Clicking on my Cannondale Caad10 2011

JobbyRatch

Hello there and thank for your time.

I recently bough a Cannondale Caad 10 2011 Shimano 105 andd while I love the ride it coincides with a very annoying clicking noise.

The clicking noise happens each and every time I go over a bump. I think I've narrowed it down to the bike stem but I'm not 100% sure exactly where it's coming from.

I'm worried as this is a pretty serious area if things were to go wrong so currently I've not ridden the bike for much longer than 10-15 miles at a time.

I've checked everything within the stem area for tightness and all seem's fine.

Can anyone recommend anything I should try?

Again thanks for your time and any advice.

Gizmodo

Take it back to where you bought it from, or if it was a private 2nd hand sale then take it to your local bike shop and ask them for their opinion.

JobbyRatch

Thanks for your input and I assure you I would if the shop I bought it from were based in Stoke rather than London. None of my local dealers had stock of this model at the time of buying and at the end of line price I couldn't resist, I had to buy it from somewhere!

Before I take it to a local bike shop (Whom from my previous experiences hate people whom buy bikes online. Should be fun, ha) someone surely knows of something I could try or a reason as to why this could be happening?

Again thanks for all advice.

Herbsman

It could be bost.

Try taking everything in that area apart, re-lubing it and re-tightening it, checking for cracks in the process.

DrLex

How many 'clicks'?
I had a noise issue that I traced to being a cable bouncing off the head tube on bumpy sections. Taped to another cable, no more noise.
Other thought- got a speed magnet on a spoke and a receiver on the fork? One or other might need adjusting.

Pumpkin Positive

I had a simial click and traced it down to my spoke magnet hitting my chainstays.

cooper.michael1

If you use mavic wheels, check that the quick release is not done up too tightly, as this can make a noise similar to what you describe. Otherwise learn how to disassemble the stem/headset and buy some thick grease. Put a good layer of grease on all the bolt threads and hopefully this will sort it out.

jgsi

If you can't suss out the reason for the noise then you are going to have to drop it into a local shop for a good checking over.
Usually the reason is pretty simple, however if you are short on experience the trying to describe a noise on here is not going to be that much help.
You say it is from the front end - if so use another wheel to see if you get the same -- if you dont have another wheel , then that is one of the issues, you dont have enough resources to get to the solution - a shop with bike mechanics do... however, the price may wipe out that seemingly lovely discount.

cooper.michael1

JGSI wrote:

If you can't suss out the reason for the noise then you are going to have to drop it into a local shop for a good checking over.
Usually the reason is pretty simple, however if you are short on experience the trying to describe a noise on here is not going to be that much help.
You say it is from the front end - if so use another wheel to see if you get the same -- if you dont have another wheel , then that is one of the issues, you dont have enough resources to get to the solution - a shop with bike mechanics do... however, the price may wipe out that seemingly lovely discount.

With that advise you'd never do anything yourself. You should learn about things like headsets so you can do it yourself. The parktool website is excellent and gives you a step by step process to fix most things.

Ultimately all a bike shop is going to do is go around each area of the bike until they find the noise, you can happily pay them £30 p/h to do so but really it is not rocket science, undoing a bolt coating it in grease and doing it back up again. Chainring bolts are another favourite area for noises, a bit of grease again sorts it out.

the_fuggler

After the first 200 miles or so, my Synapse had developed some clicks. Took it to my LBS who gave it the once over, greased and tightened the appropriate areas and it was fine. In my case it was the bottom bracket that needed some love.

I believe Cannondales come partially assembled when they arrive at the shop, and sometimes they just pop the additional components on without checking the existing assembly. Shouldn't take long or cost a great deal.

carl_p

Hi mate. Work your way through this. There's also a sticky on the Workshop forum which might be useful.

http://www.jimlangley.net/wrench/keepitquiet.html

JobbyRatch

Sigh, thanks for all your advice folks but I seem to have gotten myself into a deeper problem which right now is making my bike redundant.

So I did as told and greased the top cap bolt, pinch bolts and stem bolts. It then came to putting it back together.

So I put the spacers back on, placed the stem ontop of the spacers and put the topcap and topcap bolt on. I then tighten the topcap bolt until it has no more play and then untighen one turn and then tighten the pinch bolts. All good thus far? No...

