Mountain bike geometry is a heavily nuanced topic. A combination of two-wheeled vehicle dynamics, biomechanics, prevailing fashions and a heavy dose of folk science, it’s often clear as mud. One fundamental element of bike geometry that has been debated ad nauseam is head-tube angle - that is, the acute angle between the steering axis of the front fork with the horizontal. I could, without exaggeration, talk about this for hours. Out of professional courtesy, I will not. I will say, though, that a 1- or 2-degree change in head tube angle on a given bike will have effects that are easily discernible, even to a neophyte user.

Angle-adjusting headsets aren’t new. Cane Creek has been making them for longer than I can remember. Works Components is also a brand well-known in the MTB world for high-quality angle headsets. They’re surprisingly difficult to design, and to manufacture. So why did we make them? Well, for one, we’re really good at making headsets, and we had steady requests from customers. Second, the existing product offering was either overly-complex and finicky, or under-refined in form. A headset holds a particular (figurative) weight in the aesthetic of a bike’s front end, and we wanted to offer a product that would look less like an adapter and more like a mantlepiece. Lastly, nobody was making them in the US, so we jumped on it.

This was a tough project. We found all the reasons why few companies produce these. We made a bunch of mistakes, and we owned them. These may not look like a whole lot, but it is a project that I’m particularly proud of.