[Phoenix864]

Hi all,

I've been dealing with some creaking from my Riot for awhile. After extensive troubleshooting I'm about at wits end - I've tried a laundry list of things and nothing has worked. The creak seems to be coming from around the BB area or from the rear triangle/hub. It occurs whenever pedaling hard or applying significant torque through the pedals. It happens both in and out of the saddle. I haven't really noticed it when coasting. It sounds about like crushing an empty disposable plastic water bottle with each pedal stoke - very loud and very annoying.

So far I've:

Rebuilt both front and rear hubs with fresh bearings (this spring)
Replaced rear hub end caps, one was missing an o-ring which allowed it to move (this spring)
Removed chainring and checked its interface to the crank (this winter)
Removed cranks and checked fit (this summer)
Checked bottom bracket for wear or play (this summer)
Fully rebuilt linkage with new bearings (this summer)
Serviced suspension, replaced rear shock bushings (this summer)
Tried different sets of pedals (this summer)

At this point, I'm not sure what else to do. During my last ride the creaking was especially bad - it sounded like someone was stomping on the plastic bottle. Since Canfield doesn't supply any torque specs, I've just been tightening up the shock bolts and the rear axle until solidly tight, using two fingers on a 6-inch hex key.

I would greatly appreciate any help/suggestions. This creak has been bugging me for months, I would love to silence it.

 

[Raleighguy29]

Have you checked to make sure your rear drop out and derailer is tight. And has plenty of anti seize on the interfaces. Also check your lower head set bearing. I’ve had a lower head set on my riot make those similar sounds.


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[twd953]

I feel your pain. I've been dealing with a nasty creak on my Balance for the past year. Have tried absolutely everything I can think of.

I finally narrowed it down to the front pivot bolt on the lower link. If I loosen the pivot bolt to finger tight, the bike is dead silent as it damn well should be since I've been over everything on the bike with a fine tooth comb.

If I put any amount of torque more than a quarter turn past finger tight on that pivot bolt the creak comes right back. No amount of grease on that pivot makes a difference. I tried teflon tape on the threads, no difference. New enduro max bearings, no difference.

The first year I owned the bike, there was no creak. It developed about a year ago, and I haven't been able to shake it. The creak is there on every pedal stroke in or out of the saddle, and every shock compression. It's loud enough that I get comments from other riders pretty much every ride.

My only solution has been to run the pivot bolt at the least amount of torque possible with a crap ton of locktite on the threads to keep it from backing out. I can't feel any play in the linkage at that low torque, and I'm monitoring it (only 1 ride so far), but it's way less than torque than any pivot should have.

To the OP, I'd suggest loosening your pivot bolts 1 at a time to see if you can get the creak to go away, so you at least can isolate the source.

 

[Cerberus75]

My headset was going bad and it sounded like it was in the BB area. Maybe the big down tube echoes lol.

 

[Phoenix864]

Thanks for all the suggestions, looks like I've got a few more things to try. I'll start with the headset - it sounds like it's another common culprit. I would assume that the fork should be dropped out and the headset checked for any play or roughness?

For the rear dropout and derailer I would assume that I would check the derailer mount itself and the derailer hanger? For anti-seize would it be best to use a dedicated anti-seize paste, or would grease be acceptable?

Finally, if those don't work I'll definitely have a look at the linkage. I would really hate to have the run the linkage bolts backed out so much in order to keep the bike quite, but I appreciate the recommendation nonetheless. Hopefully one of these methods will silence that creak once and for all.

 

[Cerberus75]

Thanks for all the suggestions, looks like I've got a few more things to try. I'll start with the headset - it sounds like it's another common culprit. I would assume that the fork should be dropped out and the headset checked for any play or roughness?

For the rear dropout and derailer I would assume that I would check the derailer mount itself and the derailer hanger? For anti-seize would it be best to use a dedicated anti-seize paste, or would grease be acceptable?

