Canyon Stitched Jump bike headset bearings : incredibly tigh

[njwc]

I'd appreciate any advice on how to persuade new headset sealed bearings to go into my son's 2019 Canyon Stitched 360 jump bike as they seem impossibly tight

We had a lot of problems getting the old ones out as they were incredibly tight in the frame (more detail on this later) and although the new bearings are identical in size to the old ones they are proving impossible to get in even when using a very thin layer of grease to lube them with.

I've double checked the dimensions of the old and new bearings with vernier calipers and they are the same to within 0.01mm, and in any case we cant get the old bearing shells back in the bike either so I don't think the new bearings are at fault. (if its any help, these are the new ones we bought - https://www.airevelobearings.com/product/canyon-ex... )

The headset is a zero stack one with a pressed-in cup at the top and the bearing pressed directly into the frame at the bottom, it's very similar to the headset on his mountain bike however on the MTB the bearings were 'finger tight' - i.e snug but moveable and were straightforward to remove and replace.

We had huge problems getting the old ones out of the Stitched because they were incredibly tight in the frame. The bottom one eventually came out after carefully tapping all round with a drift but to get the top one out we had to take the bike to a local shop who drifted out the pressed in cup. Once we got that home we used heat to expand the cup and the remains of the bearing came loose.

The local shop said they think the new bearings should just slip in and don't want to attempt to press them into the cup and frame as they don't think this is how they are supposed to be fitted.

So... does anyone have experience of replacing these bearings on a Stitched, and/or any suggestions as to how we could persuade ours to fit, and/or any opinions about whether they should really be this tight ?

Edited by njwc on Sunday 2nd August 14:05

[jimmy156]

No idea, but I have found the canyon ‘live chat’ team very helpful in the past. May be a good place to ask!

[2ono]

What about putting the bearings in the freezer and the cup in the over to warm it up, might just give you the clearance required.

[Carl-H]

Sounds to me like they need to be pressed. I recently attempted to change mine on my road bike. I couldn't drift the old ones out no matter how I tried and didn't want to buy a tool to press them so the lbs did then for me.

I've drifted out plenty on motorbikes but they're much bigger meaning you can get a bit more tool on them and it's easier to keep the bike steady. I don't have a bike stand so struggle with the pedal bikes! When I have done them on bikes, dropping the bearings in the freezer the day before I fit works wonders. They normally tap in with barely any effort

[anonymous-user]

You can make a make do press with some big washers and a bit of threaded bar

[njwc]

Thanks all for your replies so far.

We've raised a support ticket with Canyon and are also coming round to the idea that they need to be pressed in despite looking like they are just a push fit.

We did try freezing them but it didn't help and as the lower bearing fits directly into the frame we couldnt get the whole bike into the oven

[njwc]

We've heard back from Canyon who've asked us to send the bike to them for inspection as its under 2 years old and still in warranty.

We've also found some specs on the Park Tools website which say the lower bearing bore in the head tube for an IS52 headset should be 52.1 - 52.15mm in diameter, but we've measured it several times with digital and non-digital vernier calipers and always get 51.89-51.93mm so we're hoping its a manufacturing fault that Canyon will put right.

[jackh707]

Send it to Hambini