The god damn fork is loose! Not fully but it rocks back and forth. I presumed the topcap bolt would hold this in place. It's weird construction under the top cap with what I can only describe as 4 quarter circle peices with an elestic band around 'em which I presume is suppose to expand with each turrn of the topcap bolt?

Sigh, I don't know what I've done wrong! Seriously I feel like crying...

It's true what they say, your best paying a little more for a local service then paying cheaper online. Sigh, any tips please?

You'll all be pleased to know also the clicking was also coming from the topcap bolt which hopefully now greased will be gone.

Thanks again and I'm sorry for the trouble!

davenice

Hi there,

Sounds like you're on the right track. I think the problem is that you're slackening the cap bolt off a whole turn before you tighten the pinch bolts.

That's a lot of slackening!

Search for "Headset Adjustment - Threadless Type" on this page:
http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-hel ... et-service

I've never undone the cap bolt after getting the right tension, and it hasn't caused me a problem so far!

Dave

davenice

ps plus, I don't have any annoying clicking noises from mine! ;-)

Don't go getting into the mindset that you should have bought from a real shop. Learning how the bike works yourself is good fun!

The park tools guide I linked to is good for making sure you know what you're going to do, before you do it.

Brommers76

Have you tried the exposed cable that runs underneath the top tube? mine rattled so I fixed that and I also noticed there was rubbing/knocking where a cable adjuster and the end of the stem were touching.

cooper.michael1

You said you'd:

'tighten the topcap bolt until it has no more play and then untighen one turn and then tighten the pinch bolts'

If you'd only just tightened it until there was no play, by untightening it you allow some play back into the equation. Tighten it up so there is no play 'firm', but it is not so tight that it affects the steering and then do up the pinch bolts. As long as you dont massively overtighten it you won't damage the headset.

If this does not work, come back to us and we'll figure it out. Don't worry I built my own bike last year from scratch will no/little experience of headsets, bottom brackets etc... Nothing on a road bike is rocket science, so we'll sort it.

cooper.michael1

davenice wrote:

Hi there,

Sounds like you're on the right track. I think the problem is that you're slackening the cap bolt off a whole turn before you tighten the pinch bolts.

That's a lot of slackening!

Search for "Headset Adjustment - Threadless Type" on this page:
http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-hel ... et-service

I've never undone the cap bolt after getting the right tension, and it hasn't caused me a problem so far!

Dave

+1

I've heard this slacken the bolt off theory too, but i've never done it either. I think it basically come from the fact the when pro bike mechanics deal with the headset they don't treat it as gently as we do on our pride and joy, so they'll slightly overtighten it initially then back the bolt off a bit (not a whole turn) until the tension is right.

JobbyRatch

Thanks for all your input guys I really do appreciate it!

Just gotten in from work and first priority, Cannondale!

So I've undone the topcap bolt and pinch bolts. Placed the topcap back on, tighten away until it's tight enough and left it at that. I then move onto the pinch bolts, tighten them and try for fork movement while on the front brake, it still rocks back and forth.

So I've undone the topcap bolt again and removed it along with everything else that attaches which as I mentioned seems to be 4 quart circle pieces around an elastic band. How exactly does this pull the fork tight? I just don't see how it works.

I'll take some pictures now and see if this helps any...

Thanks again for all advice!

JobbyRatch

Okay here we go, I'll explain anyhow but you'll probably all know what it is. So this is the topcap and everything that attaches to it,



Topcap, spacers and something else which just sits there,



Topcap and bolt,



I just don't know what I'm doing wrong. From picture 1, insert the top cap, tighten, then tighten pinch bolts and away. No so simple it seems.

God damnit looks like I'll be calling around a few LBS's as I cannot have the bike redundant with the weekend they've given weather wise!

Cheers!

jgsi

Just a matter of putting back in same order... if you took forks out, then you will have a shim and or compression ring and larger wedge shaped spacer underneath and on top .. spacers and inside steerer, the compression type 'star nut' which is usually for carbon steerers.

