Giant Defy 1 Bike Rattling!

jfrankland1991

I own a Giant Defy 1 2012 and have recently had problems with excessive rattling from my bike. I have checked all the things that could wear loose over time and they are all tight. I have things on my bike such as bottles cages and a pump and these do not appear to rattle. The noise appears to be coming from the frame itself, I thought it may be the bottom bracket but there is no 'play' with my pedals so I don't think it is that. Obviously the British roads are not great and a completely smooth ride is unlikely. Plus I have got my tyre pressure set to around 100psi, I was thinking of trying it at 90psi to see if that makes any difference, will this be minimal?

Has anyone got any ideas of what it could be or is it something I just have to put up with when riding a aluminium bike?

Cheers in advance

alihisgreat

My bottle cage bosses on the downtube are a bit loose and rattle. You can check by waiting until you hear the rattle, then taking the bottle out of the cage and see if it stops. Or just see if there is any play in the bosses.

The other thing to check is the headset. It might be worn, and loose. You can check this by grabbing the bottom of the fork and seeing if you can feel any play in the headset.

peat

Check bottle cage bolt bosses
Clean and re-seat seatpost
Check headset tightness
Tighten valve stem nuts
Tighten cassette retaining bolt

All things I have used to fix rattles in the past

Nairnster

When I had a defy, it had a 'rattle' which turned out to be the cables near the headtube.

The frame was amplifying it and making it sound like it came from elsewhere

Garybarker

+1 on the cables at the headtube, I have the same bike and ended up putting some electrical tape around the in line cable adjusters at the head tube. No more rattles

jfrankland1991

Thanks for all the info, I have tried everything apart from the cables at the headtube. Hopefully if I rectify that then it will stop the rattling!

janwal

Check the tightness of your cassette lock ring.I had a contant "rattle/vibration" on my Ti bike when I had it built up which was worse when in12,12,14 rings.LBS tighened it up by just 3 clicks and prob went.This week I had a similar vibration on my Carbon Di2 and as before I tightend it up 3 clicks and it has cured it.In both cases it sounded as though the noise was from the front of the bike.It's just the way it transmits along the frame tubing.In both cases the cassette felt like it had no movement but you are only probably talking parts of millimeters but it solved my problems.Hope it helps.

Philly8mt

Garybarker wrote:

+1 on the cables at the headtube, I have the same bike and ended up putting some electrical tape around the in line cable adjusters at the head tube. No more rattles

I've got this on my Allez at the mo .... Couldn't get my head around where it was coming from ... Eventually pinged it as being the cable! Was doing my head in!