Clicking/creaking from handlebars/stem

[[email protected]]

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

 

[[email protected]]

On 5 Apr, 14:04, [email protected] wrote:
> 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

I've has something similar when I move my handelbars. Found out my
rear brake cable was too tight and was pulling my back break and
making a clicking noise. Happened a lot when out of the saddle.
Loosened it and it is sorted now.
Just a thought.
N

 

[clodhopper]

<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> 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
>
I've had this problem. Is it the kind of headset that you can raise or lower
the handlebars by slackening an alan bolt on the front then raise/lower
before retigtening the bolt?
Mine is and it was the block of metal that the alan bolt secures that was
causing the creak.
I removed it, cleaned and coppersliped it, resecured and no more creak.

 

[Simon Brooke]

in message <[email protected]>,
[email protected] ('[email protected]') wrote:

> 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.

If it's an aluminium handlebar, replace it - if it snaps it's nasty. If
it's a steel handlebar, undo the clamp, take the handlebar out, grease the
clamp and put it back in. It may sound daft, but the grease will stop the
squeaking. However, noise can transmit itself around a bike frame in
complicated ways - if sorting the bars doesn't stop the squeak, check
elsewhere (I've got one just now which /sounds/ as if it's the bottom
bracket...)

--
[email protected] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; Human history becomes more and more a race between
;; education and catastrophe.
H.G. Wells, "The Outline of History"

 

[[email protected]]

On 5 Apr, 17:07, "clodhopper" <bob,[email protected]> wrote:

> I've had this problem. Is it the kind of headset that you can raise or lower
> the handlebars by slackening an alan bolt on the front then raise/lower
> before retigtening the bolt?
> Mine is and it was the block of metal that the alan bolt secures that was
> causing the creak.
> I removed it, cleaned and coppersliped it, resecured and no more creak.

It's the old GT "Flip Flop" stem, which a bit of Googling suggested
were used with some kind of threadless headset, but that doesn't
appear to be the case - it has an allen bolt like you describe. Sounds
like a bank holiday job to take it apart and clean it.

I think I can rule out the sound being anything to do with the breaks,
but I still think it might be the bars so I'll also try Simon's idea
and grease the handlebar clamp. (But do that afterwards so I can at
least identify which of the two it was!). There's nothing so high-tech
as aluminium on this bike, so hopefully catastrophic bar collapse is
not likely....

Thanks for the suggestions.

Rob

 

[Pete Biggs]

[email protected] wrote:

> I think I can rule out the sound being anything to do with the breaks,
> but I still think it might be the bars so I'll also try Simon's idea
> and grease the handlebar clamp. (But do that afterwards so I can at
> least identify which of the two it was!). There's nothing so high-tech
> as aluminium on this bike, so hopefully catastrophic bar collapse is
> not likely....

I'd be worried the bars would slip more easily if they were greased.

Try just greasing the bolts first. This often cures clicks.

~PB

 

[clodhopper]

"Pete Biggs" <[email protected]> wrote in
message news:[email protected]...
> [email protected] wrote:
>
>> I think I can rule out the sound being anything to do with the breaks,
>> but I still think it might be the bars so I'll also try Simon's idea
>> and grease the handlebar clamp. (But do that afterwards so I can at
>> least identify which of the two it was!). There's nothing so high-tech
>> as aluminium on this bike, so hopefully catastrophic bar collapse is
>> not likely....
>
> I'd be worried the bars would slip more easily if they were greased.
>
> Try just greasing the bolts first. This often cures clicks.
>
> ~PB
Me too. Bit like greasing the rims to stop the brakes squealing

 

[David Lowther]

<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> 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.

I had exactly the same symptoms. It turned out to be coming from the
bars, where the thinner part of the bar entered the thicker centre part
to which the stem clamps.

I eventually got to the bottom of it, by removing the bars and
clamping one end in a work-mate, and twisting the free end of the bars.
This produced the same click.

I replaced the bars.

Dave.

 

[David Lowther]

> I had exactly the same symptoms.

I should have mentioned the bars were alloy dropped handlebars.

