Sunday, August 7, 2011

Isolating creaks

Will sometimes drive you nuts. One of the reasons I really love singlespeeds is the quietness of the drivetrain (this is negated by most high end hubs). But I have had a creak that has really been bothering me so last night I pulled out the stops.
Normally, you should address each supposed source of noise to actually isolate where the sound is coming from. My supposition was that the creaking on my Scott Scale was coming from either:
  • The interface between my outboard BB cup, the E-type XTR front Derailleur, and the BB shell.
  • the dropouts for the rear wheel
  • the mounting screw for the E-type front derailleur (this keeps the derailleur centered, while the BB cup actually keeps it affixed to the frame)
So rather than address each location individually, I disassembled, and greased all the locations at the same time.
The Result?
Total silence. Victory. I actually suspect that it was the rear dropouts that were dry and causing the noise.

I am also faced with another BB quandry. My ISIS BB on the Ferrous is cashed. This is the 4th ISIS that I have gone through in 3 years. Word in the street is that the only truly durable ISIS BB is manufactured by SKF but the the thought of coughing up 130 bucks for a BB makes me cringe. I could get a outboard bearing crankset LX or Stylo for between 90 and 110 and hock the rings for 20 bucks as I am going to keep using the 34 tooth TomiCog. FYI I did give the LBS a shot, but no one carried ISIS BB's.

ISIS seem to be one of those failed standard attampts that so many companies wish would just go away.

2 comments:

RD said...

YOu should just jump on board and get the xt hollowtech cranks with external bb... Stiff efficient rebuild able if you have phil wood bb press. or know some who has. Other option chris king bb and xt cranks.

Anonymous said...

Outboard!