My zesty is creaking under heavy pedalling/’thrutching’. Its less than 10 rides old. Still does it when I’m being very light on the handle bars so don’t think its stem / bar / headset.

Seatpost and saddle rails have been greased.

Shock link and mounts have been unbolted and cleaned (just with a rag, obviously no degreaser/WD40 or other stupidness).

Its got a 4 ride old replacement BB in. Well greased when I put it in, the creaking didn’t start till 2 rides or so after that, so assuming its not that and the cranks do still spin freely? How would that creak anyhow?

Only thing I haven’t checked are the main bearings and the chainrings. Chainring bolts never been touched and the rear end still moves very smooth (having removed the shock).

Any other ideas? Maybe this is why so many people ride Orange 5’s 😉

Mates Spicy had similar basically grease all the pivot bearings and it was and is creak free.

Mine has a creak too.I havent fitted parts to it as it was a complete bike (or taken it apart yet) but i plan to fire an XT chainset into it firstly to see if that cures it. Ive been riding with music on all my rides so the noise hasnt bugged me enough! Might have a look tomorrow.

I had creaks after few rides on a brand new bike (then). Found out by a fluke, it was loose tension bolt on rear derraileur carbon guard!

When you have some spare cash, replace OEM QR seatclamp to proper Chromag 35mm one. Many of your rides will be saved.

My list so far – New BB, tighten chainring bolts, test with new chainset,clean/regrease seatpost and check saddle clamp(despite creaking when stood), move cables in their clamps, strip and grease headset,loosen and re-tighten bars and levers,check rear QR.Everything points to my original suspicion of suspension pivots, really looking forward to being left to sort that one out next week.Bike’s 2 week old BTW, customer also wondering about Orange 5 too 🙂

My money is on the BB.

Have the same issue with My X-Control.

Have you riden in the wet?

Not the BB – its a KCNC that replaced the crappy Shimano original – and not been ridden in the wet yet. Had the cranks off just now and they’re still smooth as.

Ditto headset, cleaned and regreased since the last wet ride.

The creaking started after a dry ride at Lee Quarry. Lots of thrutching and heaving up the short slopes using inappropriate gears.

I’ll have a look at the seat post clamp too and the rear qr has come off just now doing the bearings.

Just disassembled the main pivot. Bearings still silky smooth (I’d be pee’d off if they weren’t – for such little use!), but a fair bit of dried mud in the “crevices”. Should I use some bearing fit compound between shaft and bearing or leave it dry on reassembly?

What is thrutching?

Mine is creaking think it’s headset over tightened.

‘Thrutching’ – like wrestling the bike, stood up stomping the pedals, levering on the handlebars, too big a gear, lots of body movement. Happens when you’ve chosen the wrong gear for those little steep uphill bits.

As opposed to the correct gear, spinning nice circles and getting up the hills smoothly etc.

But should I put bearing fit compound on the shaft/bearing mating faces or not??

Mine was not only creaking today but i could feel it through the seat and bars.Even my music couldnt block it out!

I will start looking into things one by one starting tomorrow eve.

How easy was it to take the pivot bearings to bits and re-assemble? Are there any instructions/diagrams links etc??

Thanks

MM

I’m pretty much done, well had enough for now. Everything except chainrings.

BB checked
Cables moved and cleaned
Headset checked/greased
Seatpost/saddle/qr cleaned/greased
Front and rear qr’s cleaned/greased
Bars/stem checked
Swinglink / shock mounts cleaned
Main bearings checked / cleaned and a dab of bearing fit between mating surfaces

Am waiting on a couple of spares for my fork so the test ride will be a few days off….fingers crossed….

I sorted it first time.Removed the chainset,checked rings – all fine.

Removed the front mech and main pivot.Cleaned everything up,put a fine lick of grease over the bearings and on the inside face of the main pivot bolt head.Threadlocked the front mech fixing bolts and also the main pivot nut.re-assembled and silence is golden! I need to find out what threadlock to use on the main pivot bolt threads as well as torques.It was a bit of a rush this morning but its pretty much sorted.

