Slacking

Yea, slacking, is what I have been mostly doing for awhile except during Christmas week, riding 4 days in a row.

Well its really about slacking the HTA with the newly arrived Works Component 1.5 angle headset.
Nothing news worthy... people have been changing head angles for a few years now. Ok, I'm just excited--finally I'm jumping on the bandwagon, plus there could really no more major changes I can push on the EG anymore (I think so).

By my calculation the head angle would be pushed back to ~65.5 degrees with this one final major component change and about as much as I dare to stress on the tubings and geo on this frame.

Why Works Component? Just about everyone I actually know who has gone with the Cane Creek angleset has been bitching about the creak.. thinking about it- it does make sense that it makes no sense the angle change is at the area that also sees the most twisting load/ force exerted upon it. The selling point only remains that you can switch things around and change head angle to your heart content without pressing out the cups by way of the different gimbals. The FSA option seems to be operating on similar principles and its hardly available anywhere in the world wide web or the real world for that matter.

That leaves the fix and forget type like Works Component and K9. But K9 lacks the option I would need. By way of researching all these I have also learned that my EG's headtube follows the 1.5 Headtube standard to the minimum-- ie 102mm length being the shortest and mine measured spot on.

Its important to find the option that spec the correct headtube length as the angle and fit would be dependent on the eccentric offset made into the cups... No rocket science, just basic geometry here.

Left: ZS49 - EC49 (for a friend's tapered fork in a 1.5 headtube)
Right ZS49 - ZS49 for my 1.5 headtube EG with straight 1.125"steerer
Both with 1.5 degree slack.
Those mired in headset standards confusion, if you are running a tapered head tube bike with a tapered steerer you would need the EC44(top cup)-EC49bottom cup) models.
I never believe in nor like anything with the word "integrated" in headsets--so for those you are on your own, but eliminating the above, there really shouldn't be all that much options left to scratch your head on which is the correct one for your bike.

The other thing about Work's headset as I read is that the bearings are similar to what Cane Creek uses. 45 degree sealed bearings ... theoretically it means I need not remove crown race set into all my forks that are potentially usable with this change... 3 forks to be exact. If there is another part of bike parts removal I never really like performing other than head cups, it has to be the sadistic dexterity involved in prying out races on forks with a flat blade.

Feeling a little apprehensive... thought I better enlist a little help tonite. So first off to friends with proper tools that can perform headset removal with some One-Legged-Monkey-God stance. 

The cosmic energy transferred in this position ensured the cups came out easily without err hic'cups'
Needless to say I was extremely impressed with what Kenny must have learned in those free yoga classes at his workplace.

Installation was another matter altogether.. Having read the 1 page black and white instructions 10x and over, I knew anything short of a laser alignment gadget would involve a lot of cursing and pressing and re-pressing of the cups tonight. Damn, for once I hate the accuracy of  my clairvoyance

After a whole slew of crossing strings and wires like some sniper scope , caliper measurements and center line dissecting technique plus lots of technical gibberish spewed between the 2 of us , all that resulted was few shots at the cups not going in straight and hence any alignment done was messed up...

It was down to the last tool in the box.  Eyeball-O-meter to line things up that got everything to work finally... Some days you can have all the bells and whistles in your arsenal but it still takes some spitting and rubbing into the palms and get things done in good old fashion ways.

End result? Oh yea, with everything installed back in reverse order.. turning the bar was baby butt smooth. No clicks, no bumps and no creaks... Visibly, I can actually see the difference. Maybe it is the offset of the stanchions against the headtube at the back. But on the short ride home, yea something has definitely change. Can't say at this point when it comes to technical handling of the bike if everything is all gonna be positive... Ride time in just another few hours will tell

Never thought I would say this but so far after the swap over to the Vector HLR Air... this seems the most suitable shock in my possession to get the suspension talking to each other on the trail with the adjustability making things more versatile and tunable on the trail over the coils.