As I advised earlier , probably best to get it into shop.

cooper.michael1

Hello there can only be a few things which can be wrong. It looks like due to the lightweight steerer tube on the CAAD, you've got an expander top cap, not the traditional star nut top cap. Ok....

1. Is the bottom of the headset ok at the interface of the fork crown and bottom of the head tube. There is a part of the headset which goes over the steerer tube call the fork crown race which slots into the bottom of the headset. Without any of the top section screwed in place does this all slot together ok?

2. When you put all the spacers on, then the stem on top of them does the stem protrude above the steerer tube? see the photo at the bottom of the Headset Assembly section here: http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-hel ... et-service

This is absoutely critical as it is the downward pressure on the stem exerted by the top cap which compresses the headset and holds it all together. If this is not the case the headset is either not put together in the right order or most probably you've lost one of the spacers some way along the way. It is hard to see from your first photo but it looks like the might be a gap under the stem...and its not protruding much....

As for people saying 'go to a shop'...and sure the gentleman knows full well he can go to a shop that is obvious, if you can help, keep quiet!

jgsi

cooper.michael1 wrote:

sure the gentleman knows full well he can go to a shop that is obvious, if you can help, keep quiet!

Am I missing something here?
he posted in Beginners not Workshop
OP has limited or no experience in repairs
the bike is almost brand new
you still pointing him to a website which in all honesty can cause more trouble than it solves.
Ok, I give in, have it your own way... thank you very much,,, why I bother posting on this part of BR is beyond me sometimes.

jgsi

cooper.michael1 wrote:

sure the gentleman knows full well he can go to a shop that is obvious, if you can help, keep quiet!

Am I missing something here?
he posted in Beginners not Workshop
OP has limited or no experience in repairs
the bike is almost brand new
you still pointing him to a website which in all honesty can cause more trouble than it solves.
Ok, I give in, have it your own way... thank you very much,,, why I bother posting on this part of BR is beyond me sometimes.

JobbyRatch

cooper.michael1 wrote:

Hello there can only be a few things which can be wrong. It looks like due to the lightweight steerer tube on the CAAD, you've got an expander top cap, not the traditional star nut top cap. Ok....

1. Is the bottom of the headset ok at the interface of the fork crown and bottom of the head tube. There is a part of the headset which goes over the steerer tube call the fork crown race which slots into the bottom of the headset. Without any of the top section screwed in place does this all slot together ok?

2. When you put all the spacers on, then the stem on top of them does the stem protrude above the steerer tube? see the photo at the bottom of the Headset Assembly section here: http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-hel ... et-service

This is absoutely critical as it is the downward pressure on the stem exerted by the top cap which compresses the headset and holds it all together. If this is not the case the headset is either not put together in the right order or most probably you've lost one of the spacers some way along the way. It is hard to see from your first photo but it looks like the might be a gap under the stem...and its not protruding much....

As for people saying 'go to a shop'...and sure the gentleman knows full well he can go to a shop that is obvious, if you can help, keep quiet!

Hello Michael,

Everything sits nice and snug beneath the top section. The stem sits about 2mm above the fork steerer with all spacers and everything else in place so I presume this is normal.

Like you say surely to god this is not rocket science but it's really baffling me.

carl_p

Does the compression bolt remove easily from the steerer tube? If you are using one on an alloy steerer it needs to be about 10 to 15mm below the very top of the tube and screwed in as tight as you can get it so the top cap securely screws onto it. If it's too loose then you'll never get the headset tight. It sounds as if the bolt is moving up as you screw the top cap down, it should stay put.

I use a compression bolt on an alloy steerer and it won't be going anywhere sometime soon.

In theory once the top cap has been tightened along with the stem pinch bolts the top cap can be removed, not that you would want to.

cooper.michael1

Carl_P wrote:

Does the compression bolt remove easily from the steerer tube? If you are using one on an alloy steerer it needs to be about 10 to 15mm below the very top of the tube and screwed in as tight as you can get it so the top cap securely screws onto it. If it's too loose then you'll never get the headset tight. It sounds as if the bolt is moving up as you screw the top cap down, it should stay put.

I use a compression bolt on an alloy steerer and it won't be going anywhere sometime soon.

In theory once the top cap has been tightened along with the stem pinch bolts the top cap can be removed, not that you would want to.

