Mystery Squeak

[al_roethlisberger]

Well, here's one for the oddity books...

 

One of the warrantee issues I had my bike in the shop to be looked into, was an odd squeak coming from the rear suspension.

 

The only way to get the bike to squeak was to go over a sharp bump, such as over a small curb into a parking lot, or to bounce on the seat very sharply, quickly, and hard enough to compress the suspension significantly.

 

After much inspection, frustration, and lubrication of every possible joint around the rear swingarm, suspension, etc... the sound seemed to be coming from the rear shock itself.

 

Well, after a call to Lindeman Engineering, they suggested trying to adjust the rebound setting on the nitrogen cannister.... just on a lark.

 

Well, that was it.. we adjusted it "4 clicks" harder or softer and the squeak went away. So apparently something in the shock valving was "whistling" under hard compression.

 

Very odd. So if you end up with this weird squeak from the rear end, before tearing everything apart, try adjusting your rear shock first. That might be it.

 

 

What will be interesting to see is if it gets better over time and I can put it back to the original setting. Maybe it just needed to be moved around a bit. Who knows.

 

al

[Guest Brian Robson]

I think that the answer is even more simplistic. There is a little rubber seal on the shock piston. Put a spot of Vaseline next to it and the squeak goes away. I think adjusting the shock just puts the seal in another position. Don't ask me how long it took to figure this out.

[al_roethlisberger]

Interesting, however we did lubricate the piston, and I don't believe that the rebound(nitrogen cannister) doesn't adjust the preload or position of the shock's travel, just it's rebound characteristics.

 

What you describe could certainly be true as well though.

 

al

[Dirtybill]

 

I have the same squeak. I'll give these solutions a try. Thanks!