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Morning all (especially you chief).. 🙂
My Spitty has been creaking like a bastid for some time, but i thought i knew the issue (s);
1. Reverb was a bit rattly in the seat tube - i shimmed it with coke can and this mostly fixed some of those creaks.
2. UNder heavy load (climbing), the rest of the bike would creak something chronic, so initial thought was BB - yes it was knackered so that's now been replaced (wheels Mfg angular contact, and very nice it is too). This seems to hav solved some creakyness, well the horribble "crack" i'd experience on each revolution.
So im still here, creaking away under load, so what is it..
Cranks - they are 11year old SLX's that have ben through a lot, though i cant feel any play in them
Pedals - 3 years old maybe, but not massive play and you normally feel them being off
Pivot bearings - <cough> not changed in 2 years <cough> - however in my defense they are supposed to be pretty resilient on the Banshee's and there is no noteable play when i remove the shock (other than they spin the way they should)
If it's not pedals and cranks, why/how can the bike creak under load - would the force of pedalling put a side load on the pivots causing the creak?
FRAME FAILURE SOMEWHERE??? <cry)
help - thank you
just thought of something - could the modular drop out trnasfer some creakyness - i've never undone them since putting bike together, so could some grit get in there and then cause the sideload from cranking to do it??
very possibly, if a derailleur hanger can do it your drop outs certainly will.
and yes clean and lube your pivots!
Shock mount hardware, Headset, get 'em off, cleaned, checked and lubed.
Disassemble, clean and reassemble:
stem - bar and steerer clamp
Headset and crown race
BB
Dropouts
Pedals
Chainring
And hope it isn't the infamous Spitfire downtube-at-the-brace-to-the-seat-tube crack (speaking from bitter experience).
i feared a full strip down was looming - probably worth doing pivots anyway! Chainring is new, so i know it's not that at least.. I hope it's nto a failure, as this is my second one (firt was a fail on the downtube shock mount (these were the v2.0 frames and not the v2.1 as it is now with larger mounting points)..
Its impossible to target a creak like that, it's just a process of elimination.
FWIW, my prime V2 has been relatively proof against dry joint noise, but for a good few years I've been spraying chain wax between things like dropouts, seat rails and clamps, etc to make sure it doesnt get the chance!
Bearings dont especially last any longer than previous bikes for me. Roughly speaking a set a year but the Prime does see by by far my most aggro riding.
My guess would be rear axle or dropouts.
My most recent creak was a loose direct mount chainring.
Cheers all. I shall start stripping the bike, cleaning contact points and put it back together. If it's still doing it, then pivot bearings are getting replaced. If it's still doing it, cranks are being replaced. If it's still doing it then, well... cry probably.
Just on the point of bearings, have you any view on the Kinetic Bike bearings ?
Check the brace at the bottom of the rear triangle below the suspension link.
The one that joins one side to the other as the one on my mates rune broke off on both sides but somehow did not fall out.
He said "I why wondered why the creaking had stopped".
Hope that's not the problem.
Firstly, lose weight you fat nugget.
Secondly, if the cranks are that old, check if the spider has debonded from the axle/arm. Seen it once before and guess what happened?
Well, i tried to check the pivot bearing last night but couldnt get the through bolts out, one of the drive side bearings, although freely moving, felt a touch grindy with the alan key in, so maybe just thoughs. Cleaned rest of the contact points on dropouts as well as took headset, stem etc apart and cleaned..
will check the cranks again Stany (bodg)..
Gave the frame a good look over and cant see any "oh shiz" issues..
will see what happens tonight when i go out.
Seatpost and dropouts were the bits that sometimes creaked on my Spitfire. The problem with finding the source is that sound travels so much faster through metal than air, so it often sounds like the creak is coming from a different part of the bike!
Have a chat with Jamie @ HftH. He spent over 4 hours trying to diagnose a creak once, only for me to step in and discover it was the prop stand clamp.
Have you taken your prop stand off?
you're as funny as piles .. though a feel a wind up coming..