creaking thomson masterpiece: 27.2 silent but 31.6 noisy

[wallymann]

so i own several thomson masterpieces: a couple 27.2s, a couple 28.0s and recently my first 31.6.

the skinny ones i've owned for years and have been silent as church mice across the board. absolutely perfect.

but the 31.6 creaks at the start of a ride when i'm on the saddle and shift my weight fore-aft. the creak goes away after a minute or two, but will reappear at unpredictable points later during a ride.

there appears to be interaction between the upper cradle and little threaded barrels that nestle at the front and rear. i pulled it apart and could see fretting on both of the barrels, suggesting there is slight movement. i cleaned everything up, greased all of the contact points torqued to spec and it still creaks.

surprising that the oversize version creaks, i'd expect it to be stiffer and have less movement. i may try again and hit the barrels with scotchbrite before re-greasing them.

anyhoo...anyone else experience this? suggestions to remediate the creak?

[Velocipede]

I've had a couple people bring this up in the past. If the bolts are touching the lower cradle, get a round file and do a small relief in the cradle. Make sure to only take off a bit and smooth the relief out really well so no stress risers from the file. That should cure it. Another thing to look out for is the rails. If they are ti rails they will make noise in the cradle. Put a bit of grease on them where they touch the cradle. That'll fix creaks too. I would do the grease first.

[wallymann]

so you're just saying to open up those ovals in the upper-clamp where the bolts pass thru?

[Velocipede]

Originally Posted by wallymann

so you're just saying to open up those ovals in the upper-clamp where the bolts pass thru?

Yes. I have a medium round file and fine jewelers fines I use. They work well to make sure it's clean and smooth.

[bikinchris]

Oil it first to see if it reduces the noise.

[wallymann]

Originally Posted by bikinchris

Oil it first to see if it reduces the noise.

already did that. no difference.

[wallymann]

turns out it was the post/frame interface.

i re-did the clamp, cleaned everything, filed the pass-thru holes a skosh as suggested, reassembled and torqued to value...creeeeeak!

so i turned my attention to the post/frame area and decided to revert back to "what i know" -- when i installed this masterpiece into my frame i used that gritty CF anti-slip paste. after cleaning i just used the stiff red pro-gold EPX grease that i normally use, re-torqued to spec...SILENCE. :-)

[jamesau]

Glad you got it sorted.

I almost gave up on a frame once because of seatpost creaking. The fix was to slightly chamfer the top inside edge of the seat tube with some very light passes of a round file.

Originally Posted by wallymann

turns out it was the post/frame interface.

i re-did the clamp, cleaned everything, filed the pass-thru holes a skosh as suggested, reassembled and torqued to value...creeeeeak!

so i turned my attention to the post/frame area and decided to revert back to "what i know" -- when i installed this masterpiece into my frame that gritty CF anti-slip paste. after cleaning i just used the stiff red pro-gold EPX grease that i normally use, re-torqued to spec...SILENCE. :-)