Finally, if those don't work I'll definitely have a look at the linkage. I would really hate to have the run the linkage bolts backed out so much in order to keep the bike quite, but I appreciate the recommendation nonetheless. Hopefully one of these methods will silence that creak once and for all.

For the headset yes drop the fork and check the bearings. Also degrease the bearing shell.

If this and the hanger don't work. I'd try checking the CSU some oil on the sanction joints and steerer joints will stop creaking for a bit

 

[TerryLM]

I dealt with a creak for about four months. First replaced the bottom bracket, still there. Then I replaced my linkage pivot bearings, still there. I then had a slow leak in my rear tire. I removed my wheel to add sealant and noticed the derailleur hanger was loose. I tightened the hanger and have not heard the creak since.

 

[Phoenix864]

Sounds good, looks like the derailleur hanger is a top spot to check in case of creaks. I would assume it would be best to remove the hanger, grease the frame and hanger contact points, and reinstall with Canfield's regular torque value (nicely snug?).

My fork (DVO Diamond) originally had a creaky CSU - the CSU was replaced by DVO last fall. I would hope that this one would not be creaking again. Is there a good method for checking for a creaky CSU?

 

[sriracha]

The CSU on my DVO has been creaking, also. However, it was drowned out by the creaking my Balance frame started making. It also sounded like crushing a plastic bottle. Just horrible. I check the bolts on all my links. They were tight with no play at all.
Finally decided to take everything apart and clean a winter's worth of rain riding grit out of the links. Went through all that only to discover that the replaceable dropout was rattlingly loose and covered in grit. As mentioned above, check the replaceable dropout bolts, accessed from the wheel side of the dropout. That was the source of my creaking.
Now to resolve the creaking CSU and dropper post.

 

[Phoenix864]

The CSU on my DVO has been creaking, also. However, it was drowned out by the creaking my Balance frame started making. It also sounded like crushing a plastic bottle. Just horrible. I check the bolts on all my links. They were tight with no play at all.
Finally decided to take everything apart and clean a winter's worth of rain riding grit out of the links. Went through all that only to discover that the replaceable dropout was rattlingly loose and covered in grit. As mentioned above, check the replaceable dropout bolts, accessed from the wheel side of the dropout. That was the source of my creaking.
Now to resolve the creaking CSU and dropper post.

It seems like you had the exact same problem I'm having - hopefully checking the derailleur dropout will fix my problem as well. If you don't mind me asking, how did you determine that your CSU was creaking? I wouldn't also mind checking my Diamond's CSU just to be safe.

Thanks.

 

[Phoenix864]

I finally got around to pulling the derailleur hanger - I popped it off, cleaned it up, and applied grease between the frame and the hanger. Since no torque specs are provided, I just tightened the bolts until they felt firmly tight. Unfortunately, the creaking persists.

The plastic water bottle sound has been reduced (though still present), and two new creaks have began occurring - one you can hear and feel while pedaling, it sounds like a plastic click and/or pop and seems to be coming from the bottom bracket. The other creak sounds like two smooth pebbles being being clicked together or a smooth stone being knocked against an aluminum tube. It occurs mostly when pedaling, but I've heard it occasionally when coasting. In all, my Riot has become a cacophony of sounds while riding.

During a cleaning I often pop the Riot up onto it's rear wheel and bound it to help dislodge any debris in the linkage. Recently, doing this has also caused the plasticy sounding creaking to occur. Picking up the bike and shacking also results in a large amount of plasticy sounding creaking.

At this point my top suspects are the bottom bracket and the headset. I'm still not entirely sure what is causing the pebble clicking sound, but hopefully replacing/rebuilding the headset and BB should take care of all the noises.

While checking the derailleur hanger I noticed some weird scoring on the hanger itself and on the axle. I checked my spare used rear triangle and axle and didn't find any such marks. I don't know if it's directly related to the creaking, but are marks like these common/normal?

