Chris King Precision Components

Unlike common radial bearings, we build sealed angular-contact bearings that allow for adjustment as they are used. Rather than wear out, our bearings wear in; and get faster with every mile. Like we tell every King-sponsored athlete, your fastest bearings are the ones you've been riding all year.
All of our bearings are user-serviceable without special tools. Simply remove the snap ring and seal, clean, and re-grease the bearing for a lifetime of faithful rolling.

Gold Grease is our lowest-drag (fastest) lubricant ever, contributing to increased bearing speed over time (wear-in) while remaining stable within the bearing for longer periods. this makes it the perfect pairing for King® bearings, that get faster with every mile.
With time to wear-in, Gold Grease also produces 18% less drag at 1000 miles versus brand new, giving some context to our frequent claim that their bearings get faster over time.

What goes into a King® headset? It's made of a few simple, but precisely made pieces which play very important roles. There are our bearings, of course, which we make in-house to our own dimensions, designs, and quality. Then we have our patented GripLock™ retention system, which consists of a bearing ring to isolate riding forces, a wedge and o-ring that work together to firmly grip the steerer, and a bearing cap which holds it all together.

We’ve been sponsoring winning downhill teams for almost 20 years, ever since we first started producing a DH specific hub for the team in 2007. Fast forward to today, and you’ll see these very same hubs, with slight tweaks to axle spacing, still on race-winning bikes.

What makes a Chris King headset unique? If we had to point to just one thing, we’d say it’s our patented GripLock™️ technology. It keeps proper headset adjustment by isolating your bike’s steer tube from the stresses created by riding, especially over rough terrain. Listen in to hear a brief description of how that works.

At Chris King, we design and make our own bearings in-house. They are the foundation of everything we sell, and producing them ourselves gives us full control over the entire process to manufacture bearings that are purpose-built for use in our components. This allows us to design products that not only perform better but also have greater longevity. Every single Chris King bearing is inspected and assembled by hand.

When we were designing the very first Chris King hubs in the early 90's, we knew right away that we needed to develop a straightforward process to maintain them. Most hubs, especially at that time, didn't have a well-considered service process, and tool design was left to aftermarket tool companies. Instead, we designed our own hub service tool that allows complete disassembly and reassembly of King hubs, allowing anyone to maintain their hubs and continue riding them, for a lifetime.

Something that is frequently overlooked, or misunderstood, in bicycle components is that not all sealed bearings are the same. It's why Chris started making his own headsets with surgical grade bearings 50 years ago, it's why we started making our own bearings in-house a few years after that, and it's why we still meticulously produce every single King bearing in-house now. By controlling that process, we can make sure that every bearing in every King component will out-perform and outlast the competition.