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I recently bought my son a 26 inch Luath as he's grown out of his 24 inch.
The bike is in great nick apart from it needs a new headset, I took it apart to grease it up and it looks like the former keeper let lots of water in there, very corroded and the bearing didn't to want to come out of the cups, I've greased it as best I can but still grinding.
Does the Luath take any standard 1 1/8th headset, don't want to re-fit the same as Islabikes put in as I've heard the bearings they use aren't sealed very well.
Sorry for being a bit dim.
The stock Islabike ones aren't great, but they *are* very cheap. Personally, I'd just get another OEM one and not worry too much if it only lasted a year or so - any aftermarket one you buy will cost a load more and you almost certainly won't be better off for it.
FYI, the last one I bought for a Beinn 24 (same headset, IIRC) was £10, shipped.
No such thing as a standard headset really...
https://blue.canecreek.com/headset-fit-finder
Most adult bikes come with pretty poor headsets for the UK as well.
Replaced both the kids ones (one to fit a tapered fork the other because it was seizing) .. with Hope.
I pulled mine off two bikes to replace the bearings on the FSA ones a few weeks ago and they were pretty horrid...conversely, I had to pull kids for off last weekend for fork service and cleaned the headset .. but it was pristine... I cleaned and regressed but it was really more because it was off...
Took your advice dearn and rang Islabikes up, £10 shipped, I'm pretty careful when washing the bike so fingers crossed it'll last.
A section of inner tube stretched around the lower cups seals it well.
A section of inner tube stretched around the lower cups seals it well.
Agreed, although weirdly, it's always been the upper bearing that has failed first on our Islabikes. No idea why - probably from washing and being poorly sealed. I've only ever changed a couple (never tended to keep the bikes long enough to wear them out!) so never took any special care over them.