Well I finally got a new mountain bike at the start of this week. I got a great deal on a 2010 Mongoose Tyax Super, 2/3 retail price, meaning I got it for £400. Bargain IMO considering the spec.
I haven’t ridden in around 7 years and have been eager to get back on a mountain bike. I went out to Betws-Y-Coed today and did a short version of the Marin Trail. I found the trail there (a red route) easy enough from a technical point of view, so it appears I haven’t lost too much of my skill level, which I’m pleased about. I did however notice the difference in my fitness/stamina levels from around 6 months ago and I need to get back into shape. I rode for around 45 minutes and felt it during the long climb at the start of the trail. However, the singletrack back to the car park is one of the best I’ve ever ridden and put a huge smile on my face – it’s good to be back!

Now for my question.
When standing to climb and putting more wait on the front end there is a creaking sound. There appears to be no play in my headset so can only think it might be the bars? Anybody got any views on this? Is it damaging anything, or is it just an annoyance?
Any opinions would be appreciated.

disassemble, grease and put back together

or

Could be any number of things – bars, stem, headset, bottom bracket, pedal. Just because it sounds like it is coming from one place, it may well be from somewhere totally unrelated.

Check the obvious places are nicely tightened up, but then try to ignore it. You could spend hours looking for the problem!

nice colour co-ordination!

Creaks can be very hard to track down. standing up on the pedals and hauling on the bars puts pressure through lots of components and the frame can reverberate, making it sound like it’s coming from somewhere it isn’t.

check the bars in the stem, but if cleaning, and reassembly doesn’t work, work your way through greasing the pedal bearings, checking the cranks and bottom bracket.

good luck! annoying, isn’t it?!

yeah, like he said. slow typer!

Damn beat me to it on the colour co-ordination too, 8/10. Lacking attention to detail on shorts and helmet otherwise a superb effort.

what is that picture about ?

lol on colour coordination, had not realised my laces and socks matched my top/gloves till I saw this pic.

@scu98rkr just one I took before today’s ride. Somebody wanted to see it so I thought I’d post it here too.

Cheers Ned, very annoying. It’s a brand new bike, first ride, would have hoped grease etc. would be okay. Guess I’m gonna have to strip and grease it all and hope that solves it.

We’ve had a very specific issue regarding Mongoose headsets.
Whip the stem off and see if the headset has a plastic conical preload wedge, if it has that will almost certainly be your problem.
Easy way to check would be to pull on the front brake and push the bike back and forth as if under heaving braking.

Take it back.

don’t grease the bars in the stem or the fork steerer in the stem. you want those staying where they are! grease the bolts though.

as they said, nice colours – did you know that impersonating a rambler is a walking-stickable offence ?

If shop is local enough and decent, take the bike back in. If not, a bit of maintenance/cleaning/invesrtigation should sort it (brake cables twisting in ferrules can also make a creak when fork compresses IME – usually when things are dusty though !)

Tried that already Ziggy, no give in the headset whilst rocking, seems solid enough. I will have a look for the conical element (I assume you don’t mean a centering sleeve?).

brake cables twisting in ferrules can also make a creak when fork compresses IME

arg. had that one too. and ferrules in stops. and when turning the bars. grease.

Even when tight they will knock still, took me a while to figure it out when I first came across it. It’s the very first part at the top of the headset if that helps.

grease the stem where it clamps the bars to sort it

Just taken the bars off, regreased bolts and made sure they are nice and tight, will see if that makes a difference when I’m out on Saturday. If not I’ll have to try the next thing.
Ziggy – Took the stem off and the headset has a centering sleeve directly below the spacers (see the diagram halfway down this page http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/threadless-headset-service), is this the part you mean? I thought all headsets had a centering sleeve, or is it just the Mongoose one in particular seems to cause problems?
Thanks for taking the time to help out guys, much appreciated.

@rocketdog – you want me to grease the contact area between the stem and bars??? That’s an accident waiting to happen.

Damn that picture being copyrighted. I wanted to use it in my New ‘Hot Bikers 2011’ calendar!

😉

On a more serious note – great to see you’ve enjoyed ‘coming back’ to biking and that you seem to have caught the bug again

Nice spec for the price,easy to upgrade as needed too.Places I’ve found particularly likely to cause this are,daft as it sounds,saddle rails where they meet the seatpost,seat post ,often helped by a very thin smear of grease,pedal threads,and the interface between quick release and dropouts.Good luck,be methodical,and only do one thing at a time,or you will never know where to look next time.
Ian

No comments on the reflectors? Is Singletrack mellowing or just distracted by the socks n’ laces combo?