Frame cracking/creaking noise...

Bike Forum

Frame cracking/creaking noise...

40 posts & 25 voices | Started 1 year ago by DickBarton | Latest reply from mactheknife

Tags:

No tags yet.

Pages: 12 Next »

DickBarton - Member

Afternoon, I have an 09 Marin Mount Vision that creak//cracks whilst riding. Can't work out source and shop can't find it either. They replaced the bearings on the suspension but that hasn't fixed it. Couple of the bearings were gone anyway.

All bolts have been checked, headset stripped and rebuilt, rear dropouts removed and released and put back in, mechs adjusted, chainring bolts checked, etc. All done by me and the shop, bearings done by shop.

Noise is worse when climbing but remains standing or sitting.

I'm stuck as I can't work out cause. Bottom bracket bearings feel and sound fine but never replaced since bought. XT bb.

Suggestions for cause please? Sounds like front of bike I.e. not the rear wheel.

Cheers.

Posted 1 year ago #
snaps - Member

Chainring bolts & BB cups have caused that on my 08 MV.

Posted 1 year ago #
Dibbs - Member

Rear dropouts used to be the favourite place for Marin creaks, although the sound always seemed to come from the front of the bike. Good Marin dealers should have a supply of anti-fretting paste for Marin and Whyte pivots.

Does the sound go away when the bike's wet?

Posted 1 year ago #
DickBarton - Member

No, doesn't go away when wet. Dropouts removed, cleaned, greased and installed, no difference. I suspect bb but it feels very smooth still when cranks removed and sides spun. Chainring bolts all appear tight...

Weird one...

Posted 1 year ago #
oreetmon - Member

pedals ?

Posted 1 year ago #
snaps - Member

Mine wasn't the BB bearings, it was the cups 'dry' in the frame - just took them out added a smear of grease & refitted.

Posted 1 year ago #
Dibbs - Member

I think I would take a can of WD40 with me on a ride and spray the suspect areas one at a time until the source of the noise is identified.

Posted 1 year ago #
oreetmon - Member

bit awkward to do but a cracking creaking type noise can usualy be 'felt' when it occurs, IE grab hold of differnt bits of the bike until you feel it a bit more on different parts of the bike

hope that make sense.

Posted 1 year ago #
mrh86 - Member

Saddle or seatpost clamp? Tighten them all up a bit and see if that helps.....they both click on my HT if not tight

Posted 1 year ago #
DickBarton - Member

Only makes noise when riding. Won't do when stationary and bouncing bike. Can't feel anything but will try grasping the cups on the bb.

Ta.

Posted 1 year ago #
kevin1911 - Member

Have the shock bushings been replaced? My 04 mv had an awful creak - sounded like it was coming from the bb area, but I never could find it.

Posted 1 year ago #
AndrewBF - Member

Had this a few weeks ago. In the end took out the BB and applied lashings of copperslip to the threads. Fine now.

Posted 1 year ago #
nick1962 - Member

If it's only making the noise under pedaling load then look at pedals cranks or BB.just remove grease and replace at correct torque.

Posted 1 year ago #
crazy-legs - Member

Headset mounting. Bang the headset cups out the frame, clean and face the headtube and clean the cups up. Then a smear of coppaslip or anti-seize before re-fitting them.

That cured mine anyway and creaks like that are annoyingly hard to spot, they kind of reverberate around the frame so it's difficult to trace them.

Posted 1 year ago #
DickBarton - Member

Cheers for the tips...back in from the feed so off to tackle the BB removal/regrease and reinstallation!

Posted 1 year ago #
bruneep - Member

Knees?

Posted 1 year ago #
DickBarton - Member

LOL...starting to suspect something on my body.

BB removed, amazingly the bearing cups and plastic gaiter still had grease on them...well impressed and after removing the plastic gaiter there was still grease in the inner faces of the bearings...all running silky smooth - greased up and reinstalled...also checked chainring bolts (none loose) and took pedals apart and greased them - removed inner collar, put some grease in the pedal body, reinstall spindle and tighten - old dirty grease is purged and new grease remains...

Jump on bike and once round the block - creaking is still there...only this time is 'sounded' higher - so I've gone over every bolt on the bike and given them all a tighten (if possible) - nothing major but if it turned it turned...only 1 that did was the saddle - but it didn't do that during my trials last week or with the bike shop and today back home...hoping that is it fixed, I've deliberately left it until the morning to find out if it is now fixed...if so, I'm going to be mighty unimpressed with myself!

Posted 1 year ago #
mactheknife - Member

Mate i had this recently on my stumpy, bizarrely enough it was the seatpost, i thought it was tight but after tightening it right up...voila..no creaking..woop woop.

