Just in: Viscoset
The Visco comes separately: I went for a ZS56 lower cup for my next custom bike build: £139.99
I went for a matching ZS56 headset for the upper part and back-to back comparison against a standard lower. £119.99 (total price=way more than I should spend on a headset)
Just arrived for the next #astoncustoms bike build. I’ve wanted to try a ViscoSet for some time now after hearing some interesting feedback from the Geometron Bikes boys about them.
I’ve also been loving the KIS System which is excellent, and getting better the more I get used to, and tune it. Riding this has made me re-consider the relationship between the front and back of the bike via the classic frictionless hinge/headset junction.
Cane Creek headsets are excellent and highly recommended. This ‘Visco’ part is really just an addition to a standard headset.
The KIS system on the other hand, is a different beast and only replaces a stem spacer in the head tube zone.
The KIS is a self-centering system, where the ViscoSet is sort of a steering damper: there’s a stack of interleaved, micro-thin plates inside this lower ZS56 headset cup (also available in 44mm upper). Half of these plates are keyed to the headset cup/frame, while the other half are keyed to the crown race/fork - essentially adding some friction to that big hinge. The friction level is easily tuneable at home by changing the layout of the plates.
The lower Visco cup: The only difference to a standard headset is circlip which holds the keyed shims in to the cup and crown race.
These shims can be re-arranged to change the level of friction.
When riding, these plates rotate against each other, with a fluorocarbon gel between them which should provide smooth and controlled resistance. The benefits should be a more stable ride with less chance of ‘speed wobbles’ (which should never surface on a modern, well-set-up bike anyway), keep the bike more stable in the rough, and could also reduce fatigue through the bars.
I’m super interested to try, this, and at £120 it’s pretty cheap compared to the next one on my list: the £500-ish Pademelon which is a more traditional steering damper that is position and direction sensitive.
Fancy trying one? If you are the lucky winner of The Ultimate £10k Bike Comp (currently live!) then I could build you a custom bike with this included! Tickets are only £5 and support this independent review channel where I buy all the parts you see myself to be free to give an unbiased opinion.
