Creakier than a creaky thing

A few months back I started to get a loud creaking sound coming from the central area of my Litespeed. It was embarrassingly loud. At first I was convinced it was the bottom bracket, but then I realised that the sound stopped if I stood up and pedalled. So not the BB. Also the sound would reduce greatly if I moved my weight right to the front of the saddle. So saddle, post, clamp or frame?

I tried to systematically work through what was causing it and tried every variation of greasing, anti-seizing, taping, torque wrenching and swearing but all to no avail.

However, I've now swapped out my Thomson Elite seatpost for a Easton Haven post that I picked up from Ebay. The creak has gone!

Anyone else had trouble with Thomson posts? I've heard a few people say that they are slightly undersized and combined with the mill finish on the post this can cause a bad fit and creaking. For such a well-engineered piece of kit I'm kinda surprised.

Nik

Not seatpost but one of their crappy stems. Every so often I'd hear a loud bang from somewhere and creaks I was convinced were coming from the EBB- or worse- cracking titanium. The stem was already greased on every surface but on a whim I swapped out the stem for a Race Face System.
Now I have beautiful silence .

Did you try a dab of grease on the saddle rails where it mates with the clamp?

i used to get this with my thomson , but i found as my arse heat transferred through the saddle and post the creaking would stop . giving the bolts an extra creaky quarter turn finally solved it.

only issue i have with my thompson so far is actually setting the thing up!, Ugh it pain.

Interesting stuff chaps. Funny thing is that at the start of a ride there would be no creak. After about 45mins it would be creak-o-rama. So maybe there is a heat thing going on.

Woz, tried greasing, anti-seizing and insulation taping the saddle rails (not all at the same time!). Tape was the best but it still creaked.

Time will tell if the Haven has the same issues, but so far so good. You've no idea how satisfying a quiet bike is!

Nik

Thought I'd give an update on this in case anyone else has the same problem.

Turns out it wasn't the seatpost. The Haven started creaking just as before and over a few weeks it sounded worse than ever. Swapped the saddle - no improvement. Overhauled the BB and swapped plastic spacers for alloy - no improvement. Gah!

However I now think I've solved it. My Ti frame has an alloy insert bonded into the top of the seat tube. I assume it's there to prevent galling or galvanic corrosion. Given that I'd swapped-out or overhauled every other contender I was left with this. So, I took the post out and turned the frame upside down, removed a bottle boss bolt and then sprayed an industrial quantity of WD40 into the seat tube and let it soak around the aluminium insert. Left it overnight and then re-assembled everything. Hey pesto - not a squeak on today's ride!

My humble apologies to Thomson - looks like the post is in the clear. A few more rides should confirm if it's fixed for good.

Nik

I had an awful creak on my Litespeed: again it was a little patch of corrosion, in this case one of the rear hub's aluminium stub axles in the dropout.

Good one! On my now trashed Parkpre Pro Elite it had an AL insert that was bonded in to place.

Right! Hopefully the end of the saga. :roll:

The creak came back, but having eliminated everything else it had to be the shim. After a bit of light prodding I was able to pull the shim completely out. It had obviously been epoxyed in place and the bond had been progressively failing over time. So, I scraped off all of the old resin from the shim and the seat-tube and refitted the shim with Copaslip. Creeeeak! Also, it was difficult to clamp the post without it slipping. Seems the thickness of the resin is enough to make the difference.

Anyway, I had a brief email exchange with Enigma and they said shims were notorious for creaking on Ti frames and the best thing was to bond it back in place. I gave a light sand to shim and frame, cleaned them up with alcohol, applied 2-part epoxy to both surfaces and then clamped it all in place with the seatpost inserted and left for 48 hours.

I rode all day today and not a squeak. Don't want to jinx it, but it would appear to be case closed.

Nik