NSMB - 2022 - Full Suspension Bike Thread

Thanks for the heads-up on Civil, Niels, that looks like a blast. 1.5-2hr grunt for 7km of natural down sound just like my jam. Cheers!

After a season of admittedly not as much riding as I would have hoped, yesterday I started to really click with my G1 - quite an adjustment to riding style coming from my last full-suspension experience being DH bikes 10+ years ago.

Unfortunately, the G1 and I aren't the only thing clicking. I developed a pretty loud clicking/creaking from the front end. I used a fair bit of grease for the headset so suspect it's not that, but will pull it apart and will also perhaps re-grease stem bolts and front axle while I'm at it to rule those elements out. I'm worried that my Lyrik has developed the dreaded CSU creak. Any insight on definitive diagnosis of that issue, or experience dealing with RS for CSU issues? My current thought is I'll try to put a drop of oil on the CSU interface after re-greasing and re-assembling the front end to see if that gets rid of the issue, then wait until the winter to submit a warranty claim if it does turn out to be the problem. Really wish Formula would hurry up and release a dual-crown enduro fork. Otherwise, might have to look at an EXT fork to suit the rear shock, but the pricepoint is a tough one.

I had a fox 36 which did the creaking twice and a zeb that did it once,

the 1st time the mechanic told me he dropped the fork and cleaned the shit out so thats what i did the next time, i did the same thing with the zeb,

so on the 3 occasions I had a creaking fork I cleaned & lubed the area around the upper headset/ stem spacers, i think it was all those parts rubbing & creaking, so its easy and worth a try IME

You can sometimes feel the csu creak if you put fork in a stand upside down and pull the lowers. There are some lightweight penetrating loctite products that can help.

The EXT CSU is very clever. The fork itself really disappointed me, I sold it after it had a full warranty replacement. The 36 and next RS offerings just work better I reckon, especially if you tune them to your prefs.

Posted by: mrkdwrds

I'm worried that my Lyrik has developed the dreaded CSU creak. Any insight on definitive diagnosis of that issue, or experience dealing with RS for CSU issues? My current thought is I'll try to put a drop of oil on the CSU interface after re-greasing and re-assembling the front end to see if that gets rid of the issue, then wait until the winter to submit a warranty claim if it does turn out to be the problem.

This is from an email from Andrew (Major) that I have saved:

"Remove the wheel from your bike and compress the lowers together as hard as you can at the dropouts. If you hear the creak then MOST LIKELY it’s in the stanchion/crown interface. As long as your air system and damper top caps are tight (check) this MOST LIKELY will not fail catastrophically.

If squeezing the legs together doesn’t make a noise then most likely the creak is between the steerer tube and crown interface. If that’s the case I absolutely would NOT ride that fork. Even down the street for coffee. The end result will be the steerer tube turning in the crown which is never good. This is the more common location for creaking with Rockshox and newer Fox forks."

Hope this helps.

(Andrew also wrote in that email: "Teeth are way more expensive than forks." 😄)

I have a friend who got a creaky ERA replaced a couple of weeks ago. I‘ve had five 36s and a 38 replaced, but my Lyrik has been silent for almost two seasons. Roulette…

Green capillar loctite works sometimes, it removed the paint on my crown however :)

shouldn’t the ERA be creak free by design?

shoulda, woulda, coulda. My buddy used to praise it for it‘s creak free construction until it creaked. He chased the creak for a long time, because it „couldn't be the fork“. The german distributor took very good care of him though and buddy still loves the fork to bits. 

I‘d try one, but find them too expensive for an experiment. A custom valved Storia solved the suspension difficulties my light wife experienced with her new very boutique made in Germany carbon frame though (very progressive linkage on the frame). Saved her from buying another frame ;-)

last?

Yes =)

so you married a dentist :D

Since I have a lot of free time at the moment due to a foot injury I pulled down my FS bike [GG Smash] and gave it a once over and did some neighbourhood cruising. It's been about a year since I rode it in anger. It was funny how much my fit preferences have changed. I ended up lowering the saddle 5mm, raising the bars 10mm and if I had them I would have put bigger diameter grips on the bars. I'll grab something thicker next time an opportunity presents itself. 

I adjusted the brakes to get rid of a bit of rubbing. The only thing it needs some 2.6" rubber. The Maxxis 2.5" tires feel like pizza cutters. I have some 2.6" rubber options, but I'm too lazy to bother until I'm likely to use it a lot as the sealant will just dry out hanging on the wall. I'm hopeful about a winter desert road trip. If that happens I'll slap something wider on before I head south.

When I got it the Smash seemed like a big aggressive geo bike. Riding it around the hood today it felt like a pretty tame trail bike. The right size, but not big or particularly slack. If I had a -2 deg Works Component headset laying around I'd be swapping it out for the -1 deg unit already installed. I'm too lazy to bother buying one for that purpose and I am sure the Smash will be just fine for any trail I'm going to throw myself down. With a few tweaks it fits me great and I do feel very comfortable on it.

Edit: My issue was figured out. thanks for the input

I feel like a big part of WR1s "value add", if you care about such a thing, or if such a thing really exists in the realm of 10k bikes, is getting it complete with their wheels and such. 

So for the WR1, if you're not already on superboost, selling your old whip complete and buying WR1 complete probably makes the most sense?