Interesting about the use of Muc-Off etc. Must admit I would spray my forks with Muc-Off and generally leave it for 5 minutes before washing off. I don’t invert my bike though as have a stand. Think I’ll just use water and soft brush on new set when I get them. If I get them back before next Wednesday turnaround time will be less than two weeks so not too bad.

Mine were replaced by SRAM within a week for a new fork.

Can’t fault the speed of service but am a little wary that this is an issue to begin with on a 1 month old fork!

I’ve been following this thread with interest. My rebas are clicking away….again. Had the CSU replaced under warranty last year at the end of the warranty period as the stanchion crown join was creaking. This was obvious when the wheel was out and the legs pulled gently. However, this latest creak doesn’t happen under the same circumstances but I can get the bike to do it by standing up when going up a hill or by turning the bike upside down and applying a slight sideways pressure on the wheel so the force is through one side of the bars (if that makes any sense). The question is how do you know if it’s the steerer crown that’s breaking down? Or could it be something else? The headset is greased and preloaded correctly.

Is this also a problem on revelations? Another chasing a creaking noise for a month or so!

So today received replacement forks but the saga continues. Mine were off a 5 week old Canyon Spectral & came with the bike. Fisher / SRAM have sent me a standard retail pair which to me is not a like for like replacement for forks that obviously had a fault from day one. Mine were sent back for investigation with my star nut in them, the ones sent to me have no star nut installed or with them. The forks on my bike had obviously had the steerer tube cut to size to fit my head tube and headset on my bike. The forks sent to me need cutting to size. A miner thing but just as annoying my forks had gold decal stickers to match the colour scheme of the bike the ones I’ve been sent have the standard silver. A few phone calls to be made tomorrow! They knew my forks were practically brand new were not retail but came with a bike & they send me a pair that are not suitable. I don’t know why they didn’t contact Canyon and get them to send me a direct replacement? I will not be excepting the pair they have sent me. The most frustrating thing is that just down to incompetency I will be waiting even longer with a brand new bike I can’t ride 🙁

Safe to say I am forked off!

They did replace mine no questions asked first time, they admitted to the creaking CSU too, but on closer examination the bladder had blown too so whether that’s why the noise was even worse last time I don’t know

I believe the issues with blown bladders is why Avalanche adds a nitrogen sleeve around the bladder, like they have on just about every moto fork available and for some reason bike manufacturers feel the need to omit.

Anyway….

Bring on Enduro dual crowns, more travel for the same axle to crown height (160mm fork is roughly the same length as a 180mm boxxer), no CSU creak and stiffer integrated stems.

Tom_W1987 – Member
Bring on Enduro dual crowns, more travel for the same axle to crown height (160mm fork is roughly the same length as a 180mm boxxer), no CSU creak and stiffer integrated stems.

Sounds horrible. The euro enduro endo would be dead. I love a good endo round a super tight corner. In fact, I like super tight corners period.

It’s a complete myth that dual crowns make tight corners harder, a myth pedaled by people who mostly haven’t ridden them.

160mm+ should have gone to dual crowns years ago.

I’ve warrantied a lot of forks for customer over the years including a good number of my own Fox and Rockshox

My last pair of Fox 32’s had the CSU replaced FOC under warranty by Mojo after developing the ‘CSU creak’. Then it happened again, and it cheaper to replace the fork with a Manitou bought cheap off CRC than pay Mojo for a CSU and their labour to rebuild the fork.

Mojo have always been super helpful and professional, but warranty is warranty and once out of warranty it was at my cost.

I’ve had a couple of detailed discussions about the CSU creak with their technicians over the years, and they said its much more common in the UK because we

-ride all year round, in all weather
-which means more regular cleaning, especially with products like Muc-Off

they’ve said to me that the use of these products causes the ‘assembly grease’ to leach away over time, causing a metal-on-metal clicking/creaking. He said its typically the stanchions, rather than the crown.

This assembly grease is used when they press fit the stanchions (and steerer) into the crown during factory assembly. Its a precise fitment with a narrow tolerance range, and a machine measures the expansion of the crown during this process, if it falls out of the tolerance the CSU is rejected and scrapped.

he said that they could make the crown heavier which would help this situation, but the market wants lighter forks. he said this noise is never structural / safety related but agreed very annoying!

my Manitou is heavier than my 32 despite being same stanchion size and travel length, but the crown is much more substantial with a long overlap between stanchions and crown. so far, so good…

Not sure why anyone would ever want much off to go near their forks? Wouldn’t that stip away the lubricant on the stanchions? Daft buggers.

