Restoring an old Marin bear valley, replaced the old threaded headset with a new cheapo Neco one I purchased off Amazon. Set the cups in through the DIY threaded rod and washer method. Seems even and flush with the frame. Also using a thread-less quill stem converter so I can run modern stem / handlebars.
When turning the stem 90 or full 360 degrees, there is a slight noise. It’s not very loud, but it’s there and definitely not present on my more modern threaded headset on my other bike. Believe I installed all the bearings in the correct way and the crown race is set correctly, although it was done with a flat head and a mallet. Only thing I can think is something is too tight, not enough grease, or it’s just a shitty cheap headset. Thoughts?
by LabAdept1139
2 Comments
I have a similar Marin and I had to face the headtube and crown race seat to finally make the headset happy.
Good practice to do those things when rebuilding a bike anyhow
Headset also looks too tight to begin with. Back it off a touch, you only want to just take out any play with just a tiny bit of preload
From here, it looks like the headset looks way too tight, even for fresh grease. Or, maybe you have a retainer bearing upside down. It *looks* like it’s taking more effort than it should to rotate the fork,