Threadless Headsets

There are two dominate styles of “headsets” on a bike. Headsets are the cups, cones, and bearings that, together, allow your Fork and handlebars to turn independantly of your frame. There are a few different ways these headsets can work internally, but a larger discussion on ball bearings (and the like) will be had another time. Instead, I want to talk about the two styles of headset shells.

The older but still common style is called “threaded”. These headsets are not threaded into the frame, but actually to the steerer tube of the fork (the bit that goes up and into the frame). They weigh a bit more (around 100 grams) and need special tools to setup which is annoying. They look fantastic, though.

the newer style is called “threadless.” As you might have guessed, these headsets have no threads on them to be screwed into the fork. Instead, a star nut is wedged into the top of the fork, and the whole thing is held together by the clamp on the stem and the bolt threaded into the star nut at the top. So, “threadless” is a bit of a lie. They have not shirked the need for threads, they just moved where the threads are.

While I hate new standards, threadless does have it’s perks.

I like being able to take out my fork easily if I want to. I like how the whole thing is held together with bolts (As I’ve mentioned before, I wish that were the case for every part of the bike). Threadless setups are marginally Iighter (I guess) than threaded, and they don’t seize as easily. They main problem I have is that quill stems are much easier to get to a reasonable stack height since the stem height is dependent on the stem itself, not the steerer tub length. This is only a problem when people cut their stems too short which, of course, fucking everyone does, thus making the used bikes I come across a boon for my chiropractor. This isn’t a problem with threadless systems as its technically user error. Seriously people, its ok to ride your bike upright. You don’t need to be tucked all the way down like that. Its ok. You are allowed to chose comfort over speed. You are an adult and can make your own choices (I assume).

No the real problem with threadless was moving from 1" to 1-1/8" headtubes. This was completely unnecessary. Back in the Good Old Days™, (basically) every bike had a 1" headtube and all headsets were built around that standard. 1" threadless systems existed when threadless first became a thing in the 90s but are now almost impossible to find. Instead, the industry decided that an extra 1/8" of an inch was going to solve…something? Stiffness? I don’t know. Who cares? Plenty of quill stem bikes out there still ride fine and are plenty stiff. But I guess people in extreme sports needed that extra 1/8", so the rest of us needed it too.

Couple years down the line, it turned out that the extra 1/8" diameter headtubes weren’t stiff enough (shocker). So now we needed even bigger headtubes, like 44mm. This was also done to accommodate beefier carbon fork steerer tubes, which had been ripping in half a lot (again, shocker) which is really not what you want out of a steerer tube.

Anyway, the headtube size race is typical standard creep bullshit, but threadless itself was a fine move. Hell, it would have been fucking cross compatible if we had stuck mostly with 1". But always trust the bike industry (and every industry) to make a make the worst out of a good thing.