What happened to just using a wet cloth for the delicate parts of the bike? Or even waiting for the mud to dry and dry cleaning the bike.

How do you rate the modern Manitous reliability? Seriously considering going for one at some point as they seem really well built.

Tom_W1987 – Member
It’s a complete myth that dual crowns make tight corners harder, a myth pedaled by people who mostly haven’t ridden them.

Depends on how tight the corners are…

wrightyson – Member
Is this also a problem on revelations? Another chasing a creaking noise for a month or so!

My newish Revelations are clicky, so yes it seems to be.

I can replicate it by pulling the legs apart with the wheel out.

Depends on how tight the corners are…

Why would you run 160mm forks on a trail that has corners that tight on it? I’ve never found them to be a problem for anything other than walking pace trails, even then it just takes a slightly different riding style to do the job.

The only thing I could see being a pain is really tight, really steep uphill switchbacks.

Good info cheers esher shore. Would explain why I never had any of this bother from my Marz RC3 ti forks.

I’ve just started getting creaking from my Pike after about 10 or 11 months use. Never used Muc-Off or similar, just a hosepipe.

So do forks purchased from EU go back via original retailer or a local dealer?

I believe the issues with blown bladders is why Avalanche adds a nitrogen sleeve around the bladder, like they have on just about every moto fork available and for some reason bike manufacturers feel the need to omit.

Eliminates cavitation and improves high speed damping performance
Recommended for highly damped set-ups and extremely aggressive riders

The above is taken from the Avalanche site.

Blown bladders are caused by the poor sealing on the lower seal head of the damper.

esher shore – Member

I’ve warrantied a lot of forks for customer over the years including a good number of my own Fox and Rockshox

My last pair of Fox 32’s had the CSU replaced FOC under warranty by Mojo after developing the ‘CSU creak’. Then it happened again, and it cheaper to replace the fork with a Manitou bought cheap off CRC than pay Mojo for a CSU and their labour to rebuild the fork.

Mojo have always been super helpful and professional, but warranty is warranty and once out of warranty it was at my cost.

I’ve had a couple of detailed discussions about the CSU creak with their technicians over the years, and they said its much more common in the UK because we

-ride all year round, in all weather
-which means more regular cleaning, especially with products like Muc-Off

they’ve said to me that the use of these products causes the ‘assembly grease’ to leach away over time, causing a metal-on-metal clicking/creaking. He said its typically the stanchions, rather than the crown.

This assembly grease is used when they press fit the stanchions (and steerer) into the crown during factory assembly. Its a precise fitment with a narrow tolerance range, and a machine measures the expansion of the crown during this process, if it falls out of the tolerance the CSU is rejected and scrapped.

he said that they could make the crown heavier which would help this situation, but the market wants lighter forks. he said this noise is never structural / safety related but agreed very annoying!

my Manitou is heavier than my 32 despite being same stanchion size and travel length, but the crown is much more substantial with a long overlap between stanchions and crown. so far, so good…

exactly what I said before, mojo told me exactly (to the word!) the same, so seems like its a pretty legit way of thinking with it debonding the glue

NOTE TO EVERYONE AVOID MUC OFF/ETC ON YOUR FORKS!

Why would you run 160mm forks on a trail that has corners that tight on it?

Not. sure. if. serious.

So today received replacement forks but the saga continues. Mine were off a 5 week old Canyon Spectral & came with the bike. Fisher / SRAM have sent me a standard retail pair which to me is not a like for like replacement for forks that obviously had a fault from day one. Mine were sent back for investigation with my star nut in them, the ones sent to me have no star nut installed or with them. The forks on my bike had obviously had the steerer tube cut to size to fit my head tube and headset on my bike. The forks sent to me need cutting to size. A miner thing but just as annoying my forks had gold decal stickers to match the colour scheme of the bike the ones I’ve been sent have the standard silver. A few phone calls to be made tomorrow! They knew my forks were practically brand new were not retail but came with a bike & they send me a pair that are not suitable. I don’t know why they didn’t contact Canyon and get them to send me a direct replacement? I will not be excepting the pair they have sent me. The most frustrating thing is that just down to incompetency I will be waiting even longer with a brand new bike I can’t ride

This is a pisstake right? You have a brand new retail set of forks instead of an OEM set, and you’re miffed because you’ll have to fit a star nut and trim the steerer?

Stevet1 has it right, aftermarket/retail stuff is often of a higher standard than OEM stuff bikes come with….particularly where suspension is concerned where OEM stuff often has inferior internals, dampers etc.