+1

Indeed, when you tighten the bolt, can you see it creating tension? (pulling everything together)....it could be that the bolt is faulty, not gripping and a lack of tension in the headset was what was causing the clicking in the first place.

cooper.michael1

JGSI wrote:

cooper.michael1 wrote:

sure the gentleman knows full well he can go to a shop that is obvious, if you can help, keep quiet!

Am I missing something here?
he posted in Beginners not Workshop
OP has limited or no experience in repairs
the bike is almost brand new
you still pointing him to a website which in all honesty can cause more trouble than it solves.
Ok, I give in, have it your own way... thank you very much,,, why I bother posting on this part of BR is beyond me sometimes.

Essentially he is trying to adjust a headset which is something you should learn in the long-term as it is the sort of think once every so often you generally have to do.

Apologies for directing him to the website of the best known cycle tools manufacturer. The UK is now a place where barely anyone knows how to change a plug, becuase people would rather pay someone £50 to do it for them. Bikes are not rocket science, unless you have Di2!

All I was meaning was that when you are stuck on the side of the road in your car with a flat tyre, someone stopping and saying 'why don't you call the AA?' does not exactly help. I'm not saying that ultimately you won't the advice of a professional, but learning about maintainence is part of the fun of cycling, and if you are frequenting a forum it is a fair indication that you want to learn.

MattMTB

cooper.michael1 wrote:

Indeed, when you tighten the bolt, can you see it creating tension? (pulling everything together)....it could be that the bolt is faulty, not gripping and a lack of tension in the headset was what was causing the clicking in the first place.

I had the same problem with my CAAD10 which I have now fixed.

The headset is different to others that I'd seen before and works differently. On my previous bike (Spesh Allez) there was half of the headset 'embedded' in the top of the fork and the bolt through the top cap pulled the top cap down to the fork and compressed it all nicely.

With this design of headset, nothing seats inside the top of the fork, so you're relying on the fork and stem being properly seated, flush and in final position before you screw the whole top cap in place. To get mine tight enough I actually had to hold the front end of the bike up by the fork leg to ensure that it was as tight to the bottom of the headtube as possible, before pressing the spacers and stem down as much as they would go, and then pushing in and tightening the headset assembly.

Only by doing this could I eleminate the small amount of play I had. If you can manage the drop, it is also worth putting one of the 5mm spacers that are under the stem, above the stem, such that when tightening up the stem around the fork you are not overlapping the top of the fork. I think it's best that the fork appears wholely above the stem and a spacer sits on top, rather than the top stem bolt doing up only millimetres from the top of the fork.

It is still very important to fully torque up the stem after doing that, to ensure the thing doesn't slip slightly again. I keep meaning to buy some carbon paste so I can take it apart again and do it all back up with the paste so it doesn't happen again (although it seems fine at the moment.)

OP, if you need any further info give me a shout.

Cheers,
Matt

carl_p

Matt, I think what you are describing there is a compression bolt, not part of the headset?

The compression bolt sits permanently in the top of the fork and its sole purpose in life is to provide something for the cap to screw into. You are not supposed to remove them everytime you remove the stem/top cap.

What the OP needs to do is fit the compression bolt first with a 5 or 6mm Allen key and make sure it is in very tight. Once done correctly the top cap can be screwed on which will press down on the stem and secure the headset.

MattMTB

Hi Carl, I don't think I'm explaining very clearly but what I'm trying to say is on the CAAD10 there is no 'compresiion bolt' - it is one single unit that slots in the top of the fork. There is no bolt to tighten on top of the cap / fork, the bolt is recessed in to the unit 40-50mm (which also makes tightening a pain).

Does that make any more sense?

I'll take some photos later.

Cheers,
Matt

indjke

MattMTB wrote:

To get mine tight enough I actually had to hold the front end of the bike up by the fork leg to ensure that it was as tight to the bottom of the headtube as possible, before pressing the spacers and stem down as much as they would go, and then pushing in and tightening the headset assembly.

this! ^^

I re-assembled the headset on my CAAD10 a couple of times and used the same technique. You'll never make it right if your front wheel is standing on the floor...
All operations must be done while holding the front end of the bike in the air.

sorry for bad english