My friend's Giant TCR headset "snaps in" and locks whem pointing forward. It's his father old bike so he doesn't know exactly how long it did this.
Never seen something similar, what's going on? The click is so precise and centered that it may seems feature, but it would make absolutely nosense IMHO and it seems dangerous to me.
by zibolo
9 Comments
Time for new headset bearings. Years ago a bike I borrowed from my brother did this same thing and it was super sketchy to ride it like that.
Yup – the BB’s dented the race and now that’s their favorite position:)
We call this indexed steering. 🙂
Technically I believe it’s known as brinelling, where the ball bearings hammer and dent the races. Once this happens the bearings always want to fall into those little dents and you get this kind of behavior.
This is often caused by a slightly loose headset and enough bumps to allow the bearings to dent the races.
If you keep your headset adjusted properly, this is much less likely to happen.
The fix is to replace the races, if not the entire headset.
Happened to my Fuji after I was forced to store it outside in college. New headset and BB fixed it right up. Wheel bearings seemed to survive somehow.
[False brinelling](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_brinelling) from riding a lot. Badge of honor, but new headset time!
>The click is so precise and centered that it may seems feature…
Not a feature. This is usually an indication that one or both headset cups are damaged, so a new headset is usually needed.
That got way too tight…
I can’t tell what the headset type is.
So…take it apart, take the forks out, clean it up, look at the bearing races carefully and repack it and adjust it properly…and see if it functions ok again…
Maybe a new headset is in order.
You can always just readjust it to see how it goes…but it’s best to see if anything else is the cause…it’s important to know, especially with your steering on a bike…so look at it all…all apart and clean..including the fork.
Bearing race is pitted. Have seen this on many bikes that spend time on rooftop bike racks. The constant vibration while the headset is stationary contributes to this.
Severely indexed headset. Best fix is to replace those cartridge bearings.
One hack is to remove the bearings. Next step is to turn the inner part of the bearings 90 degrees, while keeping the outside part still. This can usually move the balls away from races they’ve worned into. Final step is to re-install those bearings. It’ll take you 5 minutes to do this, and you’ll know within 5 seconds if this works.
This hack has worked for me 100 percent of the time with old school cage bearings. I vaguely remember sucessfully doing it with indexed sealed bearings, but may have imagined this.