Cane Creek SlamSet Headset Black, IS41/IS52

There was a time when only roadies obsessed over slamming their stems, but with the influx of new MTB geometry, big 170-millimeter forks, and 29ers that bring the front end up to your armpits its no surprise that mountain bikers are being kept up at night with thoughts of slamming their stems. Fortunately, Cane Creek's designers have had the same thing on their mind while counting sheep at night, and pushed forward with technology to create the Cane Creek SlamSet Headset. This headset shortens your stack height drastically, with the Zero Stack version only adding 2-millimeters of height to your stem, and the IS model adding 4. 6-millimeters. With the reduction of stack height, the headset had to have some serious thought put into bearings. Since the majority of stack height in headsets comes from seals, Cane Creek dropped most of the seals from the headset, and while this is somewhat negligable in the Zero Stack model, as it retains its seals, the IS lost most of its protection against dirt and water. To ensure that you still have protection, Cane Creek opted for the new Hellbender bearing. The Hellbender bearing is completely stainless steel, and features a design that skips casing and webbing, with the ball-bearings sitting inside, completely contacting all the way around. It features an extra 6 ball-bearings inside, over what you'd find in the usual 41-millimeter cartridge, keeping things rolling super smooth, while an extra-robust sealing keeps everything clean and snug inside, free of risk of water and dirt contamination.

Price: $107.99 from Backcountry