Hi Don
I have been following this discussion, and wanted to add my comments because I have had a completely different experience. About my self, I'm 6.2 feet tall, and weight on average 195 lbs, and my headsets have all lasted for years.
My high mileage bike is my 1999 Steve Rex, and this bike has a 60mm stearing tube. If brilling was a problem for taller bikes, than I should have gone through a great many headsets over the years. However the bike is ten years old, and I'm only on my second headset
I do use lose ball bearings and Phil Wood grease, and I do clean it out at least once a year. Which I believe goes a long way towards extending the headsets life.
In your defense, since I'm taller than the average cyclist, my saddles are a little further back than most, and so perhaps I'm not putting as much weight on the headset as the average rider.
Perhaps this explains the short life of so many rear hubs. But we will leave that subject for another time.
Tom (to much turkey) Harriman.
San Francisco, Ca
> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:12:21 -0800
> From: gillies@ece.ubc.ca
> CC: jefflaw@msn.com
> Subject: Re: [CR] Campy NR Headset & Brinelling
>
> I ran an informal survey of my bike collection (some 20-odd frames a
> few years ago), and almost without exception, the ones with longer
> head steerer-tubes were the one that had pitted. Nearly all the bikes
> are 1973-74 vintage, except for the 1998 TREK (pitted after < 4k miles.)
>
> So I believe that a long flexy steerer tube (or flexy head tube) is a
> necessary condition to have pitting. Kurt, what sized frame do you
> ride? Also, the cinelli, even if it was small, might have a
> particularly thin gauge of steerer or head tube which might have
> helped to contribute to the pitting of Jeff's campy headset.
>
> I believe that more ball bearings helps. I believe that it makes no
> sense to keep the ball bearings a constant distance apart. I think
> it's a good idea to remove the retainers and run with 1 extra bearing
> to keep from stressing just a small portion of the headset races, and
> to increase the load-bearing surface by ~5-6%.
>
> And I believe that Chas. Colerich's suggestions ("All these procedures
> will be for naught if the races have not been properly hardened") are
> also very insightful.
>
> - Don Gillies
> San Diego, CA, USA