Scott CR1 Pro Headset

(March 2019 - link to BBB bearing updated)

I bought my Scott CR1 Pro in the Summer of 2013 from Westbrook Cycles. It's a great frame but a poor element was the headset it was supplied with - although the cups were pressed into the frame it still used traditional caged open ball races. After the first winter (Feb 2014) I spotted the tell-tale traces of brown water from the headset bearings. I took the stem off to drop the forks and cleaned and re-greased the bearings. All was fine for the next 12 months but recently, after a period of no use, the steering was lightly seized - it was OK again after being exercised but it was clear the bearings were rusty again. This time I decided that it was not worth cleaning again as the design is prone to deterioration in wet weather and it would be better to replace it with a better design using sealed cartridge bearings - as with my Giant

I had looked before to try and find the appropriate headset from various on-line sources - but its very difficult to determine the exact part without measurements or some other knowledge. A couple of sites have an on-line selector but you need some detailed information such as bearing angles or inner diameters. Further you need some special tools to both remove the old head set races from the frame and the and crown race from the fork and to press back in the new races and these were tools I did not have nor would I justify buying for perhaps 1 or at most 2 uses.

I mentioned this here when I wrote about building my Scott.

The outcome was I decided to take it back to Cult Cycles. I took it here for 2 reasons -one - they'd fitted the original headset for me 18 months earlier and I was happy with the work and - two - one of my sons worked there over the summer of 2014 and I was happy with the work and prices that Cult Cycles charged for work on his bike and on other customers bikes. I took it over on the Saturday but they did not have the parts s I left it there until the following Wednesday when it was ready for collection.

The headset fitted was a BBB Semi-integrated headset BHP-51: 

• Semi-integrated headset.
• Headtube ID: 44 mm.
• Bearing diameter: 1.1/8" - 41.0 mm.
• 36ºx45º sealed CrMo bearings.
• Aluminum 8 mm cone spacer.
• Replacement bearings available (BHP-90 and BHP-92)

 Its all fitted nicely and the steering is back to being as it should be - with the added benefit that spare bearings should be a drop in replacement in a few years time when the bearings probably will fail again - based on the life of the sealed bearings on my Giant - documented here

Here the headset a few weeks later (in my garage):

Building a New Bike - Part 2 - The Build

In a previous post I discussed the new Scott CR1 Pro frame I had bought with the objective of moving the components across from my Focus to the Scott. I have now completed this successfully. This post is a report of the whole process.

I'll document some more details in another post - this is mainly just photos showing it going together. For example in other posts I have commented on the high shift load for the Shimano 5700 front dérailleur and this will be covered in the next post (here).

Firstly of course firstly I needed to get the frame:

It came within a few days well packed

The frame and fork unpacked

The Frame with the protection still in place

Frame and fork

Frame and fork

As I wrote in the first post Cult Cycles fitted the headset and cut the fork for me. I then went on holiday for a week so the frame sat in the loft. I knew I needed some additional parts so I ordered these from Wiggle at the end of the holiday for delivery in the week I came back.

The first main activity was to strip all the parts off the Focus and clean them thoroughly. I also weighed them reasonably carefully (see here). However the cheap digital scales:

I used seem a bit inconsistent and I don't fully trust them. It's easy to re-weigh the same parts and get different results. The resolution is also on 0.01kg so not great discrimination for some of the lighter parts.

It took 2-3 evenings to strip the parts from the Focus and clean them, before I started on the build of Scott. Here's the build at a very early stage:

The frame in my Park Work Stand with seat tube fitted to given some strength to the seat tube. The stem is a temporary part to hold the fork in place

Before any parts fitted (with the recycling bag in the background)

With the correct stem, handlebars and shifters fitted. Also front and rear brake calipers and front and rear dérailleurs and chainset. The cable outers are still connected to the shifters to give an indication of length.

Front on view

The wheels are now fitted

Almost finished. Chain fitted. All cables installed. Gears indexed. Brakes adjusted. Bar tape fitted

I fitted an in-line cable adjuster for the front deraillieur given the issues I had with the front mech on the Focus

Cable outer length might need a little optimisation

The drive train

The massive seat stay/seat tube interface

Detail of the front of the bike

Finished

The massive bottom bracket area

Total build time - about 6 hours over 2 evenings and a Saturday morning.

Building a New Bike

This year I have had a slight nagging urge whether to go for an "N+1". This is the perennial dilemma for an enthusiastic cyclist apparently - do I want another bike. Note its want not need. This want could be for a different type of bike or just for something "better".

In my case I have 3 bikes - a cheap (free) aluminium MTB in shopping guise (slicks, mudguards etc), my Giant Defy which is the Winter and commuting bike and my Focus Cayo which is my Summer and "best" bike. Three is realistically the most I can justify and I hove no desire to be a mountain biker - so its a town bike, Winter bike and Summer bike. So the N+1 would be a N-1+1 leaving me 3 bikes. The -1+1 part would be the Focus - the Giant is a good bike, has some upgrades to make it better than it was when I got it and seems to take all that I throw at it year in year out (over 10000 miles so far) without complaining.

