Over the past year or two, manufacturers of headsets have been looking for a way to adjust the head tube angle of your mountain bike by adjusting how your steerer tube interacts with the head tube of your bike. From the Cane Creek Angleset to this product from Saar at HAS, mountain bikers now have the ability to slacken out their mountain bikes by a simple switch of a simple component part.
The Story Behind HAS
The story of the HAS headset was actually bred on the MTBR.com Turner forums. Saar (the man behind the scenes) was looking for a way to slacken out his 2010 Turner 5.Spot by a about 1.5 degrees. Unsatisfied with anything currently out in the market, he embarked on taking the project on himself by developing his own headset.
This angled head set was born out of necessity to modify my 2010 5 Spot geometry to achieve a slacker HA, believing this would improve my bike’s handling on descents. The reaction of the MTBR folks drove me to check whether this product could be commercially available. Most of the information about the developments after that is available on that thread on the Turner forum. Works Components picked up the glove and made headsets for 1-1/8″ steering tubes available at reasonable pricing compared to what I can offer as they got their own CNC shop while I am only a designer. I have gone back to designing custom HAS for tapered steering tubes and integrated headtubes which are not available by anyone else. I tend to keep the 1.5deg for 34mm HT going on for a while as there is still a demand for those and they are not available by anyone else either.
Saar is a rider and engineer, the combination yielded a few product over the last 10 years, most for “self consumption” but he was the first one to design and produce an EC34 head angle set.
Saar currently makes specialty designed cups that Works Components does not offer:
- Cups for 34mm HT with 1.5 degree change.
- Cups for tapered forks.
- Cups for Integrated headsets.
- Custom productions.
What I find so cool about this story is that it was bred out of one riders idea and then produced. The concept and feedback was all from the mountain biking community which is how this sport was bred to begin with. Once I took a serious look at the thread and cups, I knew we had to check one of the parts out.
Review: HAS Headset Cups
Saar sent over one of his headset cup sets for review on Bike198. However, due to the large headtube size of the large ’09 Turner 5.Spot in house (5.3″ tall), the head angle is only adjusted out an additional degree. For those of you with shorter head tubes on your bikes (basically everyone), you will be able to get a full 1.5 degrees of additional slackening of your head tube (3.5″ to 5″ HT’s).
As you can see by the picture above, the headset cups are extremely well manufactured with an even, black ano finish. To achieve your degree change, the steerer tube is offset in the cups. The areas where the bearings set are then angled to insure the load is evenly applied to the bearings while riding. After one look at the cups, you begin to wonder why this wasn’t done sooner. It is a simple design that works…just what we needed.
Before I installed the cups on my 5.Spot, the iPhone was measuring my HT angle at the fork at 68.5 degrees (w/the RockShox Revelation not the Lyrik pictured). Installation is performed as any other cups would be pressed, but you do have to line up the two dash marks on the center of the HT to insure the cups are straight as you can see in the pictures below. The cups are also designed to take Cane Creek bearings (luckily I was already running the CC100 previously), so parts are easily accessible. After installation, it measured out to 67.6 degrees (also with the Revelation). When you account for a tolerance of the floor and tires, that puts these cups at an even 1 degree change over stock.
On the Trail with the HAS Headset
When you hit the trail for the first time, the change is noticeable almost immediately. The bike itself doesn’t look any different, but the stability in technical situations is felt and the entire front end just seems to track better. In steep, fast DH, the bike rails and corners better than previously while not losing barely any control on the climbs.
Why does this happen?
Previously, about the only way to increase the HT angle on your bike before a headset like this one was to put on a longer travel fork. While this achieved the ultimate goal of slackening out the bike, there was one major drawback…increased bottom bracket height. This raised your center of gravity on the bike and made the bike handle worse in the turns and feel more on top of the trail instead of in it. With the HAS headset, you are able to bring out the HT angle of the bike while also slightly lowering the BB height. Unlike the longer fork where you are increasing the height of the front end with a longer axle to crown measurement, you are now just bring the front end farther out from the bike in relation to the frame which slightly lowers that BB measurement. This makes the bike not only more stable from the slacker HT angle but also more stable in the turns.
As with any modification, you are going to get some of the characteristics associated with the slacker change like a front end that wants to wander a little bit more than before on climbs. However, at just a degree change vs. the 1.5…I barely noticed any change in that at all. With the Revelation installed, the bike descended like my 160mm travel Lyrik was on without the adverse side effects that come with the higher BB height. It was the perfect balance.
Now…this is not going to be for everyone and results can vary depending on how your frame handles currently. However, if you are looking for more descending stability and better handling from your bike in turns and technical situations without buying a bigger fork or new frame…this may be your ticket. It will be staying on our 5.Spot permanently as I am incredibly happy with how it transformed the handling of the bike. An additional .5 degrees allowed by shorter HT’s would be even better with what we have seen so far.
With a quality set that does exactly what we have been looking for, this HAS headset comes highly recommended from the crew at Bike198. For more information, get in touch with Saar at HAS through this link –> Head Angle Set