I also purchased an FSA Orbit IS headset with TH Industries bearings. These are true angle contact, so they split apart easily without damaging the seals. The long term plan is to rebuild these as semi-ceramic full compliment bearings with ceramic balls and the damping grease. I just need to get a micrometer to find out if the balls are 3.0mm or 0.125".
So I finally got the new bearings in the bike. Here is a pic of the semi-ceramic full compliment rebuild:
I used white ZrO2 Zirconium Oxide 0.125" ceramic balls because they have a coefficient of expansion closer to steel than black Si3N4 Silicon Nitride Balls. A full compliment of 35 are loaded into the outer race and held in place with the sticky damping grease (top), and the inner race is also coated with grease prior to assembly (bottom). The original configuration had 23 steel balls in a ball spacer cage that was removed. I only bought 50 ceramic balls, so I just made the bottom bearing semi-ceramic, since it takes the greater load. The upper bearing uses the leftover steel balls.
These bearings have a 36 degree inner race flange instead of the 45 degree flange on the stock bearing, so I had to swap the crown race and top spacers with the ones that were included with the FSA headset. The outer race flange is still 45 degrees, so they fit fine in the head tube. I tried to increase the top cap bolt torque above 12Nm, but found the star nut was just getting pulled out the top of the steerer. So I just ordered a FSA Compressor TH-881 Expander Plug hoping that it will hold a higher preload torque. If that doesn't work, I will try doubling up the star nuts.
More along the lines of the Cyber Truck. Although you can't buy one yet, they (it?) have been seen in the wild--so there's hope. I have signed up for the email notifications for the new V20, but there's not been a trickle of information as of yet.