 

[Rob Morley]

In article <[email protected]>, David Lowther
[email protected] says...
<snip>
> I had exactly the same symptoms. It turned out to be coming from the
> bars, where the thinner part of the bar entered the thicker centre part
> to which the stem clamps.
>
You mean there's a separate sleeve over the centre of the bars? That
used to be a common problem when more bars were made that way - it might
be fixable by running some superglue under it.

 

[David Lowther]

"Rob Morley" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In article <[email protected]>, David Lowther
> [email protected] says...
> <snip>
>> I had exactly the same symptoms. It turned out to be coming from the
>> bars, where the thinner part of the bar entered the thicker centre part
>> to which the stem clamps.
>>
> You mean there's a separate sleeve over the centre of the bars? That
> used to be a common problem when more bars were made that way - it might
> be fixable by running some superglue under it.
>

Yes there was a separate sleeve over the centre of the bars.

I didn't think of the superglue option, thanks for the tip.

I binned the clicky bars a few months ago.

Dave.

 

[[email protected]]

On 5 Apr, 18:26, [email protected] wrote:
> On 5 Apr, 17:07, "clodhopper" <bob,[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > I've had this problem. Is it the kind of headset that you can raise or lower
> > the handlebars by slackening an alan bolt on the front then raise/lower
> > before retigtening the bolt?
> > Mine is and it was the block of metal that the alan bolt secures that was
> > causing the creak.
> > I removed it, cleaned and coppersliped it, resecured and no more creak.
>
> Sounds like a bank holiday job to take it apart and clean it.

Well that seems to have done the trick - there was all manner of grit
and other crud on the quill of the stem. I wiped that off, regreased
and tightened it up, and the click seems to have gone (and the slight
waggle has gone too). I can still get a slight creak if I pull hard on
the bars, but my morning commute was wonderfully quiet.*

*apart from the rumble of knobbly tyres, but that's a job for another
day

Rob

 

[Patter]

On 10 Apr 2007 06:46:22 -0700, [email protected] wrote:
> *apart from the rumble of knobbly tyres, but that's a job for another
> day

I think about that occasionally, but at ~£30 a pair that line of thought ends
with "these have got plenty of wear left"

--
Stephen Patterson :: [email protected] :: http://patter.mine.nu/
GPG: B416F0DE :: Jabber: [email protected]
"Don't be silly, Minnie. Who'd be walking round these cliffs with a gas oven?"

 

[Tom]

Patter <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 10 Apr 2007 06:46:22 -0700, [email protected] wrote:
>> *apart from the rumble of knobbly tyres, but that's a job for another
>> day
>
> I think about that occasionally, but at ~£30 a pair that line of
> thought ends with "these have got plenty of wear left"

or £20 including postage from Ebay

http://tinyurl.com/yt8lg9

leads to

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Schwalbe-Semi...0101202144QQcategoryZ7295QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Tom
--
Return address is dead. Real address is at
http://www.happy-penguin.info/address.jpg

 

[Roger Merriman]

<[email protected]> wrote:

> On 5 Apr, 18:26, [email protected] wrote:
> > On 5 Apr, 17:07, "clodhopper" <bob,[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> > > I've had this problem. Is it the kind of headset that you can raise or
> > > lower the handlebars by slackening an alan bolt on the front then
> > > raise/lower before retigtening the bolt? Mine is and it was the block
> > > of metal that the alan bolt secures that was causing the creak. I
> > > removed it, cleaned and coppersliped it, resecured and no more creak.
> >
> > Sounds like a bank holiday job to take it apart and clean it.
>
> Well that seems to have done the trick - there was all manner of grit
> and other crud on the quill of the stem. I wiped that off, regreased
> and tightened it up, and the click seems to have gone (and the slight
> waggle has gone too). I can still get a slight creak if I pull hard on
> the bars, but my morning commute was wonderfully quiet.*
>
> *apart from the rumble of knobbly tyres, but that's a job for another
> day
>
> Rob

i dunno when i take the mountain bike out the rumble of the mud tires
does alert folks, for shared paths and such.

roger