Steering Blues; Hills and More Hills

Headset cartridge bearings

A few months ago I was having steering issues, and Keith was very helpful in showing me how easy it was to take apart a contemporary threadless headset. The problem was that my steering was notched, so that the steering had a tendency to mildly lock into the default straight-ahead position. This problem could be caused by a number of factors, but in retrospect, it seems to be the result of ovalized bearings, caused by repeated poundings on my fork over the 7,000 + road miles on my bike.

Keith disassembled the headset and cleaned the inside of the head tube and the outside of the sealed bearing systems, which had accumulated a bit of rust. After the reassembly was complete, the notched steering was barely in evidence, but in the last few weeks the notched steering problem has come back in earnest. My paranoia is that one of these days I'll have to quickly steer to avoid debris or a pothole and won't be able to due to the tendency for my wheel to stay straight.

Yesterday I disassembled my headset and took one of the cartridge bearings to a local bike shop in hopes that they carried them as a stock replacement item. No such luck, what pissed me off is that rather than offer to order the bearings, they suggested I order a replacement headset! I've done enough research to be fairly convinced that the only problem with the headset is the bearings, and the set of two bearings can be found online for $25 including shipping, while I'm fairly certain that the local bike shop would sell me a replacement headset for at least $75. I feel like so many local bike shops count on clueless riders. Yeah, I know that they need to make money to stay afloat, but this business approach alienates experienced cyclists. If I felt it could have waited, I would have waited until Monday to go to Glenn Swan's. Surely Glenn would sell the bearings. This is precisely why Swan's has such a loyal customer base—they meet the rider at their level and don't talk down to you. I won't mention the local bike shop, since I have no desire to trash talk local businesses, but come on guys! Expand your tire collection, while you're at it.

I ended up rotating the top and bottom bearings, since I read that the bottom bearings are likely the ones that were ovalized, and sure enough it steers much better now. With the new bearings on order and much smoother steering, I feel much more secure as we head out to Vermont and the North Country of New York State for a family vaca and some great bike riding up Killington Mountain a century ride starting in Plattsburgh called the Way North Century. I did the ride last year, and here's a video I made about the event:



On Friday, after a rest day, the weather was perfect and I was seeking out the hills. I have a tendency to ride the same routes over and over, and I felt like changing things up in order to break the monotony. This is one terrific route! As I headed east on Rt. 79, I took Snyder Hill Rd. in a direction that I usually don't go. After merging back onto Rt. 79, I continued east, then took Level Green Rd. to Speedsville, then back along Old 76 Rd. The Buffalo Hill descent was stellar, and I was able to get up to 48 mph before having to break as it intersected with 79 again. Then back up Snyder Hill Rd., down Genung, west on Ellis Hollow Creek Rd., north on Turkey Hill Rd. to the NYSEG building, then up to the airport, north to Asbury, and back home down East Shore Dr. This ride was a fun way of connecting lots of shorter rides together, and now that I'm familiar with so many roads in our area, it's really fun to explore and experiment. This ride was just over 4,000 ft. of vertical ascent spread over 53 miles, and in comparison, the Cayuga Lake loop is the same amount of climbing spread over 100 miles.