Carbon creaking

I have a Trek 5200 (OCLV carbon, Ultegra components)
with about 500 miles on it. I'm getting a loud
creak when I'm climbing. It's louder when I'm
sitting than when I'm standing.

Both of my sets of pedals/shoes creak on the Trek
and neither do on my steel frame bike, so it's not
that.

I'm thinking it's the seatpost and/or bottom bracket.
My mechanical experience is with a few generations
of bikes ago, so I don't want to go adding grease
without checking here first. Is there any problem
with adding grease on a carbon seatpost/frame
combination, or onto the crank/bb junction (I guess
it's not a taper any more, is it?) on an Ultegra?

Or does anybody have any other suggestions?

Thanks.

Larry Coon wrote:
I have a Trek 5200 (OCLV carbon, Ultegra components)
with about 500 miles on it. I'm getting a loud
creak when I'm climbing. It's louder when I'm
sitting than when I'm standing.

Both of my sets of pedals/shoes creak on the Trek
and neither do on my steel frame bike, so it's not
that.

I'm thinking it's the seatpost and/or bottom bracket.
My mechanical experience is with a few generations
of bikes ago, so I don't want to go adding grease
without checking here first. Is there any problem
with adding grease on a carbon seatpost/frame
combination, or onto the crank/bb junction (I guess
it's not a taper any more, is it?) on an Ultegra?

Or does anybody have any other suggestions?

Thanks.

My 5200 year 2001, has creaked in two different places. Stem and handlebar
joint. Just greased the bolts and retightened.
BB. Opened up the BB and greased it. It is of course a cartridge, but I
cleaned and greased everything that was in contact with anything else and
chucked it back in again. Had to get two special tools for this. One was a
couple of dollars and the other maybe 20-30.
After retightening the creaking has stopped.
*But* retightening the BB took a long time. Like I had to tighten it half a
turn after every ride for a long time afterwards.

--
Perre

You have to be smarter than a robot to reply.

Larry Coon wrote:
I have a Trek 5200 (OCLV carbon, Ultegra components)
with about 500 miles on it. I'm getting a loud
creak when I'm climbing. It's louder when I'm
sitting than when I'm standing.

Both of my sets of pedals/shoes creak on the Trek
and neither do on my steel frame bike, so it's not
that.

I'm thinking it's the seatpost and/or bottom bracket.
My mechanical experience is with a few generations
of bikes ago, so I don't want to go adding grease
without checking here first. Is there any problem
with adding grease on a carbon seatpost/frame
combination, or onto the crank/bb junction (I guess
it's not a taper any more, is it?) on an Ultegra?

Or does anybody have any other suggestions?

Thanks.

My 5200 year 2001, has creaked in two different places. Stem and handlebar
joint. Just greased the bolts and retightened.
BB. Opened up the BB and greased it. It is of course a cartridge, but I
cleaned and greased everything that was in contact with anything else and
chucked it back in again. Had to get two special tools for this. One was a
couple of dollars and the other maybe 20-30.
After retightening the creaking has stopped.
*But* retightening the BB took a long time. Like I had to tighten it half a
turn after every ride for a long time afterwards.

--
Perre

You have to be smarter than a robot to reply.

Is there any problem
with adding grease on a carbon seatpost/frame
combination, or onto the crank/bb junction (I guess
it's not a taper any more, is it?) on an Ultegra?

Do not, ever, put grease on a seatpost that goes into a TREK OCLV frame.
The grease will eat into the special coating that's on the inside of the
tube, and it will also require that excessive force be used to keep it from
slipping. No grease in that region, please.

As for noises, check out this page on our website-
http://www.chainreaction.com/noises.htm.

--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
IMBA, BikesBelong, NBDA member

"Larry Coon" wrote in message
...
I have a Trek 5200 (OCLV carbon, Ultegra components)
with about 500 miles on it. I'm getting a loud
creak when I'm climbing. It's louder when I'm
sitting than when I'm standing.

Both of my sets of pedals/shoes creak on the Trek
and neither do on my steel frame bike, so it's not
that.

I'm thinking it's the seatpost and/or bottom bracket.
My mechanical experience is with a few generations
of bikes ago, so I don't want to go adding grease
without checking here first. Is there any problem
with adding grease on a carbon seatpost/frame
combination, or onto the crank/bb junction (I guess
it's not a taper any more, is it?) on an Ultegra?

Or does anybody have any other suggestions?

Thanks.

Is there any problem
with adding grease on a carbon seatpost/frame
combination, or onto the crank/bb junction (I guess
it's not a taper any more, is it?) on an Ultegra?

Do not, ever, put grease on a seatpost that goes into a TREK OCLV frame.
The grease will eat into the special coating that's on the inside of the
tube, and it will also require that excessive force be used to keep it from
slipping. No grease in that region, please.

As for noises, check out this page on our website-
http://www.chainreaction.com/noises.htm.

--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
IMBA, BikesBelong, NBDA member

"Larry Coon" wrote in message
...
I have a Trek 5200 (OCLV carbon, Ultegra components)
with about 500 miles on it. I'm getting a loud
creak when I'm climbing. It's louder when I'm
sitting than when I'm standing.

Both of my sets of pedals/shoes creak on the Trek
and neither do on my steel frame bike, so it's not
that.