I found the bb unit to be smooth after a few months (2-3 dry rides a week and i havent hosed the bike down yet!) Ive also taped over the split at the back of the seat tube to stop a little bit of water spraying down into it off the tyre.I still dont know if theres a breather hole at the top of the bb shell for it to enter into the bb but its worth trying to stop water getting in there as much as possible.

I also lashed grease into the press fit bb before refitting the chainset.Done this with most of my bikes and the bb units last well.

I would recommend removing the pivots and greasing them up a bit as the main pivot on mine was bone dry.I wont say that i am dissapointed,ive seen this with so many bikes and its no big deal.It saves the companys thousands of pounds i suppose.Its upto the customer to decide if he or she wants to leave it and expect things to corrode and seize,or do something about it while the bike is still new.

This goes for all bikes.Not just Lapierres.

Sounds promising then Martin, I just went for bearing fit rather than grease cos ideally I don’t think you want shaft surfaces moving in relation to the mating bearing face. However bearing fit compound could make it more arduous to disassemble next time and might not prevent any creaking due to flex. I’ve used grease on other fs bike pivots before though and its had the required result.

If bearing fit doesn’t stop it, then it will be grease regardless, the bike rides great but I can’t stand the noise and it will be in the classifieds shortly if it doesn’t stop its incessant groaning 😉

Have you sorted it yet?

i had the same thing with my cannondale , thought it was the bottom bracket , but still did creak when i was not peddling , thought it was the handle bars but still creaked when i let go , it eneded up being the seat post , took it out lightly greased it then put back in , creak free now

First ride out today, and all seems well, thanks Martin….

Though it was super manky wet and I’m just waiting for the creak to return when the bike dries out!

Good stuff.Aye its filthy mud here today.Ive just put the original tyres on it and removed the bonty mud-xs that have been on the this bike and the hardtail for what seems like 8 months! You cant win.Sliding around in the ruts was awful without the mud x.

Just wondered how the creak fixes are doing? (mtbtomo, is your bike still creak free?)

Reason I ask is because I have a 3 or 4 week old Zesty 514 which started creaking after about the 3rd ride. Very similar circumstances to what has previously been described (creaks even when stood up pedalling), and I’ve tried the most of the ‘easy’ fixes – chainring bolts, cleaning BB and tightening crank arms, tighten mech hanger/drop out plates, headset etc etc. Bike is due for its 1st service in a couple of weeks, so am going to get LBS to investigate, however, if I can point ’em in the right direction, I guess that might help.

TIA

Yep, its still creak free.

I checked everything like you have done. Then I went for the shock mounts. Still no joy.

It came down to the main pivot. As Martinxyz says, they’re assembled bone dry. I used a few dabs of bearing fit (red loctite studlock) on the mating shaft/bearing surfaces of the main pivot to stop any small movement. A few torrential rides and more dry rides further on and its still nice and creak free. As per Mxyz, grease will also stop the creaking.

Thanks for the reply mtbtomo, and good to hear the fix has worked. Using Studlock certainly sounds the best option – might already have a bottle in my workshop….er somewhere!

p.s. don’t know about you, but I love the way the bike rides – shame I’ve had a few build quality related issues with though. If it wasn’t quite so new, I’d take it to bits and put it back together again properly (I’ll leave that to the bike shop for now tho 😉 )

Hi, I have a Lapierre Spicy 516, 2009 version, It’s lasted well given the neglect but the frame started creaking recently and after checking the usual suspects cranks and BB I think the linkage probably needs a greasing…

I’ve taken everything off it but the lower wingarm pivot above the BB. On the non-drive side I’ve taken the nut off but I can’t get the right hand side out and can barely turn it with a long allen key… Should this just slide out because its stiff as.

Anyone know if there’s a manual or how-to for this as I cant find anything.

I had creaking from 714 a few months ago. Greased the carbon spacers around the headset and the steerer tube from forks. Maybe worth a check as it stopped the creaking for me.