Creaky Squeaky SB-66

milko9000

My SB-66a recently started creaking like a rickety old student bed suffering a particularly energetic bit of bedroom action. It's not providing the same level of enjoyment and I'd like to solve it. Indeed, I thought I had!

It was overdue that the shock was serviced, so I sent that off to TF Tuned for new bushings and a Push tune. That didn't cure it, so I investigated further and found that the pivot bearings were mostly done for, so I got a new set of those and had a shop fit them. Silence returned! Hooray!

Now, about five rides later, the creaking is back with a vengeance. What can I do next? I was thinking maybe I need to open the frame up and put some grease on the bearings somehow but frankly at that point I'm right at the limits of what I'm comfortable doing to the bike. I would welcome any suggestions.

cooldad

And it was bloody annoying yesterday.

Just buy a decent bike.

CitizenLee

Strip her down and grease her up

Have a look here too, might be some useful info

http://forums.mtbr.com/yeti/sb-66-creak-779930.html

milko9000

Haha, that mtbr thread has some questions from me about this one time in 2012 when my bike got all creaky. It actually went away again of its own accord that time, before returning with a vengeance a year or so later, I'd forgotten all about it! Still, since then I've grown more confident with taking it to bits at least.

Cooldad I was just trying to encourage you to go faster to get away from the noise, honest! The thought of hurling it over the fence and buying a carbon superbike has actually crossed my mind (creaking drives me MAD and it's been a bit of a maintenance magnet lately) but I've not got the money, would have a lot of explaining to do with the mrs, and my carbon superbike would no doubt start creaking about three rides in. I will just have to learn to be a bit better with the spannering.

CitizenLee

Haha, small world this internet thing ins't it

Maybe (if you haven't already) try asking on the Yeti forums as it seems quite a widespread issue...

http://www.yetifan.com/
http://yetifancom.proboards.com/

Don't give up on it

cooldad

milko9000 wrote:

Cooldad I was just trying to encourage you to go faster to get away from the noise, honest!

It's a well known fact that me and faster don't belong in the same sentence.

milko9000

Aaaaargh. AARGH.

I am a bit stumped by this. Here's a bit of a history and waffle in case it helps.

I've had the SB-66a since November 2011. Recently it started creaking a lot, and so I got the shock serviced (and PUSH tuned, and new bushings at each end), and all the frame bearings replaced by a local Yeti dealer. This cured it! More accurately, the frame bearings cured it, I did the shock first and it made no difference. 

So! About four rides later, the creaking is back. WTF? I just finished stripping the frame right down, cleaning and greasing everything and checking it's all torqued up the way it should be. And it's made no difference whatsoever.

Here is a tremendously exciting video of it just now, being made to creak. (You can also hear the slightly squeaky sound of the shock which I gather is normal)

http://youtu.be/oHLtdDsSa0g

So, any ideas what could be causing that? Unlike just before I had them all replaced, the bearings all look in good order. The only thing I could say looked a bit off was that one side of the eccentric is showing some signs of wear:

http://imgur.com/ecQiZZ8

The pivot axle looks slightly worn in the corresponding area too. Could that be enough to cause it/is it enough to be a worry anyway? Having just done the shock and bearings I'm not gonna be particularly impressed if I have to do this as well, looks like another £150 if so to replace. And then it would beg the question of why this wasn't creaking for those four rides after the bearings were replaced?

Oh, and it makes this noise if I'm standing on the pedals, not actually turning them. I'm as certain as I can be that the seat, post, cranks and BB are not involved in the problem.

As I say, I'm stumped. And I don't mind admitting, more than a little frustrated. Would very much welcome any helpful advice!

Dick Scruttock

Remove the chain from the front ring and try again. If its got a clutch mech of any sort then it could well be that.

milko9000

It has a Zee mech, but the clutch was off during that test video there. I'll give it a shot for you tomorrow but it really feels like it's coming from further forward on the bike - like I say though I'll try it out, thanks for the tip.

milko9000

Tonight I first tried dropping the chain to rule out the clutch mech. That was indeed not the problem, but at least it was ruled out I guess. Then I tried loosening off all the pivot bolts some. I don't know how safe I'd have felt if that'd worked, but it didn't so that's all good! At some point here I also looked the rear triangle over to see if I had any cracks... none that I can spot.

So, I was back to stripping the mofo right down and just trying again. And I got it! I think it was the lower dogbone pivot, the one that doesn't have a separate cap on the non-drive side. I suspect there wasn't enough grease between the bearings and the inner race extenders. [This technical information in case someone with a similar problem finds this with a search as I'm sure nobody else is interested in these details!]

All is well again. I just hope it actually holds out for more than a couple of rides now.