I never owned a cantilever-style frame until I discovered Rat Rod Bikes, so had never encountered this problem before.
My second-hand Raleigh Retroglide NX7 made a distinct "creaking" sound when I'd pedal hard, especially if I stood out of the saddle, or even if I'd ride slowly and bounce my weight on the pedals. (Most people probably don't ride stock cruisers "out of the saddle" but it's a lot easier with BMX bars and a layback seatpost.)
First I thought it was coming from the stem and headset, so I tried three different stems, made sure to lube the stem bolt where it met the "wedge," and cleaned a little surface rust out of the steerer tube, but those didn't seem to help. I removed the fork and saw plenty of grease on the headset bearings, and all the parts looked better than other heatsets I've worked on lately. I added some more grease anyhow, but that didn't help the creaking sound either.
Then I thought the noise was coming from the bottom bracket. One retainer was shot, so I ended up replacing the entire bottom bracket with a new Wald kit, but that didn't seem to fix the "creak" either!
I rode it to one of my local bike shops, told the mechanic all of the things I'd done to try and fix the problem, and he took it for a test ride and heard the same noise. He thought the noise was coming from the FRAME, but we agreed that all of the welds still looked solid. He finally managed to make it squeak by pressing down hard on the top tube, and made it squeak consistently by pressing down on the cantilever tubes, halfway between where they join the bottom tube and the seat-tube weld.
We both suspected that the frame was flexing and that one or both of the smaller cantilever tubes were rubbing against the sides of the top tube! I suggested taking it home and spraying that section with some silicone bike polish; he squirted some sort of lube on there from a small black squeeze bottle and wiped it down with a rag. He couldn't get it to squeak again by bouncing on the pedals inside the store, and I couldn't get it to squeak on the five mile ride home, or a twelve mile cruise last night!
Has anybody else had or heard of this problem? At 170 pounds, I'm not THAT heavy, but this bike allegedly only weighed 35 pounds when it was new. I weighed it today on my digital bathroom scale and with the new bars and stem, knobby tires, no fenders, no heavy Slowriderz seatpost and no seat, it weighed in at 31.8 pounds -- which seems pretty light to me for a steel-framed cruiser.
I'm okay with the idea of "frame flex," since frames are designed to do that, but needing to lubricate a rigid frame seems a little humorous!
My second-hand Raleigh Retroglide NX7 made a distinct "creaking" sound when I'd pedal hard, especially if I stood out of the saddle, or even if I'd ride slowly and bounce my weight on the pedals. (Most people probably don't ride stock cruisers "out of the saddle" but it's a lot easier with BMX bars and a layback seatpost.)
First I thought it was coming from the stem and headset, so I tried three different stems, made sure to lube the stem bolt where it met the "wedge," and cleaned a little surface rust out of the steerer tube, but those didn't seem to help. I removed the fork and saw plenty of grease on the headset bearings, and all the parts looked better than other heatsets I've worked on lately. I added some more grease anyhow, but that didn't help the creaking sound either.
Then I thought the noise was coming from the bottom bracket. One retainer was shot, so I ended up replacing the entire bottom bracket with a new Wald kit, but that didn't seem to fix the "creak" either!
I rode it to one of my local bike shops, told the mechanic all of the things I'd done to try and fix the problem, and he took it for a test ride and heard the same noise. He thought the noise was coming from the FRAME, but we agreed that all of the welds still looked solid. He finally managed to make it squeak by pressing down hard on the top tube, and made it squeak consistently by pressing down on the cantilever tubes, halfway between where they join the bottom tube and the seat-tube weld.
We both suspected that the frame was flexing and that one or both of the smaller cantilever tubes were rubbing against the sides of the top tube! I suggested taking it home and spraying that section with some silicone bike polish; he squirted some sort of lube on there from a small black squeeze bottle and wiped it down with a rag. He couldn't get it to squeak again by bouncing on the pedals inside the store, and I couldn't get it to squeak on the five mile ride home, or a twelve mile cruise last night!
Has anybody else had or heard of this problem? At 170 pounds, I'm not THAT heavy, but this bike allegedly only weighed 35 pounds when it was new. I weighed it today on my digital bathroom scale and with the new bars and stem, knobby tires, no fenders, no heavy Slowriderz seatpost and no seat, it weighed in at 31.8 pounds -- which seems pretty light to me for a steel-framed cruiser.
I'm okay with the idea of "frame flex," since frames are designed to do that, but needing to lubricate a rigid frame seems a little humorous!
