Troublesome dropper

Before I throw the damned thing out of the window…. Any other thoughts?

Have a KS Lev, bought early 2020 and it creaks, a lot.

As far as I can tell it’s the clamp assembly and how it fits the top of the shaft. There’s always some movement, metal against metal, no matter how much its nipped up.

I can and have striped, cleaned, smoothed parts, greased and reassembled. Sometimes it sorts it for a while, sometimes not, but eventually the noise always comes back, especially when putting some effort in.

Post is in a carbon T130. I weigh north of 18 St kitted, so aware it might have a task on its hands.

To me, I think it’s simply a product how the clamp is designed, meaning ultimately a new post might be my only long term quieter option.

Anything I’m missing? Thanks.

Could be the inner air shaft rubbing against the seatpost upper tube ? Oneup advise to wrap a layer of tape to stop them knocking/creaking

Fairly certain the creaks come from the top of the post and externally.

In fact, can sometimes tell the saddle rails are moving a touch when climbing hard, indicating the clamp is potentially rocking on the post head.

Not had the post apart yet, will look at the service instructions again.

Ta.

Have you tried a different saddle or wrapping the rails with tape.

Yes and no, will try later. Thanks.

So, gone through it all. Cleaned, lubed, taped, de taped, de lubed and torqued everything that can be. Creaking still as bad as ever, certainly feels this the saddle is able to move about in the clamp / the clamp head moves on the post.

So, tldr, where do I look for a dropper with a more robust clamping arrangement?

The saddle rail-ends could be moving around inside where they enter the seat. Squidging some araldite in there sorted it for me.

I thought that but he said he’s tried it with a different saddle.

Yep, different perch installed, same effect. Hence, either the clamp is at fault or I’ve got a serious frame issue.

Even dismantled my DUB bb and crank to check that wasn’t playing up.

I also have a creaky KS Lev that is doing my head in. During some research I read about a common issue about the KS Lev saddle rail clamps contorting over time. New clamp rails solved the creaking for a lot of people… sadly not me