I’ve picked up a nice second hand 2015 Genesis Core 30 which I’m tidying up as a winter bike. It’s all pretty standard stuff needs doing that I’ve done before and I’m happy with, except for the headset.

It comes with this as standard: FSA Orbit ITA-B Reducer (1-1/8″ Steerer) here but has standard ball bearing races which are grindy as all heck. The top one is 1-1/8″ the bottom is 1.5″ as it can fit a tapered fork steerer (current forks are straight steerer).

The cup that sits on top of the fork crown is pretty much welded in place so I’m probably going to have to cut that off. I don’t want to replace like for like as I can’t actually find it for a sensible amount of money (less than £60 – the bike cost £145!) but would like cartridge bearings.

Basically, what can I replace it with, or what do I need to know to work out what to replace it with?

Any help or experience in this would be appreciated.

Cheers

Have a look on the Hope site mate,I think they have a good diagram explaining it all. Even if you don’t buy a Hope one.

You keeping the straight steerer forks?

Someone will come along tomorrow and tell you exactly the sizes you need….but in the meantime, you need to work out stack height. If you have a tonne of steerer it doesn’t matter too much but if the steerer is pretty short it might.

Stack height being the amount of height the head set adds to the length of the head tube basically. It varies a lot even within the same brand.

Oh, check out super star for head sets,I fitted one to the Winter Bizango I built up last year. Plenty of other “value” brands around too.👍

Have a read of this to understand the various headset options and how they’re specified in the SHIS code:

https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/standardized-headset-identification-system

Then measure up your frame and fork and plug the numbers in here:

http://www.canecreek.com/headset-fit-finder

…and it’ll spit out the SHIS code you want to shop for 🙂

+1 for Superstar btw. You can mix/match upper and lower cups with them to get the headset spec you need.

Ah, you guys are awesome, thanks. Really useful links from you tomparkin and great shout on the Superstar components idea from you both.

Bit more measuring to do then I think I’m good.

Cheers