The shop called to say the bike was done. I headed over and the young mechanic had it. I asked him what the source of the problem was. “I don’t know,” he said. Sigh. I asked him to tell me what he did. He took out the stem, tightened everything down again. He found that the headset was loose, so he tightened that too (and mashed the headset cup or spacer or whatever in the process). He bounced it off the ground and it had the satisfying sound of a well-aired basketball. No other noises. My uncontested favorite mechanic took it out for a test ride, threw around the front end as much as he could and could not recreate that ticking. So, tentatively, we might have fixed it. I’ll get some time on it this weekend and see.
I’m sure the headset mashing should bug me but at this point I don’t care. My bikes are starting to show wear and as long as THEY RIDE WITHOUT STRANGE TICKING I’m good with it. We’ll age together. On Thursday, October 3, 2024 at 2:06:08 PM UTC-4 Johnny Alien wrote: > I've grown to love the faceplate stems but it did take awhile. The classic > quill look is very nice. To me the benefits outweigh the ever so slight > loss of beauty. They just make more sense and reduce some flex with the > sweptback bars. > > On Thursday, October 3, 2024 at 1:46:24 PM UTC-4 Patrick Moore wrote: > >> I'd never heard of mechanics' stethoscopes; thanks for bringing them up. >> But question: most creaks and clicks on bikes occur only when riding. How >> do you use one of these while on the bike? I think in particular of bottom >> bracket and seatpost noises. (And I can imagine the looks you'd get riding >> along earnestly listening to your headset with a stethoscope. You'd have to >> wear a white lab coat.) >> >> And +1 for threadless stems with multi-bolt bar clamps for very wide or >> high or swept-back bars; I much prefer how quill stems look (well, unless >> they're raised very high) but sometimes they're not up to the job. >> >> On Thu, Oct 3, 2024 at 5:18 AM Garth <gart...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> A auto mechanic's style scope can help isolate exactly where it's coming >>> from. From my standpoint of the viewer it's impossible to tell anything >>> other than there is a sharp metallic like noise. The mechanic's scope is >>> pin pointed, so you can put it right up next to or upon the surface. Do the >>> bars use a steel Nitto shim by chance ? If so I'd begin there. I'd also >>> check with the headset cups, top and bottom, pressed against the head tube >>> where the cups are inserted. I always use some grease for the cups, but who >>> knows what the installer did. Ditto on Ted's suggestion to dismantle and >>> grease the stem inside of the expander bolt, everything ! Aluminum next to >>> steel often makes noise without some kind of buffer. >>> >>> You don't need any skill to use the scope, just point it near or on the >>> target and listen. >>> >>> >>> https://www.harborfreight.com/mechanics-stethoscope-63691.html >>> >>> >>> On Thursday, October 3, 2024 at 2:07:15 AM UTC-4 Joe Bernard wrote: >>> >>>> I'm starting to think there's a reason we have open-face stems clamped >>>> to steerer tubes on most modern bikes... >>> >>> -- 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/b0cf925d-3fcf-4e62-8639-270ec4f1ab8an%40googlegroups.com.
