Stronglight A9 Steel Headset

And it shows. I installed it on a cheap old trek steelie, and there was an annoying play that I couldn't get rid of with 10+ hours of shop labor. I was beginning to think it was an ovalized headtube, but I pulled an origin8 cartridge bearing headset from a spare bike, installed it and that worked perfectly without any fuss. The Stronglight A9 with cartridge bearings is about $15 more, I will give that one a try one day but never this one again. Still, this headset was so cheap I'm not even mad, just disappointed that it isn't suitable for bulk purchase/installation.

I replaced the original Shimano threaded headset on my 1999 Trek 470 (horrible old thing - don't know why I still have it...). The original headset stripped the thread on the locknut about 2 years ago (I just kept tightening the main nut). So, thought I'd eventually bite the bullet and replace it. Not being a high end bike, thought I'd just go with this basic Stronglight headset. However, after only a few months, the locknut thread stripped. Obviously you need to tighten up these babies from time-to-time, and perhaps my overall technique wasn't perfect, but it's definitely not as good as the original. I'll try an alternative brand, and pay some more $ in the hope of getting something more robust.