We're no stranger to cuts here at CC. You ride; sooner or later, you bleed. We're happy to pour hydrogen peroxide on our wounds just to get the antiseptic burn over with -- though we've been told it isn't as effective as once believed. But we have to go back to our childhood to think of the last time we used iodine as a topical disinfectant. A drop of the tincture hurt much worse than anything we do to clean ourselves up today.
Crank Brothers has created an Iodine we finally want to use. The Crank Brothers Iodine SL directset is the all-mountain permutation of their headset line. Rather than mess with lots of different designs as they go through their headsets, they figured out something much easier. As they step up, they go with heavier metal for the cups and more balls in the bearings. Much further down the line, they lengthen the bearing flanges. The Iodine uses the same cups as the Cobalt, but the lower cup has 34 bearings squeezed into the same space that fits 28 on the upper. The result is each ball takes less load and is thus more likely to remain round despite the greater abuse an all mountain bike should receive.
When you see an all-mountain headset so light, we start to think about the possibilities of using this elsewhere. Makes perfect sense to us to put this on a cross-country bike when the weight penalty over the cross-country design is just 1.5g.
When we saw this new design where the bearings and cups are one, we wondered how we'd service the bearings. It's either a cup-less or bearing-less headset. Would we throw out the headset? The answer is no. The servicing can even be done while the headset is still in the frame. Take off the stem, pull out the fork, pry off one seal, douse the bearings with a degreaser, blow dry. When everything is dry, repack with grease and push back on the seal. Repeat to the other race. Obviously, this also can be done off the bike, but we like the simplicity of not removing the cups.
The Crank Brothers Iodine SL directset is designed to work with 1 1/8" steerer tubes. The upper and lower bearing races are made of 440c stainless steel. There is a 28-ball sealed retainer in the upper race and 34 balls squeezed into the lower race and sealed. The stack height is 21mm. Included with the headset is an aluminum installation ring to install the head tube races. There is a five-year warranty on the headset. Offered in silver. The aluminum shield protecting the upper bearing from the outside world is Iodine Orange. 66.5g.