Posted 1 year ago #
johnnywhitesox - Member

My 07 Mount Vision had exactly the same - bounced it, no noise. Pedal it and it creaked, worse on uphills. Done all the usual, dropouts, seatpost, chainrings, crank arm - made no difference. Found it to be the upper shock link pivot pin nut. I put the socket on it to check tightness and it made the same creak that I heard whilst riding it. The nut was dry with a small amount of white oxidisation over it. Stripped all of the pivots, cleaned them then reassembled them all with just a very small amount of grease. No more creaky pivots. Mind you last week - noisy as hell again but that was due to a loosened cassette lockring. Pivots have been silent for months.

Posted 1 year ago #
DrP - Member

Very unlikely to be your issue, but I had a similar behaviour creak on my Commencal Meta. Took an age and much fiddling with BB etc before I finally found it..
...rear axle was snapped!

As I said, probably a rare cause, but worth a look!

DrP

Posted 1 year ago #
Burls72 - Member

+1 on the seatpost. I've been sure a creak has come from the front end before but it was the seatpost. I have to strip, clean and grease the seatpost/seat rails quite regularly to stop it creaking as just tightening doesn't stop it.

Posted 1 year ago #
crazy-legs - Member

Just tightening the bolts is unlikely to fix it. If the bolt is dry it'll creak anyway. Hence the chainring bolts as a possible cause, you need to get the cranks off, take all the rings off and clean and regrease the bolts. The fact that the bolts are tight is no guarantee that they're not creaky.

Posted 1 year ago #
big_scot_nanny - Member

3 times had this now on different bikes.
1) crank bolt on non drive side crank had thread stripped (LBS identified and replaced)
2) cracking creaking under pedalling- advice on here said freehub so put in a different wheel as as test - bingo! New free hub and now gone
3) creaking - free hub again, different wheel test confirmed.

So, from my statistically significant analysis I would suggest you swap the rear wheel and take a quick spin, if noise goes, so does your issue!

HTH
Kev

Posted 1 year ago #
DickBarton - Member

Cracking still there and once again it sounds like it is moving round the bike...now 'feels' like it is in the back wheel.

Back wheel has been stripped down and new bearings about 2 months ago and then again about 10 days ago - cracking noise has been going on for last 3 months (but now is constant rather than just now and again).

Hub is a Hope Pro II and has fresh bearings in it; linkages all have new bearings in them; BB, pedals and dropouts have all been dismantled/cleaned/regreased and reinstalled; Saddle and seatpost have been adjusted/tightened/cleaned/etc.; Headset has been removed, cleaned and reinstalled.

Now I'm thinking it could be the bushings on the shock (but a good inspection of that suggested they were fine...although admittedly it was done by eye and vernier calipers to check the bushing was still round and even...

Pain in the behind...so much for my stealth riding attempts now (actually so much for my riding attempts!!!)

Posted 1 year ago #
crazy-legs - Member

Only solution following random lets-see-if-it's-this attempts is a complete strip and rebuild. Right down to bare frame, pivots/bushes out, everything cleaned, lubed and reassembled. Same with all the parts - undo every bolt and grease it. It was cleaning and regreasing the bolts and headset cups that sorted mine; althought they felt tight they were just dry.

Or buy some ear plugs.

Or just accept that it's a Marin and so is bound to creak.

Posted 1 year ago #
megastream - Member

Q/R clamp on the rear wheel

Posted 1 year ago #
ChunkyMTB - Member

DU bearings

Posted 1 year ago #
j_me - Member

Rear Q/R or Left knee ?

Posted 1 year ago #
Burls72 - Member

If you have checked and re-greased everything could well be a cracked frame. Check all the welds, the most likely place for a weld to crack is just above or below the weld in the 'heat effected zone'. Could also be more obvious and be right in the middle of the weld. Early stages will only look like a little crack in the paintwork.

Posted 1 year ago #
nail - Member

I have had loads of creaking on my Marins at various times. They have turned out to be on different occassions - rear q/r skewer on wheel needed tightening - pivot bearings knackered - rear shock mount creaking(very common, adjust bolt tension) - seatpost (remove wipe-off and re-insert adjust tension on seatpost clamp - loose or moving saddle (common).

Ist thing I do is take my feet off the pedals and 'pretend' to be pedalling - if it still creaks then look at saddle seatpost and pivot bearings. Also hold top of seat tube and push or pull the top of the wheel - this will often simulate the noise if it is a pivot bearing and / or more usually a shock mount. Good luck.

Posted 1 year ago #
martinxyz - Member

Grab a rear shimano skewer and fit it.Close it over nice and snug. See if that makes a difference.

Posted 1 year ago #
marty - Member

Try these - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Quies-34025-Ear-Plugs-14/dp/B000KHRGG4

Posted 1 year ago #
stevious - Member

+1 for rear QR

Posted 1 year ago #
bruneep - Member

Took my full sus out on Sunday for the first time and it also had an annoying creak tracked it down to the metal end cap in the top tube for the rear mech gear outer. Dab of grease and job done.

After I had done all the pivots and checked all the bolts 1st tho......

Posted 1 year ago #
DickBarton - Member

I've got full outers from shifter to mechs so not those, but will double check anyway. Tried a new rear QR - no difference...

Posted 1 year ago #