|   Difference between stainless steel and aluminum crown race? | A.
Jan 23, 2003 9:04 PM | | Which is better? Common sense says the stainless crown race is stronger, but how important is strength in this instance?
A. |
| very | club
Jan 23, 2003 9:17 PM | | the crown race sees some of the highest impact loads of any part of the bicycle. I've never even heard of an aluminum crown race, sounds like a dumb idea to me. |
| not so fast | aosty
Jan 23, 2003 10:49 PM | | Not so fast...
A number of headsets have an aluminum crown race and the majority of modern forks use aluminum for the crown race seat. (Assuming he is talking about a modern cartridge bearing headset and not a loose ball model where the crown race is the actual bearing race.)
You do have a bit of a point... that is... the impact force from an improperly adjusted (too lose) headset will ruin an aluminum crown race much quicker than a steel one. |
| So why then... | A.
Jan 23, 2003 11:08 PM | | Why would some headsets have aluminum crown races, knowing that a stainless steel race would be more resilient to such forces? Is it just for weight savings?
A. |
| Costs Mainly | Pitbull
Jan 24, 2003 12:55 PM | | I think that everyone can agree that the difference in weight would not be noticed, Kinda like the difference between one or two pennies in your pocket. Newer cartridge headsets don't require any race, just a support. The cartridge bearing assembly itself serves as its own race, So in this situation Aluminum does the same job at around 1/3 the price. But Stainless Steel would be ideal, and it will last longer, but that is the difference between a $100 headset and a $25 headset. |
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