How to Overhaul a Bike's Headset

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Travis at Mad Dog Cycles in Provo and we're talking about how to overhaul a headset. First thing first is you want to have the proper tools to remove the fork from the bicycle, in this case we have an allen tool here. You want to have some sort of degreaser, this is basically just a biodegradable degreaser you can get at your home improvement store and grease. Bicycle grease is basically the same stuff, you can get it at any bike shop and for instance this is part PolyLube 1000 with a grease injector makes it much easier to work with. So first you want to remove the stem from the head, you know, from the steer tube. Every bicycle is different, this in case is what they call a threadless headset. Remove the spacers here and pull out the fork from the frame. Now what we have here is actually a cane creek sealed system with a sealed cartridge bearings, you don't have to do much with this but you will have to inspect it. As you can see this guy had some dirt and looks like a little bit of rust inside his headset here. So you have a bearing on top and a bearing down below. You want to get out the lower bearing, as you can see here, it's got a lot on contamination rust on his bearing. Now you make want to go to your local bike shop and buy a new cartridge bearing. This one doesn't feel too bad, we may just want to clean it up, use the proper degreaser and clean it up and then you want to clean up the inside of the cups as well and grease those well, top and bottom and put it back together. Now if you happen to have a traditional old school retainer ball bearings such as this, these are very inexpensive like a dollar fifty each, you can go to your local bike shop and pick these up. If it's still in great shape, just take the degreaser, you know, get off the old grease, take your grease injector such as this and just go ahead and pump it, some grease inside the cavities here, okay, all the way around, get it nice and packed. Put it back together on top and bottom, put the fork back in, adjust it properly and that's it."