Small but good. This part is Intended to replace the top section of your headset and offer considerable difference in how your bike feels. It closes up the connection on your steerer tube. On traditional headsets there is a bit of play with the bearing and upper cup, you can can cinch it down with the top cap - but that will destroy your bearing and being a angular contact bearing, it does not handle the loads that your stem+steerer+handlebar interface loads it up with.
The Stiffmaster replaces the upper cup which is a ZS44 (it will fit most modern mountain bikes) It has a bolt on the top collar, so you set your bearing pre-load with the top cap and lock it down with the upper collar bolt. It uses an axial needle bearing on top of a radial bearing which locks everything together firmly without binding. Intend claims up to 40% increase in stiffness and if you are on a bigger bike say 140mm+ and like charging hard the gnarly terrain - the Stiffmaster does offer noticeable difference in handlebar feel. It feels more direct without the vagueness - especially in technical terrain and when out of the saddle climbing.
There is a legit test from Intend that adds weight on the outside of the bars and measured at 30cm away from the stem. A minimum of 34% improvement over a standard upper headset.
You will need to remove your existing headset and press in the stiffmaster. You can use normal aheadset spacers to work your stack height.
- 85g
- 14mm stack height
- Only compatible with ZS44 upper headtubes