Cannondale Road bike – Creaking seatpost

I bought a new 2020 Cannondale Super Six Evo, carbon frame, alloy seatpost.

It makes a hell of a noise, a creaking/cracking sound when riding. I’ve spoken to the shop and they are going to look at it when I go in for a bike fit in a few weeks but in the mean time advised regreasing the wedge (it has a Hidden wedge rather than a seat post clamp) and carbon pasting the post and tube. I’ve done all of this, it was quiet for a couple of miles bit now it’s come back again.

Apparently it’s nothing to worry about, just annoying.

Has anyone else had this on similar Cannondales, did you manage to solve the problem?

Bet it’s the bottom bracket. Had 2 cannondale road bikes. Both had the same problem relatively quickly. Both times the shop disassembled, greased liberally, and reassembled the BB. Fine after that.

I had the same issue on my Synapse (carbon frame/alloy seatpost with Hidden wedge). After applying carbon paste and grease as you mention the creaking stopped.

Am fairly sure it’s not the BB (even if it is pressfit) it does it with no load on it (i.e. sat on bike bouncing up and down, feet off pedals).

I’ll try the grease and paste thing again and see what happens

Take saddle off and clean rails and clamp and then refit.

A quick update on this in case anyone stumbles across it in the future.

I had a bike fit at the shop it was purchased from and everyone there agreed the noise was not normal. I left the bike with them and they had it for a total of 4 working days, trying to trace the problem.

Eventually, after several conversations with Cannondale it was discovered it was the internal seatpost wedge, more specifically the plate with the threaded hole in that fixes to the inside of the frame. It was moving around whenever the saddle was loaded/unloaded (as happens a lot when you ride on British roads.

Cannondale sent them a new wedge assembly, 3m adhesive tape to secure it and some special assembly paste (not sure specifically what this was btw). The shop fitted this and it initially quietened down. I was however warned that if I undid the wedge to raise, lower or remove the seatpost I might unseat it again.

I took it out at the weekend and the noise came back, gradually getting worse and worse. A) not liking the noise on a brand new, expensive to me, bike and B) being not sure about future maintenance and possible issues, I was given the option to return the frame.

That is what I’ve just done. I’m therefore now on the hunt for an alternative.

It would seem Cannondale are aware this is a potential issue and I’ve also heard from ringing around that apparently another shop has someone’s in for a frame swap as they are having the same issue. It appears that over torquing it from 6Nm to 8Nm helps is stay quiet but I wasn’t willing to risk this and possible invalidate any future warranty claims.

Anyway, sad to see the bike go and when it was quiet it was great but also looking forward to getting something without this issue

sounds like you got lucky.Good to see cannondale handle it so well. well done.

I have a Cannondale Synapse. The headset creaked, as did the bottom bracket as did the seat post. Not what you expect on a top of the range bike. I’ll never buy a Cannondale again.

I’ll be honest, the shop have taken it back, not sure whether Cannondale have yet. The shop were great and spent a lot of time trying to sort it, so much so I felt guilty returning it

I’ve had a Cannondale Synapse as well and it was a pile of crap.I wouldn’t touch one again with a bargepole. The seatpost creaked, the bb creaked like hell and needed replacing at 500 miles, the wheels were not fit for purpose and the brake blocks hardly stopped the bike.
It was the worst bike I’ve ever had by a mile and I’ve had about 50.

Maybe consider the Caad12 / Caad13 if you like Cannondales? They’re not far off the weight of the SuperSix and the handling is great. The Caad12 disc at least has a normal seatpost clamp (that’s what I’ve got).

Sounds like my old carbon Synapse. Put me off carbon frames but maybe it’s just Cannondale carbon…

Its Cannondale full stop. They are shit.

I’ve put 5000 miles on my 2 Cannondale road bikes over the last couple of years. Not had a creak from either!
The Synapse gets ridden all through the winter, and used to commute on a couple of days a week. Both bikes still on the original BB.

The CAAD13 uses the same seat post wedge. Whilst being aluminium I’m sure you can torque it up more but it’s put me off that design.

I’ve found a 2019 Specialized Tarmac with the same 105 spec and a regular seatpost clamp and a threaded bottom bracket so think I’m going to go for that. Being a 2019 model it also has a good chunk of money off

I bought a new 2020 Cannondale Super Six Evo

when I go in for a bike fit in a few weeks

isn’t it usual to have the bike fit before you buy the bike?

remove the BB30 bearings, grease the outer edge and the shell and refit, it’s usually the source of all creaks on Cannondales

The CAAD13 uses the same seat post wedge. Whilst being aluminium I’m sure you can torque it up more but it’s put me off that design.

That’s a stupid piece of design then – unless the plate is welded into the aluminium frame which could be more secure.

Cannondale do seem intent on doing strange things / weird proprietary standards.

So far so good on my Caad12 after a year and a half or so, but I’m slightly concerned about when the bb is due for replacement that it’s a weird standard and press fit. Add to that the extra small seatpost diameter and that I have a front post mount and rear flat mount brake setup.

+1 on the above – grease the bb cups before pressing the bearings in to avoid creaking. Agree that the stock bb30 bearings are rubbish though – I’ve just swapped mine for a pair of skf solid oil ones which should last a good few years.

I’ve got a 2013 Cannondale SpeedSix which I’ve done close to 20,000 kilometers on.

The original BB always creaked slightly but I had it replaced fairly recently and the creaking has now stopped (I’m under no illusions that it will return eventually).

However, after a particular dusty ride, I had terrible creaking from both the saddle/seatpost and headset/stem/bars which was easily fixed with a clean and re-grease of all Interfaces.

None of this makes any difference to me though as this bike has simply superb handling and a ride quality which makes it a joy to ride! 🙂

Yep, I’m just giving an update on the specific issue I had. The problem was traced to the seatpost wedge. It had nothing to do with BBs and having heard the usual horror stories about pressfit I decided I was happy to take the chance.

isn’t it usual to have the bike fit before you buy the bike?

I guess you can, but my understand is that this was about making the minor adjustments rather than “should I buy a 56 or a 58?”
I checked out the different sizes, test rode them etc, and worked out which was the best fit in general.
The 2 hour bike fit did things like lowering the saddle height 3mm, adjusting saddle angle, adjusting cleat angle etc. I’d ridden 250 miles on the bike before and it felt fine but making these minor changes made it feel a lot better. These are things you may or may not do at home yourself. Would I pay for a bike fit, not sure. But this was thrown in with the purchase of the bike so why not

Nothing to add, other than last time I had a creaky seatpost on a Cannondale (within last year, and there’s a post here with me asking if Thomson seatoosts ever don’t creak) turned out it as a cracked seat tube.

I did use some fibre tape to wrap the sh*t out of the seat tube / top tube / seat stay junction, and did a race on it before binning the frame!

I’ve heard of those issues with the new wedge system, greasing the bolt threads and carbon paste on the friction surface is meant to fix it.

I’ve had a Cannondale tandem (toured the GDMBR on it), F1000, original Jeckyll, an old CAAD, and just got a CAAD 12 yesterday, never had an issue… I think their alu frames are good but not their carbon for some reason.

Hambini’s findings: https://www.hambini.com/blog/post/bottom-bracket-pressfit-and-creaking-an-engineering-opinion/