Hi,

I have some 2016 pikes that are working brilliantly. However, last summer they started creaking where the steerer tube enters the crown.

I put some red loctite round the steerer tube and left them over night. Creaking cured!

They started again last week, the loctite has made no difference.

A) Any other fixes?
B) Aan you buy whole stanchions, steerer tubes and crown assemblies? If so is it worth it?
C) Will they fail? If so will that be with out warning?

Cheers
Martin

You can get the existing stanchions and steerer removed and re-pressed into the crown with the correct substance – for a lot less money that a new CSU assembly.

A few places offer this service, RSF, Slick & Slide and Revalve suspension/North East cycleworks

You can press out the steerer and stanchions, clean, coat with a retaining compound and press them back in.

If its a one off I would just pay somebody else to do it.

You can buy a complete new CSU, they are normally expensive.

They dont seem to fall apart, the top caps screw into the stanchions pulling them up into the crown, the steerer is pressed into the crown from below. I dont think constant fretting is good though, I treat noises as warning signs.

Another with creaky pikes here – If you know off the top of your head how much do those guys charge for that on top of a service?

Before you spend a fortune on the forks, are you 100% sure it’s the forks and not headset, crown race, stem or bars? or even shock hardware? Don’t be convinced by the sound disappearing once because you used loctite, I’d need a bit more evidence than one occasion.

I’ve got some 2016 pikes that started creaking at same place a couple of years ago.
I emailed zyro fisher regarding warranty and they suggested checking the torque on the top cap bolt. It needs to be 28nm, I bought a torque wrench and tightened it up and it hasn’t creaked since.
Might be worth checking

This:

Before you spend a fortune on the forks, are you 100% sure it’s the forks and not headset, crown race, stem or bars? or even shock hardware?

But certainly not this:

suggested checking the torque on the top cap bolt. It needs to be 28nm

😲

Unless you want to kill your bearings rather rapidly. Just make sure everything is clean of debris and lightly greased and do it up to the point where there is no play, no more.

frogstomp – Subscriber
Unless you want to kill your bearings rather rapidly. Just make sure everything is clean of debris and lightly greased and do it up to the point where there is no play, no more.

You do realise that he’s talking about fork top caps, not headset top cap 🙂

I’d definitely try doing the top caps up tight first, it sorted one set of mine when they were creaking. The others were warrantied by Sram.

You do realise that he’s talking about fork top caps, not headset top cap 🙂

Ha, no I didn’t! Not actually heard of creaking due to them before.. every day’s a (home) school day!

ThankS!

I might as well give everything a going over before spending money on the problem.

Thanks I never thought it would be possible to re press the bits together!

Do it one step at a time, otherwise you’ll never know what it was!

You say top caps plural but there’s only one on the air side ??

Just did the one and it was a bit off so will see next ride

Ignore me found an exploded diagram last night and can see that taking off the lSC knob gives you access to the top cap

Mine have been creaking since they were about a month old. They’re now 5 years old. My old set did it too. I just thought it was a thing they did. I haven’t died yet. Might try nipping up the top caps though.

So the damper side top cap was really quite loose. Nipped it up and can’t hear any creaks with a garage bounce so promising. Thanks for advice.

I think RSF quoted me around £55 to sort the creakage on a 36 if I sent him the CSU only.