So a few weeks into owning my EX8 the rear suspension started to make a creaking sound, a lot like a bottom bracket kinda creak- in fact thats what I thought it was until I checked the pivot bolts to find a few were quite loose. I nipped them up and the creaking stopped.

I’ve had the bike a few more months now and on a night ride the other day I noticed the bike was making a loud CLICK sound as the rear suspension goes through its travel- the noise occurs about mid way through the travel. Its loud enough that initially I thought it was chain slap as I was going over a rutted field. The best way to replicate the noise is to bounce on the pedals while stood up.

The CLICK is loud enough that i’m not sure I want to ride the bike until I get it fixed as its really noisy and I wonder what could be wrong. Its a very different noise to the creaking I had previously. Just a single CLICK or TICK type noise.

Things i’ve done that have made no difference;
-Checked the pivots(All), pedals and non driveside crank arm are tight
-Shifted to different gears at the front and the back

I did wonder if it might be something to do with the DRCV shock- can the RP2 DRCV make a loud single CLICK noise if theres something wrong with it?

I’ll probably have to get the bike into the LBS, but thought i’d post up here and see if the hive mind has any ideas.

Sounds like dirt in the frame bearings, Trek do a lifetime warranty on all bearings – so pop it into the LBS and get them to sort it out.

If you don’t want to do that, you could just squirt some silicone spray on all the pivot points, as there may just be some dirt wedged in there. Don’t use GT85 or alike, as it’ll destroy the race covers.

Check the welds on the frame on the seat tube near where the pivot bolts on. I had a similar noise and it turned out to be a cracked frame!!!

check the frame, but also check the cable paths.

My old FSR had an outer cable that went from the main frame to to the drive side seatstay. I replaced it and it was slightly longer than the previous section. The extra length caused it to bend differently & ‘click’ against part of the frame everytime the suspension compressed.

If it is mid-way through it’s travel, perhaps it is the shock as the internal valve opens at 50% travel.

you need to find micarms of this here parish, he has tightened, lubed, replaced, cleaned just about everything on his trek and it is still noisy 😀

I’ll give it a thorough clean and check the frame tonight.

I have just put a set of XTR brakes on in place of the factory fitted avids so I’ll pay attention to the cable routing too.

Damm I hope the frame isnt cracked- i’ve got a session with Tony at UKbikeskills booked next week and i’m off to Afan at the start of next month.

Not sure how relevant to you as there’s a few years between them but I’ve got an old trek fuel 90 which used do this, it used to disappear for a while if I cleaned the area thoroughly. Eventually I got fed up of it returning mid way through a ride and I removed all the linkage bolts out, re-greased the threads (not the bushings!) and torqued them back up, problem solved since then.

If trek are OK with you doing this and not voiding the warranty then maybe give this a go but to honest I’d expect it on my old fuel but not on a new one. As the above advice, take it back and have it done under warranty.

I had a similar issue with my EX9 recently and it turned out to be the freehub on the Bontrager wheel. It really sounded like the bottom bracket. Once the freehub had been serviced the problem dissapeared.

Interesting, might try swapping the wheel to the one from my other bike too.

Looked at it tonight… I think it’s the rear shock. 2 reasons for this, firstly there’s a slight mist of oil on the case around the air valve. Secondly the drcv shock has a slightly different method of setting it up- the trek instructions detail it but essentially when you screw on the shock pump the air pressure reading increases in 2 discrete jumps as the internal valve is opened. It no longer does this- it just shoots straight up to the final reading. That makes me think perhaps the drcv valve is jammed open or something.

We’ll see what the lbs say. 🙁

As I understand it, this is actually a common problem, where the push rod for the shock sticks open. There are a lot of chaps that have the push rod removed and run it as a high volume shock instead.

It’ll get sorted though – that’s a warranty issue, so nothing to worry about 🙂

Mine used to do that, ended up being the cables in the guides.

As a remedy owner (basically same bike), my current check list of ticks are:

Shit in pivot bearings (clean/regrease or replace) (90%)
Cables rubbing in guides (greased them lightly and gone) (10%)

If your piston is sticky, take it apart and do an air sleeve service, only takes 30mins.

Or just warranty the bitch.