Creaking front end

[ElyDave]

On last week's audax a creak started developing at the front end of my new S40.

Last night I took a look at it an nipped up the handlebar clamp, boom clamp and chainstay clamp (that one was quite loose). I'm assuming that was just stuff moving/settling in after the first 500km.

Today on a quick 50km it was still creaking at the front end.

It's not a pedal/cleat - that's a different squeal, and there is no sideways play in the BB

Any ideas?

 

[Jeremy S]

Have you greased everything? Be careful of overtightening, you may introduce new problems that way.

 

[ElyDave]

when you say everything??

There are soem things that I just don't grease

All fasteners/nuts/bolts/pedals etc however do have grease - my daddy taught me well.

Tightening was just up to a "nipped up" and a bit more status, not ham-fisted gorilla status

 

[bladderhead]

My Silvio has a repertoire of creaks and clicks. It does some on some days and others on other days. It always has.

 

[Jeremy S]

Specifically, between the boom and slider (like you would grease a seat post), and all over the bolts holding them together. In general, any metal on metal interfaces.

Overtightening the boom/slider clamp damaged the clamp for me. In the past people saw excessive wear on their BB bearings from overtightening the chainstay clamps, but your S40 probably had the newer design that puts the clamp inboard of the bearings.

 

[ElyDave]

No, didn't grease the slider, that never occured to me, and i've never greased a seatpost either.

I guess that's an option for next time I re-cable it and see what happens. Odddly no creaking from the adjustable boom of my M5

 

[Vicki C.]

Have you greased everything? Be careful of overtightening, you may introduce new problems that way.

As I was told when the slider attachment to the clamp broke up on my Silvio. Expensive repair.

 

[ElyDave]

As I was told when the slider attachment to the clamp broke up on my Silvio. Expensive repair.

No issue there, this is the second bike I've built from a frameset and I've been doing almost all of my own maintenance for several years, and used to own old cars. One thing my dad drummed into me at an erly age was to tighten things in a pattern rather than one at a time round the clock.

So imagine the 4 bolts of the handlebar clamp, 1,2,3,4 clockwise from top left. I tighten 1,3,2,4 just until I feel resistance, then move on and go back round until they are all set. You often find that on the second go round number 1 for example, now seems loose again as the the others move the clamp around. ALL bolts get greased unless they are into nyloc nuts, in the UK, if you don't do that you have no chance of undoing them again with our damp climate

 

[Bill K]

When does it creak? When you put weight on the seat, start braking, stop braking, apply power, lean in a turn, hit a crack in the road, etc.
Try greasing (waxing?) the fork / chainstay / RD connections and tighten the skewer.
It doesn't sound like fenders, but try putting some tape wherever there is contact (especially if the fender is compressed against the fork).
I get a bit of noise from the brake cables passing through the boom clamp at the fork steering tube. Try rubbing some wax or soap on the cables (should last until the next cloud passes overhead).
I got creaking from the Perez clamp on the headrest tubing after a few weeks of riding (tightening it fixed the creak). The sound transmits up through the frame and is hard to tell where it is coming from.

 

[ElyDave]

Bill, fairly continuous when pedalling, though more so at higher pedal pressure.

RD bolt was greased on assemby - but not the connections between frame parts and deraillieur hanger - can try this next time I disassemble the front end

HEadrest clamp is one thing I didn't think of to recheck as the noise was coming from in front, but could be communicating down the frame - will check that today thanks.

Perhaps we need CB to publish some torque ratings for some of the non-standard parts of the build, easy enough for the stock items like BB or derraillieur mounts deom manufacturers details. Mostly I was working on That Seems About Right, But Not Too Tight

 

[nobrakes]

I had exactly the same on the V20 - it was the headset. I added a bit more grease and retightened and silence was restored. I also grease the slider contact points. It’s worth checking the headset if you haven’t already.

 

[billyk]

Spokes!?!

I had the most annoying creak (that's an exact description, it absolutely sounded like metal working against another piece of metal). Just like yours, especially pedaling, and especially under load. Went through everything, just like you, then someone on this fine forum suggested spokes, and so it was. Two slightly loose spokes rubbing against each other.

Pretty easy to check, too. And to fix.

BK

 

[super slim]

I had a broken spoke inside a nipple in the drive wheel, and was convinced the creak was in the rear wheel!!

 

[paco1961]

Mine was the 4 S40 handle bar bolts but not the threads - the heads! The one that took me the longest to diagnose (on a DF) was loose cassette. Was convinced for all the world that it was up front. Drove me crazy til I tackled the whole thing from front to back. Sometimes that's the only solution.

 

[bladderhead]

My Silvio's custom (that means home-made) mudguards are a bit tight, so when the bike suddenly started making a new noise I thought it was something rubbing in there, as usual. So, as I was coming to a descent where I usually get 30mph I decided to keep going and stop a bit further on. The wind noise drowned out the rubbing, but when I started going uphill it came back so I stopped. My front QR lever was open. Very lucky I was that the other end was still screwed on. Very lucky I was not to need to brake hard on the way down.

 

[joy]

I had a nut come off the front of the seat and didn’t notice. The creak was driving me crazy, but I didn’t initially check the seat because it didn’t sound like it was coming from that area.

 

[ElyDave]

I've tightened everything I could find, including seat/headrest and creaking has stopped apart from the known pedal squeak.

Checked headset and no play, but I'll give it a going over next time I recable. New casette to fit this weekend, a chance to relube the chain at the same time.