If you could see the effect that stiff, poorly run cable housing running out of the front end of a lot of new tri bikes these days has on your ability to turn the handlebars smoothly, you wouldn't worry so much about the headset quality.

There certainly are ways to fix that problem, but I've seen so many bikes with it that I think that and other small details like it ought to be bigger concerns than IHS especially if the company that makes the frame does a good job implementing it.

Kelvin

I am not a mechanic... and certainly not an engineer. But from my perspective... the difference between a sealed bearing (such as Chris King) and all of the caged bearing headsets seams much more significant than weather the faces are milled and inserted and not faced into the frame.

Given the average life of a bike - is this really that uch of an issue. The typical purchaser buys a bike and ridesit for a couple of years - then it collects dust in the garage. The avid rider buys a nice bike and probably replaces or upgrades it with in a few years anyway.

Is this an example of 'good enough' manufacturing that the american auto manufacturers have seemed to perfected?

There is no excuse for poorly run cables, though this is something that the shops should be catching before the bike even hits the sales floor. It infuriates me when I have seen the occasional bike that comes across my workstand (as I do not wrench for a living anymore) that the cables were run too short, or the frame was not properly prepped, and they paid good money for these bikes. In my opinion, complete bikes that are Ultegra- up, or the user has expressed a desire to race it (which I think 105 is race-quality, atleast for the novice) should NEVER be put directly on the floor without it being torn down and professionally rebuilt.

It irritates me as these are not some pieces of junk that will be likely garage ornaments, but were designed to be fine pieces of machinery to help them ride the bike leg of a tri/du or race in their local crit, etc. The preparation of these bikes to be sold is more of the shop's responsibility, not of the manufacturer's. But, the Integrated Headset is STILL the thing I shall use as my platform, as it guarantees that the bike will be rendered into junk one day. To me, anything over $1000 should not have to be disposable for many, many years.