[EskimoFriend]

Can you send a pic of what the taller cup looks like?

View attachment 1965016

The image I posted of mine has the cup installed.

 

[Stuckita]

It's the black spacer between fork and head tube? How do you go about changing it? I'll be picking mine up this weekend. It's been in the shop for a bit so likely has it as well.

 

[williford]

Those that have installed a normal headset with no added lower spacing, which did you install and are you happy with it?

 

[gfowkes]

My C30 had the headset in question installed when I received it. It appears to have a 10mm lower cup, but after taking it off, I'm not so sure. The fork crown race sits inside the cup at what appears to be the same place where a zero-stack lower headset would sit. It's confusing so, just to be sure, I changed mine out with a traditional zero-stack lower. I used a CaneCreek 40 I had laying around.

 

[rideit]

Those that have installed a normal headset with no added lower spacing, which did you install and are you happy with it?

It was the one that came out of my ‘20 Instinct, if that helps. Seems perfect, but I have only ridden the bike with a 140mm fork.

 

[dischucker]

The photo of the C-50 on the RMB web site also shows the 10mm black spacer between fork and frame. Is this the zero-stack version or not? I’m totally confused at this point.

 

[Stuckita]

I was about to comment the same. It seems all photos I can find have that spacer.

I might just pretend I never read this part of the thread 😂

 

[williford]

I was about to comment the same. It seems all photos I can find have that spacer.

I might just pretend I never read this part of the thread 😂

It is pretty simple, if you see the lower part of the headset (aka a spacer looking thing), that is not a zero-stack headset. Go look at the pinkbike field test, or really any initial review of the Element, and you will not see the spacer, you will see a zero-stack headset with almost no gap between the head tube and the fork.

 

[williford]

Here is the lower headset cup in question, a non zero-stack. I show it here with the lower bearing (it is sitting upside down from how it enters the frame) just for reference. This lower cup is 41g by itself btw.

 

[williford]

While I had the lower cup off I weighed the (XL) frame w/ stock BB (for a C30/50) and upper cup installed, plus all hardware including rear axle. I am estimating the frame w/o the BB and upper cup to be 2450g.

 

[Stuckita]

Oh awesome, thanks for the info. If I were to buy one to replace, do you have any recommendations?

 

[gfowkes]

Oh awesome, thanks for the info. If I were to buy one to replace, do you have any recommendations?

Unless you have a press, I recommend getting a bike shop to do the install for you. It's a little sketchy pressing the cups into a $$$ carbon frame.

 

[Stuckita]

Do not have a press, never worked with carbon. Never owned carbon. I'll pay a shop. Appreciate the help.

Do you race by any chance? Planning to race the element?

 

[HowardCosellsPR]

I built mine up early last month. Fox 34 130mm (ac ~540mm)... as such, I used a standard zero stack headset. Bike is super rad. But, then again, I selected the bike because the geometry was super rad.

If I were switch to a shorter fork (120mm or ac ~530mm) for the long-run, I'd run the extended lower cup, no question. I actually run an extended crown race (the other way to deal with the problem RM is solving) on another bike. If I ever choose to race the RM, I'll just swap that fork over... and... geometry will be preserved.

The one thing I am struggling with is dialing in the rear suspension. I feel like im running A LOT more pressure than expected and not totally happy with rebound. But... sounds like this is a thing to contend with on this bike. Maybe I just need to lower psis and speed the shock up a notch. We'll see. Anyone else experiencing this?

 

[rideit]

My medium is 2268 grams, no bb or headset.

 

[Jlar]

Build Spec:
2022 Element frameset - size large, Fox 34 Stepcast 120mm fork, Enve M6 bars, Industry Nine 50mm stem, Fox SL 75mm dropper, XX1 cranks with quarq, XTR shifters, XTR cassette, XTR 4-pot brakes with 180mm XTR rotors, Nobl TR32 rims laced with Berd spokes and Industry Nine hubs, XT pedals. Used a Wolf tooth headset with the 10mm lower to correct geo.

Weight as it sits in the pic is 25.6 lbs. That's with no cages and the 2.4WT Rekon Races. Haven't had a chance to swap tires

Also - a pic of the old girl that's going to be posted for sale soon...
View attachment 1964075

How do you find the WT tires on 26/27 ID rims?

 

[CannondaleF9]

I definitely have the lower headset spacer on mine, so if that is 10mm, that will slacken the bike by what, half a degree? so in steep it would be 65.3* instead of the listed 65.8*? I was hoping that my XC bike wouldn't be as slack as my Enduro bike, but I guess that's what it has to be unless I change the headset.

 

[dischucker]

I’m still not convinced the 10mm headset changes the geometry from what is stated on the website. The web site photos all show the 10mm headset and the stated geo should match with those photos, surely.

The quoted response from RMB doesn’t make sense (not enough info really), so maybe a support staff just got confused or the message from the engineer to support person to customer got mangled, Chinese-whispers style.

 

[EskimoFriend]

I looked at the website, and pulled the headset tech doc listed for the 22+ element. ZS56 (zerostack) is listed for the lower. Pretty clear on what they calculated it with to me.

 

[CannondaleF9]

I looked at the website, and pulled the headset tech doc listed for the 22+ element. ZS56 (zerostack) is listed for the lower. Pretty clear on what they calculated it with to me.

I am confused why they would give inaccurate geo numbers. I will ask my lbs tomorrow about it.