Conference noted::bicycle

You can try a little lithium grease, but if they are the handle bars
this is a tough one to cure. Creaking in bars is more prevelent in
the "light" weight bars.

I've been running Scott LFs on my road bike and they've creaked from
day one. I treat them from time to time and it goes away for a awhile,
but always comes back. Very annoying.


Chip

I have a Kona Fire Mountain MTB and my saddle creaks!. I took the seatpost appart
and cleaned and greased it. This stopped it for a while but its come back again.
Does Aluminium itself creak?

John 

Yup, aluminum does and Ti can be bad too...

    
    You may have some oxidation build up on the inside of the stem clamp or
    the outside of the bar.  If you do, clean if off (I found Soft Scrub
    works well and rinses of easily).  Greasing the bar will mean you need to
    over-tighten the stems clamp on the handlebar.  Most stem and handlebar
    manufacturers warn against this since this will weaken the handlebar (this
    is where most handlebars will snap).  Instead use a reasonable torque and
    a few drops of Loctite.
       

-1 sorry, you don't have to over-tighten the bars when using
   lithium. i would suspect this would be the reaction of
   folks doing this for the first time.

   there is even less a reason to "over-tighten" with 
   mountain bike bars.

   Chip

    
    Relax Chip, I didn't intend to belittle your suggestion.  I would have
    said Lithium if that had been the case.  Most greases will lead to over
    tightening the stem clamp (not Lithium, ok Chip?).  I was just
    repeating the recommendations of Bontrager/Titec, Synchros, and 3ttt,
    to use proper tightening and a few drops of Loctite.  I'm sure other
    manufacturers have similar recommendations, I just haven't read their
    recommendations.  Maybe some of them recommend Lithium grease aswell.
     

-1 i'm very cool, thanks. i would agree with you that people who
   have not experienced this before would have a tendency to
   over-tighten. it's human nature.

   i wonder how Lock-Tite would perform given the dynamics of
   the flexing. Would be an interesting experiment.

   I would not use use industrial grease or heavy oils for this
   application (for sure).

   Chip

BTW, the head mechanic at Gamamche's (Scott Kinsman) uses lithium.

Of course, this could easily turn into a preferential thing...

Chip

    
    I don't particularly care how cool you are, thanks. 8^)
    
    Obviously some of the Loctite adhesives wouldn't work
    too well in this application, I don't recall the number
    on the bottle, I'll check and post it to this note. 
    

All of these suggestions seem to be fixing the symptom, and are not
explaining the problem - to wit, why does my bar creak?   My chemistry
and mechanical engineering is quite suspect, but heres my guesses as to
why a bar/stem combo would creak:

On each pedal stroke, the opposite hand is pulling up on the bar causing it
to move from straight towards an arc.  Since the bar is trying to arch, it
could be moving inside the stem just a touch (but apparently enough to creak.)
If I had to, I would say the attempted arc pulls the bars left and right. 

(Heres the 2 guessing parts)
1 - The al and c/mb/?? is bonding together (a little) and the force exerted
on the bars during a climb/sprint is enough to break this bond, causing the
creak.  This would be analagous to the cups in a BB bonding to the BB shell
unless they are greased/preped.  (remedy: see Chip/Gamache suggestion)

2 - The other possibility I thought of is the bars are actually moving inside
the clamp on hard efforts. Loctite (kudos to ?brian?) would keep the bar from
'slipping' l/r (or g/d for our French brethren.)


.00002
--roger

    
    Brian? What the...? ;^)
    
    Peter
    

    
    Remember when you were a kid sneaking into or out of a room?  You learned
    to move the door really fast to avoid the cluck, cluck, cluck you got if
    you moved the door really slowly.  The faster you moved the door, the
    closer the clucks got together until they became a crreeeaaak, and
    if you moved it really fast the noise didn't appear.
    
    Anyways, a new hinge won't make that cluck noise.  Why? Because the
    cluck noise is caused by the worn off metal at the contact points of
    the hinge.  New hinges will glide along each other, the deposits which
    build up cause this glide to stutter with the cluck noise.  Some
    manufacturers tried putting plastic washers between the hinge contact
    points and this helped a little, until enough metal rubbed off onto the
    plastic that you had the same problem again!  The only real solution was
    to grease the hinge, i.e. Chips solution.  Cleaning the crud off and
    using Loctite just didn't cut it.
    
    Of course, the latter approach will work best if used on a new stem
    and handlebar since it will stop the initial wear from occuring, and
    thus the creaking noise.
     

    one of my shoes is creaking!!!!! the clipless type, any suggestions. it
    really puts a damper on those warm, starry, QUIET, midnight rides I am
    so fond of.

    re: .13
    
    Lube your feet? :-)
    
    Bob

    Solve all those annoying creaking problems -- wear ear plugs.  You won't 
    even hear your bones creak anymore.

re: lube your feet:

Don't laugh, just do it.  I bet you have look pedals?  Look pedals are famous
for the squeak, especially when they are wet.  Rub bees wax on the pedal surface
where it contacts the clip.  Or, you can use WD40, but it's too slipery for the
first 20 miles or so.

Tim

-1 Boy are you right about LOOKS. I still have my pedals and
   cleats and old shoes ready to go if I ever feel like being
   aggravated :-)...

   Me? I used to spray them with Pledge (cleats) furniture 
   polish once a week. 

   No need to buff :-).

   Chip

I was the one who started this thread and here's what worked for me....

I loosened the handlebars, sprayed on some white grease and worked it in.
Re-tightened the handlebars and the creaks seem to be gone. We'll see how long
it lasts...

Thanks for the suggestion(s).

-Jeff
 

    The bees wax worked! Thanks.