Victory (Of sorts)



J

Jon is Away!

Guest
After several months I have managed to identify the headset fitted to
my Giant OCR. It is manufactured under licence from Cane Creek by VP
Components and has the code: VP-A01ACG.

It consists of 5 parts, a crown race, two bearings built into press fit
cups, a centering spacer to align the top of the steerer and a top
cover / seal. It is a hideous piece of design and those responsible
should be taken out and shot!

The bearings cannot be replaced or removed and servicing is only
possible (If that is the word) by removing the seal and washing them
out with WD-40 before attempting to shoehorn enough grease in to
actually do anything.

The dimensions used (30mm ID crown race / 41.4mm ID head tube / 28.6mm
steerer) are incompatible with *everything* except for four that I can
find. An FSA aftermarket replacement for which there is no available
information. Two possibilies manufactured by Tien Hsin Industries (A
specialist in OEM parts for manufacturers!) and the original piece by
VP Components. The latter three all consist of one-piece bearing / cup
arrangements or caged bearings and I have no information on the former
(But strongly suspect it to be a rebadge of one of the TH ones!).

All other integral headsets (Excluding Chris King's) are based on an
head tube of ID of 44mm which means that I cannot upgrade to a more
common standard.

What really pisses me off (Other than Giant's blatant disregard for
post-sales servicing) is that the Giant engineer that I spoke to at the
ToB had no understanding of the headset and told me in no uncertain
terms that I just had to pull the bearing out and take it to a shop who
would be able to order a replacement. It would appear that even their
own staff do not know what they use.

All of this sadly means that until I can find a reliable source for a
replacement headset with either serviceable bearings, or replaceable
cartridge ones, I will have to withdraw my previous positive comments
about the Giant OCR. The bottom end OCR and TCR frames come with
"normal" Aheadsets, but the headset fitted to mine appears to be
standard on all OCR and TCR frames above that. It may be better than
the purely integrated systems, but this still sucks!

Grrr. <rant over>

Jon
 
Jon is Away! wrote:
> After several months I have managed to identify the headset fitted to
> my Giant OCR. It is manufactured under licence from Cane Creek by VP
> Components and has the code: VP-A01ACG.
>
> It consists of 5 parts, a crown race, two bearings built into press fit
> cups, a centering spacer to align the top of the steerer and a top
> cover / seal. It is a hideous piece of design and those responsible
> should be taken out and shot!
>
> The bearings cannot be replaced or removed and servicing is only
> possible (If that is the word) by removing the seal and washing them
> out with WD-40 before attempting to shoehorn enough grease in to
> actually do anything.
>
> The dimensions used (30mm ID crown race / 41.4mm ID head tube / 28.6mm
> steerer) are incompatible with *everything* except for four that I can
> find. An FSA aftermarket replacement for which there is no available
> information. Two possibilies manufactured by Tien Hsin Industries (A
> specialist in OEM parts for manufacturers!) and the original piece by
> VP Components. The latter three all consist of one-piece bearing / cup
> arrangements or caged bearings and I have no information on the former
> (But strongly suspect it to be a rebadge of one of the TH ones!).
>
> All other integral headsets (Excluding Chris King's) are based on an
> head tube of ID of 44mm which means that I cannot upgrade to a more
> common standard.
>
> What really pisses me off (Other than Giant's blatant disregard for
> post-sales servicing) is that the Giant engineer that I spoke to at the
> ToB had no understanding of the headset and told me in no uncertain
> terms that I just had to pull the bearing out and take it to a shop who
> would be able to order a replacement. It would appear that even their
> own staff do not know what they use.
>
> All of this sadly means that until I can find a reliable source for a
> replacement headset with either serviceable bearings, or replaceable
> cartridge ones, I will have to withdraw my previous positive comments
> about the Giant OCR. The bottom end OCR and TCR frames come with
> "normal" Aheadsets, but the headset fitted to mine appears to be
> standard on all OCR and TCR frames above that. It may be better than
> the purely integrated systems, but this still sucks!
>
> Grrr. <rant over>
>
> Jon
>


Jon,

I thought Giant used FSA bits for their hidden headsets. I know my
daughter found the right one out of the catalogue for her Giant MTB.

http://www.fullspeedahead.com/fly.aspx?layout=product&taxid=34

--
There will never be true sexual equality until women accept that the
default position of a toilet seat is UP
 
Jon is Away! wrote:
> The dimensions used (30mm ID crown race / 41.4mm ID head tube / 28.6mm
> steerer) are incompatible with *everything* except for four that I can
> find. An FSA aftermarket replacement for which there is no available
> information. Two possibilies manufactured by Tien Hsin Industries (A
> specialist in OEM parts for manufacturers!) and the original piece by
> VP Components. The latter three all consist of one-piece bearing / cup
> arrangements or caged bearings and I have no information on the former
> (But strongly suspect it to be a rebadge of one of the TH ones!).


Revise above to three types. The TH ones were in a PDF called "The
Headset Book" which is a download from FSA's website. Thus it is
*extremely* likely that their's is one of those. So in all... three
options, one which is possibly serviceable and two which can only be
replaced.

If someone here works for a bearing manufacturer and could produce a
sealed cartridge bearing similar to the following:

OD 38mm
ID 30.15mm (Not as essential, must be greater than 28.6mm though!)
External chamfered angle: 45 degrees
Internal chamfered angle: 36 degrees

then I would be able to fit a headset designed for a 1" steerer but
with those bearings and the remaining parts from my 1 1/8". Wiggle do
sell my forks with a 1" steerer, but £115 + headset cost seems a
little excessive to replace some dodgy bearings.

Jon
 
Pete Whelan wrote:
> I thought Giant used FSA bits for their hidden headsets. I know my
> daughter found the right one out of the catalogue for her Giant MTB.
>
> http://www.fullspeedahead.com/fly.aspx?layout=product&taxid=34


They sort of do... On the top model TCR they use a named FSA headset.
On all other models (That I can see) they use the VP Components one
that is on mine. The story gets more interesting in that FSA's headsets
are (all?) manufactured in Taiwan by TH Industries.

The next question is (Assuming I could source it), are cartridge
bearings a better or worse option that caged bearings, given that in
the cartridges are integrated into the cups and thus cannot be easily
replaced?

Jon
 

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