If you want to tinker a bike's head angle the Wolf Tooth GeoShift is designed to do exactly that, without creating issues.
Mountain bikers obsess about geometry charts and the number that carries most significance, is head angle.
As frame design has responded to steeper trails and more capable suspension, bikes have gotten slacker. But for some riders, a specific head angle is never quite what they want.
The traditional way of achieving an even slacker head angle is by installing a longer travel fork. This approach does have a disadvantage in its relation to raising bottom bracket height, which can ruin your mountain bike’s cornering agility.
Adjustable angle headsets have been an aftermarket solution for those who seek a more balanced mass distribution when descending technical trails.
Read more: how to stop obsessing about geometry
One degree is plenty
Wolf Tooth’s GeoShift angle headset is the latest product for those incessant tinkerers. It allows you to vary the head angle of your mountain bike, without having to unduly influence other geometry numbers.
For those riders who are entirely satisfied with their bike’s suspension travel, but wish to have a more central rider position when it gets really steep, the Wolf Tooth’s GeoShift component gains you 1º.
You could also choose to increase your head angle by 1º too. This will appeal to those mountain bikers who wish to have snappier steering responses on flowing forest singletrack, with tight switchbacks.
No more creaks
Wolf Tooth’s GeoShift is fabricated in the American company’s Minnesota facility, using 6061-grade aluminium.
Sold as upper/lower pairs, the GeoShift is available in ZS44/EC44, ZS44/EC49, and ZS44/ZS56 combinations. Head tube lengths of the 90-115mm or 115-140mm profile are supported.
On mountain bikes with longer travel forks, headset bearings can be subjected to a great deal of leverage stress. Wolf Tooth is aware of this and its new GeoShift design mitigates the friction that is often present in angle headsets, by matching the bearing orientation to the steerer tube angle.
That bearing orientation also helps to prevent those annoying creaks that often bedevil angle headsets.
Wolf Tooth retails the GeoShift angle set for $104.95.