Project DH: FSA Orbit Option Adjustable Headset

FSA seems to have looked at what was one of biggest complaints about the CC design.

Bike manufactures have their bikes geometry pretty dialed these days.  But that wasn’t enough, as there are just as many riding styles as there are suspension designs.  So companies started making bikes with “Cams” and “Flip Chips” for the drop outs and linkages that adjusted not only  the bikes head angle, but its bottom bracket height, wheel base, seat angle, travel and even the spring rate.  However many companies still either don’t offer much in the way of adjustments at all, or its still not enough.  Enter the realm of adjustable headsets.  Cane Creek came out with one a few years ago and has held the market at bay with patents. However there has been some riders and mechanics not 100% happy with the design and performance. Creaking and alignment has been the biggest issues as of late.  Getting them to line up could be a chore at times, and took a good deal of patience to get just perfect.  Plus there are a lot of parts to the headset once installed.  Well FSA feels they have the answer to combat all those problems.  The FSA Option Orbit headsets are available now and we were able to get one in our hands for testing and review.

FSA seems to have looked at what was one of biggest complaints about the CC design.  They eliminated the golden gimble, and instead made the bearing the gimble!  Thats right they put the bevel into the bearing casing itself, so it sits directly into the beveled cups of your choice.  This removes two pieces to the headset that FSA felt did not need to be there, even if it was a novel idea.  FSA also included three sets of cups in the tune of 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 degrees of angle adjustment…..for or aft.  This gives you six options to choose from and it ALL comes in the box.  They also made installation a bit easy with adjustment lines on the lower portion of the cups as well as notches in the lip of each cup to help with visually seeing where everything is lining up.

I spent the better part of an hour installing this headset.  No not because I am slow, but I wanted to find the best way to pass on a few tricks to you guys, the readers.   I did not want to install and uninstall, then reinstall the cups until they were just right.  What I found was by taking a few measurements and double/cross checking them, the install went quick and pain free with not one issue to be had.  Follow the steps below to help you out.

1. I found a common centerline between both the seat tube and head tube first.  A string is a great tool for this, just pull tight!

2. I marked my measurements with a wax pencil so it was easily wiped off when finished or if there were adjustments to be made.

3. From inside the head tube I placed a straight edge (in this case a good spoke) and lined it up with the top and bottom marks, then checked for square between the face of the head tube and spoke.

4. Adjust if needed and remeasure (everything went pretty smooth so was happy the first time out)

5. Once satisfied, line up the cups with our marks and pressed away with a proper headset press.

The whole package is included here with 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 degrees of adjustment.

Once the cups were installed I generously lubed them with Phil Wood grease and dropped in our bearings.  Installed the fork and now ready to head out this weekend to see the fruits of our labor.  We will follow up this article in the near future and let you know just how the FSA Orbit Option Headset is holding up.  So stay tuned.

FSA offers this headset in 3 configurations including straight 1.5 head tubes, as well as Tapered 50/55 and Tapered 50/62 head tubes.  This will fit most of the latest bikes out there right now.  If your looking to make some adjustments to you ride, give the FSA Orbit Option a good look.  With the ease of installation and choices it gives you with everything in the box, this looks to be the new front runner of adjustable headsets.   It should retail for around $150.  Our weight came in at 107 grams for 2 cups, bearings, race and top cap.  Both figures pretty respectable for the consumer or weight weenie.

Here you can see how the FSA "Gimbled" bearings work with the headset cups.

This is everything that comes in the box....you get every option possible to give you 6 different head angles.

For tapered 50mm / 62mm OD head tube

For tapered 50mm / 55mm OD head tube

For 55mm OD head tube

We would love to here your opinions below on what you think of this headset so far.

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