Brompton Chris King headset upgrade
One of the world’s greatest headset manufacturer’s makes a headset for your Brompton, the Chris King GripNut. Available in three sizes: 1″, 1-1/8″, and 1-1/4″. Bromptons require the 1-1/8″. Which color? Lots to choose from with Chris King, but silver is always a classic look.
Bromptons can are fitted with steel and aluminum headsets. The aluminum headsets are reserved for Brompton’s Superlight models, which come equipped with the titanium fork and rear triangle. Both Brompton stock headsets are based on caged-ball bearings. Nothing at all wrong with that. In most cases, such a headset will last a lifetime. Leave it to Brompton to add top and bottom weather-guard seals to make them even more robust.
BUT, if you’d like your Brompton headset to go up to 11, there’s a wonderful choice: Chris King. Their headsets come with drop-dead-gorgeous, super smooth sealed cartridge bearings. Those bearing races, the tops and the bottoms of the bearings that keep the balls ‘captured’ within the cartridge, are made by Chris King at their Portland headquarters. The CK baseplates, commonly known as crown races, are also manufactured in Portland.