….I’d bite their hands off and source some gold decals from eBay!

You got a result.

agreed – as above!

steerer tube you can cut your self, star nut costs about 3 quid! and you can get some custom decals from slik graphics for 16quid

and you’ve got a brand new set of proper non-oem forks

yes id be pissed off they others were shite on a new bike, but its still a result, and the fact you got them quick, which is much better than my 8 week wait last time!

I don’t have the tools to cut the steerer or fit the star nut. If I did I’d probably mess it up! 😳 Don’t really want to practice this on a £700 fork!! Did look for some decals but couldn’t find what I wanted. The main point is the forks where 4 weeks old when the problem first occurred & I would have expected them to be swapped for the same as I had. This is what usually happens with faulty items. I also thought SRAM may have contacted me to give me the choice? I knew some OEM items like wheels & tyres where inferior but thought all the components in the fork would have been standard? Will they be that different? I can get my LBS to cut steerer etc for me. Canyon have said they can get me a set shipped from Germany, just waiting to hear back on when they would be able deliver before I make a decision.

Thanks for the feedback.

Should your first port of call not have been Canyon as they are the ones you bought the bike from?

My first port of call was Canyon. Forks had to be shipped to SRAM for investigation of the issue.

Everyone leave the poor confused Canyon owner alone and answer my question.

So do forks purchased from EU go back via original retailer or a local dealer?

So do forks purchased from EU go back via original retailer or a local dealer?

I’m not sure as I’m easily confused 😛

You could phone or email their UK service centre. I found a quicker response from email.

info@sramtechcentre.co.uk
0843 487 8815

@Tom_W1987

The manitous have been stellar, and a number of other riders I know who also bought them cheap off CRC have been also very happy with both ride quality and durability

they are certainly tough as they survived this encounter on a slippery wet cycle path with a solid timber vehicle post, without issue, unlike the wheel and rider!

If I remember correctly, Manitou went through a real sh*tty period some years back with QC issues meaning forks were arriving leaking in the box. The old saying was that a good pair lasted forever, a bad pair required ongoing warranty claims! I know at Freeborn we got burned on a shipment of Manitou that were f*cked out the box, and gave up on the brand in favour of RS and Fox.

It was interesting going back to Manitou, something I do remember is they always had the best damping tech when their forks worked.

If you look at who used to work for Manitou designing their dampers, a number went to DVO suspension alongside colleagues from Marzocchi USA.

Nobeerinthefridge – Member

Why would you run 160mm forks on a trail that has corners that tight on it?

Not. sure. if. serious.[/quote]What he said.

Just do what mojo say.

Mate who is a mech in my lbs had his fox 34s away to mojo for the damper recall type thing they had a couple of years back. Once he got them backed, they were making a horrible noise, so he called the guys at mojo, and they told him to ride with his iPod on, so he wouldn’t hear it!!.

Not happy!

My replacement set of Pikes have lasted 5 weeks…

Exact same problem as last time with a cracking sound emminating from the stantion/crown join after much investigation. Makes me wonder if I’ve been incredibly unlucky as I’ve also got an 18 month old set of 26″ Pikes which are good as gold

Anyhow they have gone back to SRAM Tech yesterday so will see how long another set last…

Apologies to bump an old thread, but my replacement pikes have done 9 days’ riding in the Alps from new, with no washing or anything else on them and they’ve started clicking/creaking. Can’t be anything to do with muck off in this case. These are 2015 rct 3s, received from the lbs 3 weeks ago to replace creaking 2014 pair. Is there anything I can do other than return again? Headphones in and ignore?!

Is there anything I can do other than return again?

Return them again, when you get the replacements sell them and buy something else.

Pikes are good but they’re not the be-all-and-end-all of MTB forks, the new Fox-34s are supposed to be very good, the 36s are obviously very good but also very expensive….Manitou Mattocs are getting good reviews even when compared to Pikes, as are X-Fusion Sweeps.

Try something else, after 2 warranty returns (if you do it again) i’d go with a different brand.

just ignore it?

Well me 2nd pair have just started creaking again. Back to the shop Thursday evening.

Is this creaking CSU problem a ‘Stop riding your bike immediately’ or ‘Go riding tonight in FoD and hit everything as hard as you normally would and then sort it out tomorrow’ kind of situation?

Creaking just started this weekend on 6 month old Pikes 🙁

Any answers to Wilko ^^^?

Think I’ve hit the same issue….

Just ride it and check the top caps are done up super tight