Wear and tear is one thing, I’ve had a Genesis Vapour since February and the headset has gone, can feel it grinding and the steering is twitchy. Should this be replaced under warranty or do I just have to wear it?

Unfortunately headsets are one of those things that manufacturers often skimp on, as no-one sees them.

Bearings are normally excluded as being a “wear and tear” item. I still think they should last longer than 8 months though.

You’re not alone. Was quite shocked to learn a few months back that my LBS replaces all headsets on that particular brand by default before they let them leave the shop.

Depends on how often its ridden in the wet, how often its been cleeaned and regreased.
I’d take it apart and see if you can just clean the crap out of the bearings and re-grease.

You might get it replaced with another if you push it, but it’d probly be replaced with another crapper…
Good excuse to upgrade it to a better one tbh..ask your LBS if they’ll fit it for free if you buy a decent one.

My Cane Creek on a new Trek lasted 3 rides before the bearings gave in. I just considered it to be a crap headset as said ‘ hidden cost cutting’ and fitted a Hope one which was fine for a couple of years, until i broke the bike to sell.

It’s kinda annoying I find, I mean it’s not like I don’t understand why they do it.. as has been said it’s ‘hidden’ and most bike buyers probably wont ride it enough to knacker the bearings anyway- it’ll just sit in the shed.

What’s annoying though is with modern headsets it’s not a simple task of determining what is needed unless you buy an identical replacement POS one. Even when I phoned Hope about a replacement headset for my old trek E2 tapered steerer they said they thought they had the correct one but to be sure I needed to take it out and measure the tube diameters.

Big-up Cotic for offering upgraded headsets with their bikes for people who care about this stuff

Of about the 50 or so Orange 5’s I’ve sold over the years about 48 of them spent the extra £50 on hope skewers/seat clamp/coloured rotors .And the other 2 upgraded the £10 loose bearing headset to a hope one.
After a couple of months the majority of the 48 spent £70 plus another £20 fitting on a hope headset.

The other thing is that sometimes it undermines the brands- frinstance, my cross bike came with an “FSA Orbit” so at first I assumed it was up to that standard, then I opened it up and discovered it was a barely-sealed, race-and-cage headset rather than sealed cartridges. Now knowing that, I looked after it and it’s still fine but if I’d not, it’d be dead, and if I wasn’t already an FSA fan I’d probably be saying “FSA headsets suck balls!”. Cane Creek do this too. OEM-spec crap that looks like aftermarket quality.

for a start, what headset is it? some headsets (FSA orbit for example) have warranties on the bearings ranging from 2-10 years + it may be a struggle, but if it is one of these, you should be able to at least claim for a new set of cartridge bearings.
If it is a normal loose ball jobbie, then i am surprised you got 8 months use out of it given the summer we’ve had, suck it up and spend £30 on one of the above and rejoice in never having to worry again!

The one i had on my old vapour was pretty rubbish as well, FSA model i think, however it was only loose bearings so if you wanted you could probably just put some new loose bearings in with a wadge of grease and get some more life out of it. Don’t think you’ll get anywhere with the warranty though, no more than you would with brake pads.

Cane Creek on my SC Highball is soon due for the bin. Chris King is waiting in the wings.

There are a lot of cr&ppy headsets around, and the bearings are generally regarded as wear and tear.

FWIW, you can pick up a Cane Creek S8 for about £25 just now, that’s hard to beat- genuinely excellent, and silly price.

Or o’course FSA Orbit II/MX is always a contender too.

I spoke to the Cane Creek distributors and they explained that the OEM headsets used by the bike manufacturers are just branded Cane Creek and made by some other company.

Anyway I spoke to Orange about my Five earlier this year and they agreed to replace it under warranty.

If I wanted to go to a Hope headset I just had to pay the difference which was actually only £35 which I was rather pleased about!

Cane Creek 40 (£27 at merlin) is worth a punt. Really well sealed.

^
Good to hear, I have one of these in my Canyon. I’ve not had a look in it yet, but was assuming it wasn’t up to much.

The stock cotic headset isnt a bad unit either . Sealed bearing cane creek.

You can shag a bearing in one wet ride…year and tear.

I’ve had one in my Fatbike for almost a year now and it still seems perfect.

I replaced the headset on my Genesis after 2 months (felt the same as you described)

I bought a hope one, since even if I could get it done under warranty, it would end up being like for like replacement. Which I didn’t want since the sealing on the stock headset was piss poor by design.

Al you can shag a crap bearing in onewet ride….

Mine is currently like this and its down to poor maintenance rather than a warranty issue. If a cup had broken then that could be a warranty

have you dropped the fork and cleaned out around the lower bearing?

When my SS one in the C456 gets a bit grindy after some heavy mud rides I just need to drop the forks, clean out all the grit in the grease outside the bearing, regrease and off it goes smooth as silk again. If I didn’t use grease on the outside of the bearing I probably wouldn’t get grit stuck there but it’s there to protect the bearing from worse.

mcboo

Wear and tear is one thing, I’ve had a Genesis Vapour since February and the headset has gone, can feel it grinding and the steering is twitchy. Should this be replaced under warranty or do I just have to wear it?

How often have you cleaned/serviced/regreased it in this time period? have you jet washed it or submerged it? If it’s a Chris King, fair enough. If it’s a cheapo headset, no.

a lot of OE headsets have open bearings rather than sealed cartridges. Munqe Chick’s Cube has one (FSA). Lower race needs cleaning and lubing regularly to keep it working, if I’d left it since Feb it would have been seized solid by July…

Agree with Northwind on the perils of companies making low-end OE kit, I would never have any FSA or Ritchey kit on any of my bikes as I associate them with cost-cutting OE, the stuff that gets replaced by another brand, even though having thumbed through an Extra catalogue Ritchey sell some very high end kit.

How often have you cleaned/serviced/regreased it in this time period? have you jet washed it or submerged it?

Never and no….its my commuter.

My LBS going to fit something workmanlike with sealed steel bearings.

Never and no….its my commuter.

I’d say you were lucky it’s lasted this long, tbh.

Wettest summer for how many decades…water spraying twice daily from your front tire in to the headset?

It’s not rocket science. And all headset bearings are steel BTW.