Creaking Mavic front wheel

dieselgeezer

Two mates & myself have just bought Mavic wheels, one pair of Elites & 2 pairs of SL's. In all cases the front wheel creaks when riding out of the saddle & throwing the bike about. Have tried greasing the drop-outs, tightening the QR's by different amounts & also trying different QR's. Have also checked bearing pre-load.
Any pointers??

ugo.santalucia

Sounds like bearing problems, as you rock, the bearing experience a change in load... greasing the dropouts sounds like a medieval practice...
To be honest the vast majority of factory wheels make horrible noises after one or more years. it is embarrasing to go around with something worth 500 quid that feels like it's falling apart

rpd_steve

Both the Elites and SLs have adjustable bearing pre-load. Every set I know of has been delivered with the front a bit loose...
Turn bike upsidown with wheel fitten normally and try to quickly wobble the wheel back and forth towards each brake pad. Listen and feel carefully, you will almost cirtanly feel a tap-tap-tap as you do. This means the bearings need more preload, Grab the plastic c-spanner the wheels came with, and on one sice of the hub there is a plastic collar with 10 little holes in it. Tighten this 1/8 of a turn at a time until the sound stops.

Also I have had some grit/dirt caught between said adjustment ring and the hub before. Remove wheel from bike, use 2 5mm allen keys in each end of the axle and un-doo the axle, half will come out each side of the hub.
Clean the hub ends and axle/caps with WD/GT85 or whatever (its not the bearings your touching, just use anything to clean and leave a bit of a water inhibiting film) and then put it back in. You should not need to re-adjust the bearings if you dodnt move the black collar.
I only find this happens if i have been riding with grit on the hub then washed the wheels carelessly.

dieselgeezer

Thanks for the info so far. All 3 pairs are new, all have had the bearing pre-load checked & all have been played with re QR tension. Still they creak when throwing the bike out of the saddle.

SYLVIANRUNNING

My SL's (3 years old now) do exactly the same thing. When I first had them it drove me mad. I tightened evey bolt I could find before realising it was the front wheel. What works for me is to really tighten the QR - this stops the awful noise, but only when you've tightened it just enough. VERY annoying when you've spent £600 on a pair of hoops!! Oh, the Mavic QR's rattle as well so I replaced mine with a Planet X pair.

AZRider

I bought a used 2009 Cannondale with Mavic Ksyrium SL Premium wheels two weeks ago. After noticing a distinct clicking (and after replacing the BB bearings with no effect), I stumbled on this thread and started thinking about checking the front and rear wheel bearing preloads. I went to the Mavic tech manuals website and discovered the following on page 18 of their 2005 manual:

"(The skewer) tightening force is a subjective parameter that is directly dependent on the end user, and as such it is difficult to accurately determine the optimum bearing adjustment at the factory. In order to avoid any problems for your customers, we factory set bearing play by simulating an extreme quick release tightening force.
There is therefore likely to be some play in the hub of a new wheel fitted to a bike with a lower quick release tightening force than that used in the factory. "

As I normally tighten the skewers with minimal force this clued me into thinking I should try to tighten them up a bit and see what happens. After doing so - PROBLEM RESOLVED - clicking gone. Thanks for the tip.

vatafan

try greasing where the spokes cross each other and a squirt of gt85 where the spokes go in the hub

audioMeth

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=17944542#p17944542]AZRider[/url] wrote:

I bought a used 2009 Cannondale with Mavic Ksyrium SL Premium wheels two weeks ago. After noticing a distinct clicking (and after replacing the BB bearings with no effect), I stumbled on this thread and started thinking about checking the front and rear wheel bearing preloads. I went to the Mavic tech manuals website and discovered the following on page 18 of their 2005 manual:

"(The skewer) tightening force is a subjective parameter that is directly dependent on the end user, and as such it is difficult to accurately determine the optimum bearing adjustment at the factory. In order to avoid any problems for your customers, we factory set bearing play by simulating an extreme quick release tightening force.
There is therefore likely to be some play in the hub of a new wheel fitted to a bike with a lower quick release tightening force than that used in the factory. "

As I normally tighten the skewers with minimal force this clued me into thinking I should try to tighten them up a bit and see what happens. After doing so - PROBLEM RESOLVED - clicking gone. Thanks for the tip.

signed up only to thank you, adjusted preload on my front bearing and noise is finally gone. for OP, tighten skewer and check for play in the bearing you will likely have a faint noise, if so tighten with the special tool that came with your wheelset. i realize you probably have moved to a different wheelset since this post but hey this might help someone else. i can finally climb out of the saddle with out noise :!: