Cracking noise from Zesty

Mccraque

Something strange has happened to my Lapierre....Friday I hit a step front on a little hard without getting my weight balance right...so lifted the front over, and the back wheel hit fairly firmly.

Now...there seems to be a cracking/creaking noise coming from somewhere - and am trying to isolate it - with little success.

The seat creaks anyway...but taking that out of the equation, it seems to be from either the shock pivot or the chainstay pivot....but I cannot work out what. Downhill is fine, but it's uphill, when I put a lot of torque down, the cracking is very loud...to the point that I think there may be some proper damage,

There's nothing visible on the frame (Am paranoid given the bloody things reputation as a snapmeister!), seems ok downhill....just the uphills.

Any thoughts as to what it may be? I've posted in the tech section as am trying to isolate the specific part. Thanks

nicklouse

bearings.

but take the wheel out and chain off and clean the rear looking for a lose of paint.

Mccraque

Cheers Nick...bearings in the pivots?

Not sure I follow about the paint though? Or are you searching for frame cracks here?

Mccraque

and do yiou think the bearings would need replacement or just a splodge of grease?

nicklouse

cracks yep.

bearings any/all? Sorry it will be a one by one search. Unless you can reproduce the sound manually and then disconnect bits and see if it is still there.

Mccraque

cheers Nick...I'll begin the detective work....

97th choice

bottom bracket? I've heard them make loud noises under load. :?

mikef2

..before you go mad, swap the rear wheel from your spare bike (...assume you have another?!) to rule out hub/cassette interfeace. Sounds unfeasible but trust me, it was that on my Orange after we had tried all the other more complicated stuff.

rhialto

I had a cracking noise on my Zesty for a while. It ended up being the seatpost (not the seat) creaking in the frame. Tightened up the seatpost collar and eliminated the noise... temporarily.

Fast forward a year, more creaking and cracking. Opened up the frame pivots by the rear shock and found cartridge bearings full of muddy grit. Did my best cleaning them out with degreaser and toothbrush and then injected new grease into them. Solved the cracking noise... temporarily.

More cracking recently, this time it appears to be the cartridge bearings in the bottom bracket. My Zesty (2008) has a BB90 bottom bracket and seems to need regular and frequent overhauling. The cartridge bearings in the BB seem to get easily contaminated, especially in the winter.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Mccraque

So.....I am still having this issue.

The bottom bracket was on it's last legs...so have a spanking new one. I asked the chap at Evans to look at the pivot bearings. He says they are fine and that the creaking was the seatpost.

He splodged grease on it - problem solved...temporarily....move on one week....the creaking is back, and louder than ever.

I have been over the frame several times with a fine tooth comb....no sign of any cracks.

I think it must be the pivot bearings...but

*It happens only when I pedal - the more torque, the more it creaks - hills being the worst
*If I compress the shocks with bunny hops, bumps or rocky descents (with no pedalling) it's silent.
*If I am in the seat (pedalling) it happens
*If I am out of the seat (and pedalling) it happens.

I can only deduce that there must be sideways pressure into the frame from pedal force that is somehow doing something somewhere. But I am buggered if I can pinpoint it.

It's driving me mad and I am off to Afan next week to rag the thing...help!

nicklouse

check the brake assys/gear pods for contact.

Mccraque

the what!?

getonyourbike

the brake lever and gear shifters for contact

bails87

Check your pedal bearings/pedal-crank interface/spd cleats if you use them....bascially anything that moves when you pedal should be properly tightened and greased if appropriate.

Try to reproduce the noise without holding the bars, hold onto the top tube/headtube if needs be. It's amazing how the noise from a slightly loose stem can resonate through the frame and sound like it's coming from the back of the bike.

dan shard

Keep riding it until something falls off. Hey presto, youve found the problem

Mccraque

Dan - I think that may be the best approach...

.....unless I am hitting 40mph on a rocky descent at the time...

hoots

My newish Zesty 514 started creaking two or three weeks ago. Tried tightening and/or greasing the usual suspects (seatpost, chainring bolts, crank-arm bolts, pedals), but creaking persisted, even when out of saddle pedalling. Then, last week, an ex bike shop owner/mechanic suggested cleaning and tightening the mech hanger and (if fitted) the drop out plates - also clean the ends of the hub and axle. I've done this and (famous last words), it seems to have eliminated the creak.

Not sure if it's relevant to your bike, but if it has same drop out arrangement as the current carbon rear end, there are two rather weedy looking metal plates that screw onto the inside faces of the dropouts - on my bike, the screws on both plates were slack - pretty well finger tight on one side! (Whoever had built the bike hadn't put enough thread-lock on the bolts)

Again, not sure if it's relevant, but thought it might be worth mentioning. The UK distributor of Lapierre had a stand and demo bikes at the Dalby XC World Cup race last week. I mentioned the creaking to one of the fellas there (who has his own Zesty) and he said it's well worth putting a bit of light oil (even GT85 etc) on the suspension pivots after every wash or dry ride - he reckons the carbon framed bikes are more susceptible to creaky pivots when they get dry and dusty.

HTH

p.s. Brilliant bike, just a shame about the build quality niggles :? ........or maybe I've just got a 'Friday afternoon-er'.

Mccraque

am so fed up with the bloody thing. After an evening of fettling trying much of the above, I gave up and took it back to Evans for them to take another look at. Am sick of the sight of it.

Anonymous

Some bikes seem to perpetually want to creak, after a while, you get desensetised, especially when riding off road, when the tyre rumble and general chain rattling drowns it out.