not much money so thinking that might be a way to go, also eyeing up the gusset S2 offerings,

Ideally, just after something that’s not going to need constant attention, fit and forget if you will

I have a 40, IMO it's not anywhere near as good as a Hope. Or an FSA Pig Pro for that matter. I'm actually disappointed with mine.

2 reasons, all centred on the crown race:

1) The race is stupidly tight, I had a nightmare trying to get it onto my forks and gave up trying to get it off.

2) The seal is utter crap. A year or so after fitting it had evidently been letting water by and the inside was an orange mess. Sure, it's just a splash shield but it couldn't even do that right.

My Hope races, on the other hand, can be fitted by hand and the seal actually does its job. You can bodge on a Hope crown race (same angle) but it's still not a good seal, I figure I'd rather let any moisture out easily and live with it till the bearing dies then I'll probably replace it with another Hope. My Pig Pro is also clean and pristine at 18 years old!

The s8 was fine, no better or worse than the hope one. If we are talking straight 1⅛ like your hope one in classifieds it uses the same bearings anyway. In a similar vein you could improve the lower s3 by putting s8 or hope bearings into it. But as above if serving hand check it does have the original bearings or proper replacement, be very easy to stick the cheaper bearings in and sell as the higher model. You can also use the hope crown race on the s models.

Headsets are one area where IME Hope is utterly worth it. I've never had an issue with any Hope headset.

I'm using Acros top headset with Hope lower on my current MTBs, but only because I wanted their 'blocklock' capability to stop bar/controls hitting each other. It's bobbins in comparison (plastic bits FFS) but at least being the upper it's less suspectible to muck etc.

The Nukeproof headset I fitted to Mrs a11y's hardtail was great for the price.