All of my bikes end up with a Works Components Angle headset installed. If you’re a habitual tweaker, it is perhaps the best £70 you can spend on your bike.

Read more: How to change your mountain bike’s geometry

This headset significantly and fundamentally changes how your bike behaves, for the better (mostly). It can even save you thousands of pounds by extending the life of your current bike – if it’s generally sound aside from a steep head angle, you’re onto a winner.

Even with modern trail bikes getting slacker head angles year-on-year, there are still precious few of them that are as slack as I like them to be. This particular headset is installed in my Nukeproof Reactor 290C Elite longterm test bike and takes the stock 65.5° head angle and rakes it out to 63.5°. It makes a great bike even greater. Climbing is unaffected, while descending is vastly improved.

The Works Components Angle Headset is not perfect. Aside from the aesthetically pleasing flat top cap (and rubber plug for the bolt head), it is rather utilitarian and blocky object. Adding extra height (approx 10mm) above your head tube is something to be aware of too.

More importantly, it isn’t the absolute best-sealed headset out there – I find I need to clean it out and regrease it every few months. And install replacement bearings (£14.99) every 18 months or so. The extra maintenance and cost of replacement bearings is a price well worth paying for the extra capability you can unleash from your bike. It’s also easy to install (there are multiple options to fit most head tube lengths and standards) and it doesn’t click or creak when riding.