Orbea headset routing – cracking sound

Anyone have experience of these?

New Rise  – changed brakes and dropper and shortened steerer tube and put it all back together.  Getting a “crack” sound when the forks compress (but it’s not the fork – hold the bike so the fork is vertical and compress it and it’s quiet) so I’m pretty sure it’s headset related.

tightening it all up stopped it for half a ride but now it’s back. Annoying as it’s audible all the time descending.

anyone else had this? Have I misassembled or missed something?

It could be many things. In fact I’ve just been trying to get rid of a creak/crack sound like that myself. On my road bike.

It probably is related to something that you’ve done. I’d methodically go back and check/clean/grease things.

Drop the fork, clean the bearings, races and frame to remove any dirt (not degrease etc. just give a good wipe).
Pop the forks in and set everything up. It might help to use carbon assembly paste.

regrease the headset bolt and tighten up – check whatever contraption is used to preload the headset. I think that was the cause of mine as it was dry and showed a little bit of corrosion.

Same for the stem.

It can also be the bars rotating in the stem (or at least moving a very small amount).

Check grips if lockons

I assume it is obviously not a rattle? In which case cleaning, greasing, lubricating and torquing normally fixes it.

Cables in the down tube

Cables in the down tube

definitely not. Happens when the front is compressed with the bike stationary. No cable movement then.

Do they still use the headset with the crappy plastic tapered preload jobbie?  This was the cause of noise on our MK1 Rises.  Swapped the top headset parts out for Hope and noise went away.

Do they still use the headset with the crappy plastic tapered preload jobbie?  This was the cause of noise on our MK1 Rises.  Swapped the top headset parts out for Hope and noise went away.

I came here to write exactly this.

The Acros headset in mine was shocking, it needed tightening after every ride. Haven’t touched the Hope one since I fitted it. No idea of the current rise is the same though?

anyone else had this? Have I misassembled or missed something?

As it’s the newer Rise, it will have the same headset fitted to my 2024 Wild… That is to say it’s a total ballache with all the cables running through it, various different interlocking headset spacers, the compression ring that snaps if you look at it funny etc…

Yes… Mine creaked like a bastard, and I couldn’t do anything to get rid of the creak!

Luckily I bumped into Orbea @ Tweedlove and Lee from Orbea was super helpful… Gave him my bike for a bit, and he took it apart, put it all back together as it should, and (touchwood) it hasn’t creaked since!

So it is possible… But it really is a shit design, I’ll give it that!

Great bikes otherwise mind…

I had that with an Acros headset on my Vitus. Took me ages to work out why it kept coming loose!

Had spares as it’s often cheaper to buy a headset than bearings, annoyingly. Replaced everything above the bearing and it worked well.

Problems started after a service. I guess the plastic bit get damaged over time and when preloading so it simply can’t be refitted?

In my experience, it’s a good idea to replace anything with “Acros” on it

How they have made such headway in the OEM market I don’t know, their products are garbage

Never had any issues with the one on our mk1 rises and the bearings are still running smooth.

@mboy good to know there may be a trick. You didn’t ask what he’d done?

Slight change of subject.  Serviced my headset regularly on my 2022 Orbea Rise.  Despite the somewhat poor sealing on the stock Acros headset, my bearings have always been clean.

My BiL Orbea Rise, never serviced the headset, so when I took the forks firstly, the conical sleeve had somehow ‘seized’ and when I took the bearings out – both just fell apart.  He purchased the identical headset and bearings which I fitted.

Even though my bearings have always been clean, I replaced the stock headset with a Hope one.

Mine is silent… i think i’ve got about 600 miles on the clocks.. Mine does have the plastic thing as the top spacer but it’s all good. I’ll keep an eye on it though.

I removed all mine to fit a multi-tool and it goes together etc like a normal headset, no magic things that can be different.

Ok – seems to be solved.  the Orbea blue paper specs 8nm for the top bolt.  When I torqued it to spec it turned significantly further than my ‘thats tight enough for a top bolt on a headset’ judgement and there was quite a bit of ‘cracking’ as everything settled.

No noise on the last ride done.

In my experience, it’s a good idea to replace anything with “Acros” on it

How they have made such headway in the OEM market I don’t know, their products are garbage

Acros made lovely expensive ceramic headsets in the early 00s. Not sure if they traded on that to start doing crap OEM stuff, or if they got bought out.