08/16/2026
Over on Cane Creek's website, they offer this nice photo of their crown race offerings. That little blue ring around the outside of them provides a secondary seal to protect the lower headset bearing. These crown races have been replaced on some new bikes with one of two forms of evil: first, the split crown race, and secondly it's (more) evil twin the Integrated Crown Race.
The split crown race is an easy one to pick off. It's only purpose is faster assembly. It's made from softer material and doesn't include the secondary seal, but it doesn't have to be pressed onto the steerer tube. This saves some a$$embly time, I guess, over at the bike factory. I keep Cane Creek crown races in stock in 1.5" sizes just to replace these abominations. Once an MTB comes in with a shot lower bearing and a split crown race, a press-fit Cane Creek goes back on with a new bearing.
The Integrated Crown Race is just as bad for bearing life, but it has the distinction of being sold as a benefit while being worse overall. It goes one step further than the split crown race by integrating the seat angle right into the fork crown, thereby putting wear surface right on a very expensive part. The downside of this is that it STILL doesn't have the secondary seal to protect the lower bearing, and when the lower bearing DOES fail, it can now damage the fork too!