I'm thinking it's the seatpost and/or bottom bracket.
My mechanical experience is with a few generations
of bikes ago, so I don't want to go adding grease
without checking here first. Is there any problem
with adding grease on a carbon seatpost/frame
combination, or onto the crank/bb junction (I guess
it's not a taper any more, is it?) on an Ultegra?

Or does anybody have any other suggestions?

Thanks.

Mike Jacoubowsky/Chain Reaction Bicycles wrote:

Do not, ever, put grease on a seatpost that goes into a TREK OCLV frame.
The grease will eat into the special coating that's on the inside of the
tube, and it will also require that excessive force be used to keep it from
slipping. No grease in that region, please.

Thanks, Mike. It was the prospect of advice such as
this that made me want to check here first.

As for noises, check out this page on our website-
http://www.chainreaction.com/noises.htm.

Good read...thanks. Looks like I've already eliminated
your #1 source (shoes/cleats/pedals) by trying different
sets. As near as I can tell it's the BB, but since I get
more noise sitting down than standing up I wasn't ruling
out the seatpost. It -sounds- like it's the BB, but I
know that can be deceiving. I'm almost positive it's not
the bar/stem, unless my bike was Edgar Bergen in a past
life.


Larry Coon
University of California

Mike Jacoubowsky/Chain Reaction Bicycles wrote:

Do not, ever, put grease on a seatpost that goes into a TREK OCLV frame.
The grease will eat into the special coating that's on the inside of the
tube, and it will also require that excessive force be used to keep it from
slipping. No grease in that region, please.

Thanks, Mike. It was the prospect of advice such as
this that made me want to check here first.

As for noises, check out this page on our website-
http://www.chainreaction.com/noises.htm.

Good read...thanks. Looks like I've already eliminated
your #1 source (shoes/cleats/pedals) by trying different
sets. As near as I can tell it's the BB, but since I get
more noise sitting down than standing up I wasn't ruling
out the seatpost. It -sounds- like it's the BB, but I
know that can be deceiving. I'm almost positive it's not
the bar/stem, unless my bike was Edgar Bergen in a past
life.


Larry Coon
University of California

Larry Coon wrote:

Mike Jacoubowsky/Chain Reaction Bicycles wrote:


Do not, ever, put grease on a seatpost that goes into a TREK OCLV frame.
The grease will eat into the special coating that's on the inside of the
tube, and it will also require that excessive force be used to keep it from
slipping. No grease in that region, please.


Thanks, Mike. It was the prospect of advice such as
this that made me want to check here first.


As for noises, check out this page on our website-
http://www.chainreaction.com/noises.htm.


Good read...thanks. Looks like I've already eliminated
your #1 source (shoes/cleats/pedals) by trying different
sets. As near as I can tell it's the BB, but since I get
more noise sitting down than standing up I wasn't ruling
out the seatpost. It -sounds- like it's the BB, but I
know that can be deceiving. I'm almost positive it's not
the bar/stem, unless my bike was Edgar Bergen in a past
life.


Larry Coon
University of California

I had a hidden noise similar, turned out
to be the saddle (a cheap Contour model
from Performance) was bending in the
middle. I slid the saddle rails forward
in the clamp, they were back pretty far
as a starting adjustment point, until it
stopped.

Larry Coon wrote:

Mike Jacoubowsky/Chain Reaction Bicycles wrote:


Do not, ever, put grease on a seatpost that goes into a TREK OCLV frame.
The grease will eat into the special coating that's on the inside of the
tube, and it will also require that excessive force be used to keep it from
slipping. No grease in that region, please.


Thanks, Mike. It was the prospect of advice such as
this that made me want to check here first.


As for noises, check out this page on our website-
http://www.chainreaction.com/noises.htm.


Good read...thanks. Looks like I've already eliminated
your #1 source (shoes/cleats/pedals) by trying different
sets. As near as I can tell it's the BB, but since I get
more noise sitting down than standing up I wasn't ruling
out the seatpost. It -sounds- like it's the BB, but I
know that can be deceiving. I'm almost positive it's not
the bar/stem, unless my bike was Edgar Bergen in a past
life.


Larry Coon
University of California

I had a hidden noise similar, turned out
to be the saddle (a cheap Contour model
from Performance) was bending in the
middle. I slid the saddle rails forward
in the clamp, they were back pretty far
as a starting adjustment point, until it
stopped.

"Larry Coon" wrote in message
...
I have a Trek 5200 (OCLV carbon, Ultegra components)
with about 500 miles on it. I'm getting a loud
creak when I'm climbing. It's louder when I'm
sitting than when I'm standing.

Both of my sets of pedals/shoes creak on the Trek
and neither do on my steel frame bike, so it's not
that.

I'm thinking it's the seatpost and/or bottom bracket.
My mechanical experience is with a few generations
of bikes ago, so I don't want to go adding grease
without checking here first. Is there any problem
with adding grease on a carbon seatpost/frame
combination, or onto the crank/bb junction (I guess
it's not a taper any more, is it?) on an Ultegra?

Or does anybody have any other suggestions?

Thanks.

Just last week I had a new creak I had to hunt down. It was only happening
when climbing -- standing or sitting, but especially standing. I re-greased
the skewers and tightened the quick-releases a bit more and it stopped.

Bob C.