The plan would therefore be to replace the Focus. However to replace the Focus like-for-like would be about £1500 or so, so I'd need to look at something around £2500 to be a worth while step up, and even then I'd need to be careful that the newer machine was actually "better enough" to justify to myself the spend. The potential new bike would be funded by the sale of the Focus and some of my 2013 Performance Bonus. Despite this I am still careful with money so while I was looking I was not actually looking that hard and was quite happy with the Focus.

Unfortunately I then saw a thread on the Bikeradar forums called The Scott CR1 SL Thread. A few pages in was a link to this:

Actually it was not quite this as the image shows the 2012 Scott CR1 Pro (not SL) but looking more carefully this was a £1300 frame/fork for £500. I dithered and thought about it but fortunately they sold out really quickly. This was good for 2 reasons - 1 - it showed that it must be a good deal and - 2- it saved me spending any money.

However unfortunately they came back in stock and they also added the Pro model for £450 as shown above. Reading the specification the difference was the type of Carbon fibre and the bottom bracket type (pressfit on the SL and threaded on the Pro) - everything else was pretty well the same. Frame/fork weight was quoted as 950/390g. I tried to find the equivalent weight of my Focus but couldn't. A Google search of Scott CR1 Pro bikes (assembled) shows they varied between £2000-3500 depending on other components fitted. In summary this was a serious bargain, and could actually mean that I could move nearly all the Focus components to this frame and build a seriously good bike for probably ~£600 (I knew that I'd need some other parts like a seat post, new cables etc.) but by doing this I could get close to a £2500 bike for £600. Many of the parts on my Focus are pretty reasonable - its got Shimano RS80 C24 wheels, a mostly Shimano 105 5700 drive train, 105 5700 brakes so its not too bad. If I got the Pro I could move my FSA chainset across (whereas with the SL I'd probably need a new chainset).

So after some further pondering I bit the bullet and ordered a Pro in 54cm. Great service from Westbrook Cycles (who I have not used before) - ordered on a Saturday - arrived 10am Tuesday with about 3 texts to keep me informed of progress.

On opening the box and lifting the frame out my first thought was - wow! It was really light. The box was probably 3 times the weight of the frame. In the box was frame (with derailier hanger, , bottle cage bolts, seat post clamp and some self adhesive patches to prevent cable rub on the frame), the fork and the Ritchey headset. No instructions included either for the frame or the headset. I didn't do anything more that evening other than wonder how I might assemble the headset.

Headset Assembly
In fact the headset was the bit that worried me the most. I have never actually cut a steerer and pressed in headset bearings before. I understood the process and theory but had never put it into practice, and to try for the first time on a £1300 frame and fork was not something I was keen on. I saw a number of potential pitfalls, the following 3 being the worst case:

• getting steerer length wrong
• cutting the steerer not square
• pressing the bearings in wrongly and damaging the frame

Cutting the Steerer Length Wrong
For the steerer length challenge I could measure and check lots of times, so this was a lower risk. I could also make the first build with a longer steerer length so I could have a go at one length and have scope to have a second go to get to the right length. Risk - LOW


Cutting the Steerer not Square
For cutting the steerer not square I know from using a hacksaw that however hard I try I always seem to drift off and ideally I'd like to use a cutting guide that I don't have, like this:

Cyclus Fork Steerer Cutting Guide

At around £60 for this tool this was very expensive seeing as I might never use it again. Given some time and access to some machine tools (big drill or lathe and and saw) this is not too difficult to make. However without this: Risk - HIGH

Headset Bearing Pressing
For pressing the bearings in wrongly - the bearings I knew would only go in with a tool. This type of tool at around £35:

Cyclus Headset Press

An alternative is something like this from eBay for about £4:




This tool I could make myself as I had some studding and washers.

I would also need some sort of Crown race fitting tool at around £25:

Cyclus Crown Race Fitting Tool

If I got fitting the bearings wrong the risk of damage to the frame was high, so: Risk - HIGH

Therefore I was looking at about £60-80 worth of tools for a possible 1 off job and I was nervous of all 3 major operations.

Therefore for the first time I rang a couple of Local shops to see what it would cost. If it was over £50 then I'd look to do it myself, if less I would have it done.

Firstly I tried Red Kite - price was very reasonable at £12 but they couldn't have a look until September - so 6-7 weeks away - I was not in a great hurry but I wanted it sooner than that! They aimed to have 2.5 mechanics and only had 1 apparently hence the problem

Secondly I tried Cult Racing - a little further away but their web page did identify a fully warranted job. I rang them and was asked to ring back as the mechanic was out on the club ride. Ringing back later the response was "it's £12 and bring it round after 4 when we're less busy and we'll do it". So that's what I did.

So the current state is I have my Scott with the head set fitted and steerer cut (with a temporary steerer fitted) and its now awaiting me to start swapping bits over from my Focus.