# Ritchey WCS fork noises.



## subluxation (Feb 8, 2005)

Hey all, I hope someone can help me out. I have a Ritchey WCS fork that I bought new last year and have really not ridden it much. My question is this, I have noticed some creaking in it when I push down on the bars or top tube and flex the fork, could it just be the steerer tube flexing? The steerer tube is about 11" long so I figured it was just flexing abit because I can't reproduce the noise consistantly and visually the fork looks like new still. I wiegh 180lbs and have not crashed the fork or hit any nasty logs etc. on it. Any worries? Is it a pretty strong fork? Also, I doubled check the headset and all is well. 


thanks for the help.

rick


----------



## wunlap togo (Oct 1, 2004)

There are so many things that could be causing that noise. This kind of thing is pretty difficult to figure out over the intrawebs but I'd try (in order):

-Make sure both your quick release skewers are tight. Try recreating the sound with a different front and rear wheel, and try swapping out your pedals for another pair. All these things are super easy to try and very common sources of noise. 

-Put a little grease between all the spacers on your steerer tube and against the top and bottom of your stem as well as the under side of your top cap. You have a long steerer and if you have a big stack of spacers they will rub and make noise as the steerer flexes.

-You can also double check that there's grease on all the bolts on your stem. I haven't found this to usually cause much noise, but it's good to check.

Do not grease the handle bar clamp, or the steerer clamp.

There's about 1000 other things that could cause this sound, but if you're feeeling like the steerer is possibly unsafe you can check it.

Remove the fork, and clamp the steerer in a vice. You need some jaws that will clamp the steerer, these can be made from wood. Now you can try flexing the fork back and forth to see if the steerer has come un-bonded or is faulty.

Or take it to a shop if you're unsure of what you're doing. Good luck!


----------



## eyefloater (Jul 3, 2006)

Add to the list:

- Check to see that your brake/shift levers are tight on the bars
- Check to see that your crown race is seated properly. I've had to face those in the past and reinstall
- Beyond greasing and using the proper torque for your stem/bars, make sure that the front cap on your stem is tightened down evenly on the top and bottom.
- In my experience "mystery noises" have even been causes by an out of place donut on the cable housing where it goes around the head tube
- Check the ferrules where they go into the braze-ons on your top tube. Some thick lube can keep them from squeaking.

There's my few shot-in the dark ideas. Like wunlap said, there's number of things that can cause noises.


----------



## subluxation (Feb 8, 2005)

*thanks so much*

thanks for the help. i will give it a try tomorrow to get to the bottom of it. i was mainly worried that the fork may fail on me. grease around the headset and spacers and stem are very good ideas, thanks,

rick


----------



## Chompers (Feb 3, 2004)

I had a bike that did that, and I replace the carbon spacers with aluminum. I had about 3 spacers and put grease between them. I tried to grease the carbon spacers, but it lasted about 80 miles, then it began to creak again


----------