 

[hoolie]

Wow! Some of you live with a creak for a crazy long time. I always chase them down within a ride or 2 or 3. Coming off a bike with Eccentric Bottom Bracket, I had to be super creative. I agree about Derailleur hangers, always a top culprit. Also seat clamp bolts get dry and creak. Under saddle rail bolts can be lubed without dis assembly. Sometimes on WTB saddles the plastic perimeter parts rub plastic saddle body, and where rails end into plastic can use some oil. Shimano XT 11 spd cassettes are the worst for creaking (but I love the cassette). The two largest cogsets face against each other, and creak. You have to grease that interface. If you bring a water bottle in your pack, you can squirt water on parts as you climb, until you squirt a part and it stops the creaking. Start low on crankbolts/btm brkt, then work your way up frame, seatpost clamp, etc stopping every 5 min during a climb, and trying new spot. Good luck, and let us know what the culprit ends up being.

 

[hoolie]

Before swapping frame bearings 1.5 months ago, I did drip Triflow onto bottom linkages, then wiped excess off with towel (Old Turner 5-Spot routine).

 

[Phoenix864]

Thanks for the recommendations - from what I can tell the derailleur hanger should be tight and clean and I'm running a GX cassette (though it might still be worth checking the cassette interface just to be sure). I know my seatpost/saddle do creak, but the annoying creaks are much louder and occur both in and out of the saddle. Thanks for pointing out that water bottle trick, I'll definitely give that a shot. Hopefully it might be able to narrow down the location of the noise a bit.

Right now I've been out of state so I haven't been able to get the Riot to the shop in order to have the bottom bracket and headset checked out. Once the culprit is identified I'll definitely post it up for others' reference.

While it may not be 100% related, are those wear marks on the dropouts and rear axle normal (see my last post for pictures)? I'm wondering if they occurred from not tightening the rear axle quite enough, which in turn might lead to some of the noise I've been hearing. I've just been tightening the axle with two fingers on a 6 inch hex key until it won't turn any further with reasonable force.

 

[JimmyC]

I have had a Canfield Riot for several years and I do not have any wear marks on my rear thru-axle. I am only a data point of one so I can't say that you are experiencing abnormal wear (but it seems like you might be).

 

[Phoenix864]

I have had a Canfield Riot for several years and I do not have any wear marks on my rear thru-axle. I am only a data point of one so I can't say that you are experiencing abnormal wear (but it seems like you might be).

Interesting, it seems like that wear is not typical. I also have a spare used rear triangle and neither its axle or dropouts have those marks.

 

[yogidave]

I had the "Riot Creak" when standing and mashing.

I disassembled all the linkage parts for the first time ever, cleaned everything, checked bearing wear, re-greased and torqued to "a little past hand tight (per Canfield)".

No more creaking. Quiet as a church mouse.

Small amount of wear of the black anodization on the lower link thru-axles after nearly 2 years of zero maintenance. bearings on the lower link are ever-so-slightly crunchy, but not bad enough to do anything about yet.

The only thing I hear now if the damper cycling on my Fox 36.

Super easy job - 20 minutes

 

[Phoenix864]

I had the "Riot Creak" when standing and mashing.

I disassembled all the linkage parts for the first time ever, cleaned everything, checked bearing wear, re-greased and torqued to "a little past hand tight (per Canfield)".

No more creaking. Quiet as a church mouse.

Small amount of wear of the black anodization on the lower link thru-axles after nearly 2 years of zero maintenance. bearings on the lower link are ever-so-slightly crunchy, but not bad enough to do anything about yet.

The only thing I hear now if the damper cycling on my Fox 36.

Super easy job - 20 minutes

Unfortunately I can say for sure that sound is not coming from the linkage. Even after fully rebuilding it with all new bearings the creaking remained. Unfortunately a recent injury and increase in the business of my schedule has prevented me from further investigating the creaking recently, but the BB and headset are still my top suspects.

Regarding the wear on the axle - I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the extra torque caused from the brake rotor. I'm wondering if I haven't been cinching up the axle quite as tight as it needed to be.