Whew, I’m glad to have that clarified, and thank you, John. I did my 10 miler tonight and I think the ticking is mostly resolved. It was a windy night, and I was moving pretty quickly and there were a lot of people out and about, so it was difficult to really hear. I think I did hear some small ticking maybe 8 miles in, but it was aberrant. I’m hoping the T9 works its way deeper into the crevices. I have real stem grease coming via Amazon tomorrow - do you all think I should add that to the stem/bar interface as well?
Thanks for all the help today; I’m getting more of an understanding about how stuff works on the bike. It’s both enlightening and terrifying - can I admit that here among all these enthusiasts? Why should more knowledge be terrifying? Well, I used to ride bikes without thought as to what could go wrong. Little noises weren’t even noticed. But the more I know, the more I realize can go wrong. This week lots went wrong on the bike. A couple nights ago I was headed down Killer Hill at speed and noticed that my Edelux headlight had some play in it. Huh, I thought, I don’t remember it moving like that... It all got worse fast, so I came to a screeching halt in time for something silver and round to fall off from the light mount, as the light hung loosely from it. I realized that the silver hoop was one of two parts, and the other, an inch long rod-type thing was missing. I backtracked and found the little silver rod up the hill a ways (WHEW) and put it back the way I thought it should go. Shaken up by THAT but determined the show must go on, I mounted my bike, and set off rather gingerly, as I feared the light mount loosening again. I pushed off, towards a crossing and was nearly run down by an SUV whose driver decided to run a stop sign. After some unpleasantries between us (I admit to nothing), I was then forced to suffer the indignity of being passed by a Roadie who was at least 20 years my senior. If you still don’t feel sorry for me, I will add the final straw was taking a turn too tightly and hearing the sickening sound of metal scraping concrete while feeling the bike underneath me skitter sideways. Pedal strike. With my light mount barely holding and my pedal now noticeably scuffed, I pointed my bike towards home. Last night, the ticking in my bars was obnoxious and I was about to start getting tics of my own. Arriving home, I set to work with my hex wrenches trying to see where the noise was coming from. I found several loose things, also disturbing. I came inside, started this thread and went to bed at midnight. After swapping the stem a couple times today and all the futzing around and guesswork, I envisioned the bike coming apart beneath me on tonight’s descent. But, hey, everything held! So, thanks for all the help; I’m in need of it and I have learned a LOT from this group. But I still maintain that knowing more is frightening. Leah Sent from my iPad > On Jun 17, 2020, at 1:12 PM, 'John Hawrylak' via RBW Owners Bunch > <rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com> wrote: > > > Leah > > I'm sorry if "defective" implied "unsafe". I meant the stem does not meet > it's design and hence is defective. The Nitto design of the nut and shelf > interface has a small of margin of error, since the hex nut has short flats. > > I do NOT think the stem is unsafe to ride since you used a wrench on the bolt > to obtain adequate clamp force, and the creak is not present. > > If it was on my bike, I would use it and if the creak started again, place a > star washer under the bolt to prevent loosening. The creak is your 'clamp > too loose' indicator. > > Alternatively, contact and RBW and see what if this covered by their return > policy. > > John Hawrylak > Woodstown NJ >> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google > Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this topic, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/topic/rbw-owners-bunch/FHIW1F5qAE0/unsubscribe. > To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to > rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/30de7ab3-d244-4da4-a44b-f5b71d1d90cco%40googlegroups.com. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/E5EC5CFB-38DF-4CD9-B27D-EFCF1FF26748%40gmail.com.
