greased the faces of the dropouts

Er, isn't that a really bad idea?

Headset moving in the frame? that was the source of a creak on the tandem - resulted in ovalised headtube, cured with long insertion headset

Jakester, yeah it does seem a bit counter-intuitive, but seems to be a common suggestion to cure front end creaks.

The wheel nuts are done up so tight there's no chance of the wheel slipping, and even if it did, the lawyer's lips would stop it going anywhere.

Tj, good suggestion but it's all integrated, bearings onto races machined into headtube. All greased and adjusted.

usually in order of annoyance

qr skewers
pedals
saddles
bb

Have you greased the crown race interface to the steerer?
You must have pretty good hearing to isolate the creaking to the forks. How do you know it isn't the stem/steerer or stem/bars?
Have you checked the frame and fork for cracks?

IME sound can resonate/'move' and it can be really hard to isolate a spot. How have you deduced it was the forks?

I had a creak that i thought was the bb. My lbs agreed and swapped it....the creak remained and was infact a mavic front wheel bearing that had required a little more pre-tension......

Hope it helps...

breninbeener, that's interesting, these are bargain basement wheels, cartridge bearings pretensioned by a locknut on a threaded axle, I had dribbled some GT85 in between the bearing and the hub but maybe I need to look at the tension of the lock nuts.

I had decided it is the forks/front wheel by a process of elimination:

- It happens whether you're pedalling or not
- It happens even if I've unclipped and my feet are just dangling
- It happens when stood up (i.e. out of saddle).
- (most difficult to prove) it happens even if your hands are off the bars (albeit less loudly, but I think this is just because it's harder to put any force through the front when you're not on the bars.

I'm going to swap the 15mm cone spacer and 25mm of wee alloy spacers for one mother of a 30mm cone spacer and one 10mm alloy spacer, reduce the scope for movement etc. there.

I will also get a shop to take the crown race off, clean, grease and re-install.

Already eyeing up new forks but Kinesis seem to be the only ones to do a reasonably priced alloy fork, and they have none available. Otherwise it's £400 for a straight steerer carbon Whisky fork!

The wheel nuts are done up so tight there's no chance of the wheel slipping, and even if it did, the lawyer's lips would stop it going anywhere.

The first part of this may be true, but if you are running disc brakes then the second part certainly is not.

I'd try cleaning the dropout interface with IPA and seeing what happens then, but I've been ignoring various creaks on a couple of bikes for a while now, I know it's nothing wearing out so it just annoys the **** out of me.

The first part of this may be true, but if you are running disc brakes then the second part certainly is not.

Agree, it's v-brakes though. Plus (possibly a clue to the creaking issue) the surface of the dropouts is so 'rough' mechanically that I don't believe the presence or otherwise of a smear of grease will make the difference.

Although the more I think about it, if the wheel nuts are done up tight enough to be safe, there shouldn't be any movement between the nuts and the dropouts anyway, so nothing to cause the creaking... Perhaps a red herring, I'll get the IPA out tonight 😆

edit:

I know it's nothing wearing out so it just annoys the **** out of me.

Have a friend who had an issue with disc wheels moving under heavy braking on his CX bike, no matter how tight he did the QR up. In the end, he swapped to a DT Swiss "screw-up" QR and this completely resolved the issue. If you think the creak is from the front axle, perhaps this is worth a go:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/dt-swiss-rws-road-skewer/rp-prod81159

Thanks Daern,

The wheels are currently solid axle with wheel nuts, so I assume will be solid.

That said I am hoping to swap to a QR wheel in the future, will make sure it's got a Shimano or DT skewer.

I've found bearings can creak (and even crunch) when they're on their way out - oddly this has happened to me before there's been noticeable play in them once or twice recently. They did degrade to the point where it was very clear something was amiss in the space of 10-20 miles though, so it's probably not that.

Oh yeah, I've also had a creak in the rear wheel when the axle has snapped, but that seems quite unlikely in a front wheel and I would hope you'd notice the very flexy feeling in a non-qr wheel.

It'll be the first thing I check tonight, they're super crude hubs, the bearing is literally pressed into the side of the hub with no sort of cover or anything. Preloaded via one 15mm nut which is locked with another 15mm nut.

I'll take apart and see if I can take bearings out and clean/regrease.

I once had an unusual one when creak hunting - bottle cage bolts. Had it pinned to the fork. Then the bb. Then resigned myself to it being a crack.

Such an easy fix for what turned out to be two days of stripping, greasing and refitting.

Everything...

It's a good argument for 3D printing an entire bike, really.

bearings onto races machined into headtube.

I suspect this in which case solution is a new frame or loctite them in?

Have you tried a thin smear of grease between the stem and bars?

Have you tried a thin smear of grease between the stem and bars?

If not, don't. Clean them, use grip paste if you must.

First prize to Breninbeener, with honourable mentions for philjunior and ballsofcotton.

I removed the front wheel bearings, which were just chunky cartridge bearings pressed into the hub shell. The locknuts on the axle don't really preload the bearings, as I think they just tighten onto a shoulder machined into the axle. I tested this by tightening as much as I could but the bearings still ran free.

The bearings came out and pressed back in awfully easy, so at first I greased them which slightly removed the noise, which then came back, then went away again, etc.

After a quick visit to Halfords I then removed, cleaned and applied some bearing locking compound all over the outside race of the bearings and the hub shell.

Noise is now 95% gone for two rides, so I'm thinking the front hub assembly had been acting like a mini press-fit BB and the bearings were just moving in the shell. Hopefully time will tell if it's a permanent fix.

Blissful silence for now! 😀