newbie - noise question

enduro-aid

ok so I'm getting back into this mountain biking lark and i got a giant terrago a bout a year ago and ran is great no problems what so ever, few months back i decided i wanted a full susser and bought a second hand 2004 sworks enduro

been using the enduro as my everyday trail bike with regular away days for about 3 months and ive noticed that the bike is getting really loud with creaking, particularly from the seat post, the suspension linkage and now the front end

The harder i push and faster i go the worse the noise gets, any ideas what the hell is going on?

the giant is totally silent, which is what make me think this isnt right

Help!!

bomberesque

OK, you have 3 sources of creaking form what you say;

Seatpost - probably dirt / grease in the rails. Take the seat off the post and clean thoroughly the rails and the channels on the post that they run in. Reassemble dry and put the post back in the bike (put some grease on the outside of the post so it doesn't bind with the frame). Most likely this will stop the creak from your saddle / seatpost
Front end - Either your forks or steerer/stem/handlebar interfaces. First; take teh handlebars off the stem, clean like you did for the saddle and reassemble dry (no grease). If it still creaks, repeat with removing the stem from the steerer, clean and reassemble. If it still creaks, to the shop for an annual service on the fork
Suspension linkage. - Suggest you go straight to your LBS for this one. May just need a tweak, may need new bushings.

If any of your stuff (stem, H-bars, seatpost) are carbon, you should get some carbon assebly compound to put between it and the metal surface that's clamping it. It's like grease with sand in and will help the metal clamp grip better without you needing to overtighten.

You bought the bike second hand so you probably should get it given the once over, especially the suspension front and rear. It's unlikely that the previous owner had them serviced just before selling it (quite the opposite, actually)

enduro-aid

the bike came from a friend of a friend a work and he is a bike nut, told me the bike was last serviced about 6 months before i bought it so its not been " serviced" for around 9 months.......is this long??

my handlebars are carbon and i have some copper grease that i use on the seat post

is copper grease any diffirent from normal grease

apart from cleaning the bike and putting oil on the chain and copper grease on the seat post i havent done any maintance to the bike at all, so i was thinking it may be in need of a good all over grease and new bearings in the headseat and like you said a fork service

Thoughts?

supersonic

Also see the FAQ.

Copper grease isn't really a grease, it is an anti seaze compound for threads.