R
At the beginnning of the year I decided to get rid of my car as it was
costing me a fortune and 90% of the time I was only using it to sit in
traffic jams on the way to the train station. Instead I've been using
my old (circa 1991/92) GT Karakoram, and it seems to make a pretty
good commuting bike, apart from the garish 90s paint job ) (I was
thinking of buying a new one with the money I'll save, but after
applying a small amount of TLC to it I realise that it's still very
nice to ride!)
However, one thing is slowly driving me mad - I can't get rid of an
annoying noise that is either coming from the handlebars or the stem.
It's not exactly a creak, more a sort of metallic click when I apply
any leverage to the bar area, e.g. lifting over bumps and curbs or
pedalling hard out of the saddle. At first I thought it was coming
from the joint where the stem fits into the head tube (apologies if my
terminology is wrong), but that seems to be pretty tight. It's a
threaded headset, and I have noticed that the top locknut has a habit
of working loose every so often, but tightening it doesn't eradicate
the noise.
After pressing my ear against the area and bouncing the handlebars up
and down, I now think it might be coming from the bars where they are
clamped in the stem. I tightened the bolts a bit, but that also
doesn't seem to have made any difference, and I don't want to overdo
it for fear of crushing the bars and/or stripping the bolts.
Any ideas how I can remedy it? Last time I had the bike serviced (some
time ago) I mentioned the problem, but they couldn't fix it.
Thanks,
Rob
costing me a fortune and 90% of the time I was only using it to sit in
traffic jams on the way to the train station. Instead I've been using
my old (circa 1991/92) GT Karakoram, and it seems to make a pretty
good commuting bike, apart from the garish 90s paint job ) (I was
thinking of buying a new one with the money I'll save, but after
applying a small amount of TLC to it I realise that it's still very
nice to ride!)
However, one thing is slowly driving me mad - I can't get rid of an
annoying noise that is either coming from the handlebars or the stem.
It's not exactly a creak, more a sort of metallic click when I apply
any leverage to the bar area, e.g. lifting over bumps and curbs or
pedalling hard out of the saddle. At first I thought it was coming
from the joint where the stem fits into the head tube (apologies if my
terminology is wrong), but that seems to be pretty tight. It's a
threaded headset, and I have noticed that the top locknut has a habit
of working loose every so often, but tightening it doesn't eradicate
the noise.
After pressing my ear against the area and bouncing the handlebars up
and down, I now think it might be coming from the bars where they are
clamped in the stem. I tightened the bolts a bit, but that also
doesn't seem to have made any difference, and I don't want to overdo
it for fear of crushing the bars and/or stripping the bolts.
Any ideas how I can remedy it? Last time I had the bike serviced (some
time ago) I mentioned the problem, but they couldn't fix it.
Thanks,
Rob