3 month old xfusion velvet, which has I now realise had this from new. Have spoken to bike shop who built it up and am dropping it in next weekend for inspection/ warranty so no concerns there. I initially thought it was the brakes as it creaks a lot under heavy braking, most noticeable on road or smooth trails. By a process of elimination I ended up this afternoon with bike upside down, wheel out and if I sit on the down tube with feet on bars and a hand on each fork leg I can replicate the creak. Headset is new with the bike build, cane creek tapered in a new Soul, its all greased and tightened up properly, as is the Thomson stem.

So, unless its something I’ve missed its either steerer or crown.

An on hols in cairngorms this week, riding daily………. Keep on using it or what ? Really want to get a few hrs in every morn before family are up and about, but is there a likliehood of catastrophic failure/snapping ?

Seeing as I think its been like this since new I think I’m going to ride it rest of the week:-)

Us your headset installed correctly?? Sounds a bit odd if its the forks….I would be looking for cracks in the crown

Although I could be being over suspicious of the fork saying that so am happy to be corrected

I wouldn’t ride it properly till you work out what it is. Then again I can still remember flying over a sharp spike of a snapped steerer holding onto bars no longer attached to the bike….

Headset does appear to be in right and was done by a mechanic I rate. I have had it all to bits too and it looks fine. I’m pretty sure its the fork, although I have ridden it 40 odd hrs and the noise is consistent..

Tim – if I hold one fork leg and pressure in opposite direction to the other one it creaks, a high pitched noise like something is moving just a tiny bit. That is upside down with wheel out, but once wheel is in and maxle done up it does it when I brake…

Good bike shop in ballater , I’m sure they’d give it a look over if your near there .

OK, update, took headset apart and fork out, couldn’t get fork to creak by pulling, pushing, standing, so put together again and thought I’d load the headset bearings a little more to see if it changed – basically started pulling the sfn up without getting noticeably stiffer with allen key or making steering tight – faulty sfn or something ? Anyway, will need to take it to Bothy Bikes, which is 5 mins away, in morn, as it needs a new sfn at least. Any thoughts ?

@iainc

it can be caused by a number of problems on the bike, not perhaps the fork itself 😉

if you can pull the S.F.N. easily up the steerer tube, its not doing its job. Make sure you have a 2-3mm gap between the top of the steerer tube and the headset cap to allow headset compression.

start by getting a torque wrench, the headset cap bolt loading the S.F.N. should never be set beyond 5nm as this just overloads the headset bearings

typically, this in itself will not cause noise, just premature damage/wear to the bearings, and more importantly stiff steering which can make the bike dangerous to ride

if the S.F.N. has not been inserted correctly (its sitting at an angle) this can cause the headset to be unequally loaded and will affect ability to load headset even when using torque wrench, and can cause noises

take your bike to a competent mechanic who should know enough to get this sorted 😉

Esher, thanks. Lots of good points. I have installed a few headsets over the years but not this one. Sfn was in the right place as I checked it with the proper nut setter when I first started investigating problem (it is a new build, all new bits, done by LBS, but I’m on holiday at moment so can’t get there). I am pretty used to bike fettling but have never had a sfn pull up without steering going tight or the bolt stiffening up. Don’t have a torque set with me but it pulled up way less than 5 Nm. As I was winding it up once I knew it was moving steering never got stiff.

Hopefully shop nearby can look at in morn – I think its was either a dodgy sfn or something wrong with headset to start with. Hey ho, that’s easier sorted than a warranty on crown steerer if it sorts it !