Recently it seems that Chris King headsets have developed a reputation in some parts for scuffing/scoring the steerer tube.
Can people who have used King headsets, or who have experience of them as bike mechanincs, tell me whether the damage a superficial scuff or a more serious score.
The setup in question will be a Genesis i0 and Rock Shox Revelation 426 forks. The forks will be run at 100mm most of the time. I already have the King headset (came off another bike). Would I be better just using it, or saving myself the trouble further down the line and buying a different headset?
Ive got kings on all 5 of my bikes, running 100mm on my DJ / 4x bikes, 130mm on my freeride bike, 100 - 160mm on my XC bike and 200mm triple clamps on my DH bike and i have never encountered any kind of scoring.
I have/had issues with 2 headsets/steerers
1) Marzocchi Z1 FR1s (150mm) on my Turner RFX. On holiday in Canada the headset was working loose on a daily basis (admittedly bloody hard riding) I had a score maybe 0.25mm deep on my steerer. More than enough to feel if you rubbed your finger across it. I sold the headset when I got new forks, now have a Hope, which has been trouble free.
2) Pace RC41s (130mm) on my Soda. Not working loose or knocking (yet), but there's a ring where the anodising on the steerer has been rubbed off. That headset will be going too when I get new forks.
Both bikes had Thomson Elite stems on. In the Turner case, the star fangled nut was getting slowly dragged out the steerer tube from the leverage. (I have an SFN setting tool that inserts the thing to a set depth, when I got back from Whistler I had to bang the nut back down the steerer by 1/4" or so)
If the SFN is getting dragged out of the steerer it indicates the Thomson stem isn't gripping the steerer properly, as the top cap is just for setting initial bearing pre-load.
Yes my king headsets have scored the fork steerers. A load of stuff on this on MTBR, but basically king don't use the split-washer system of the original aheadset design (which incidently requires a license fee) and uses a rubber o-ring instead to clamp the steerer. This isn't as robust as the split-washer design, and after a period of time will score the steerer. I'm gradually moving away from kings as a result.