# Soloist Creaks and Ticks- Answers



## California L33 (Jan 20, 2006)

Some of this has been covered before, both here and at the Cervelo.com forum, but I thought I’d go over the road one more time in hopes of saving someone else some time. 

I’m a new Soloist Team owner. It’s by far the best bike I’ve ever had, but as others have mentioned the giant aero down tube acts like a sounding board and amplifies every little noise. I’ve got just over a hundred miles on it in a week and a half, and would have a lot more if I hadn’t been searching for a couple of annoying noises. 

There are two noise problems often mentioned with the Soloist that I’ve never experienced- seat post noise and internal cable rubbing noise. The bike was set up with friction paste on the seat post and seat post collar and it is silent. I’ve gone over some pretty rough roads but never had the internal cables make the noises others have talked about- maybe I'm just lucky.

But I did have two noises to chase down that nearly drove me crazy. The first was a creak or growl when I mashed, at peak power on every stroke, a bit more pronounced with the right pedal. I’m a spinner by nature, but a bike like a Soloist just demands that you push the pedals once in a while. At first I thought it was the seat post. Then I thought it was the bottom bracket. It was neither. It was the shifter cables vibrating against the head tube. They’re already close to the frame because they run into the down tube, and when you grab the bars and pull they can vibrate. Then you get the amplification effect of that down tube and it sounds like the bike is about to break. It’s easy to confirm- you can watch them vibrate (careful not to run into anything), and reach down, touch the cables and stop it. 

The second noise was more annoying, and harder to find. I actually read on the Cervelo.com forum that it could be a source of noise, but it seemed quite unlikely for the symptom I had. I was convinced it was in the headset or fork. I’d go over a bump at low speed, and get a tick, sometimes two ticks, when I applied power. I’d get the same tick if I turned rapidly. It was like something was loading then unloading in the head set. I adjusted it half a dozen times, yet it was always smooth as silk. But it sure sounded like it was coming from the front of the bike. Nope. It was the rear brake cable protector, made of plastic, that snaps into the rear of the top tube, where the cable emerges. It came loose and would move with the above actions. Again, with the ‘soundboard frame’ it was not a subtle noise. I snapped it back in place, and put a small piece of electrical tape on it to hold it there. If you get any kind of annoying ticking noise, check that first. 

I hope this lets more Soloist owners spend more time in the saddle listening to their tires.


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