Help Me find the Squeek!
 

I have a Schwinn Sierra 80's Mtn bike. Rigid/No Suspension. It has started squeeking when I hit bumps or even if I bounce up and down on the seat at rest. Any ideas where it's coming from...what would the most common places be? Not that big a deal,,,but its obviously an area that needs some wd-40 or something. I have lube the chain and sprockets already.

I had a squeak a few months ago that was hard to find and disappeared whenever I got my ass up off the saddle.
It was the saddle creaking...

Binky

It could be the saddle. First try to reproduce the squeak by squeezing or pushing down on the saddle with your hand. Then try to eliminate it. There are rivets and metal-to-metal and metal-to-plastic joints in saddles. I would find those contact points and put a drop of lube (like Triflow) on them.

remove seat with post. try bouncing it again.

My big concern would be the possibility of a crack in the frame. But start with trying to single out the problem. Does it make sound when bouncing up and down on the pedals and NOT sitiing on seat? Have someone else get next to bike when it's making noise and try to locate it. The seat can easily creak where it is mounted to the post. The post can creak where it goes into the frame.

Just some thoughts. If you don't think it's the seat or post, look at the welds on the frame and see if you can see a crack.

+1 :lol:

Seriously though on my bike the seatpost squeaked, so I pulled it, wiped down the post, inner seatube, and clamp. Then I put a little grease on the interference section of seat post and clamp, took the squeak away.

I've had a loose threadless headset squeak, solved by tightening.

I think you're really looking at spokes or saddle. If you can't find the squeak whilst riding whilst standing, it's probably the seat, so try another seat.

For starters, stop using WD-40 as a lubricant -- that's not what it's for. Go to your LBS and get some actual bike chain lube and a tube of grease. I suspect your squeak will need the latter.

Saddle rails is my guess.

I recently tracked a creak on my bike to the seat. Fixed by taking saddle off and putting a bit of grease on the rails. I'd try this along with some lube on the rivets, etc.

I find most of my creaks or squeaks are related to insufficiently tightened bolts. Remove the ones that may be at issue, grease them and tighten. Lubing the threads makes it easier to get them good and snug.

Every place where metal is press-fit to metal, or where metal is clamped to metal, should be lightly greased. Ditto with anything threaded. That includes seat rails, seat posts, bottom bracket shells, headsets, stems & handlebars, heck probably even shifters and brake levers. Except for cable clamps, don't grease those.

So one at a time, take pieces off, grease them properly, and re-install. If you start at one end of the bike and move toward the other end, then by the time you find the squeak you'll be well on the way to a full tune-up.

Others seem to have covered almost everything here. The only thing I'd add is to look for any place where steel and aluminium alloy meet as, in my experience, this can be an issue. And also that squeaks often don't come from where you think they do.

I suffered for ages with a creak from my commuter bike which seemed to be coming from the bottom bracket. I eventually tracked it down to where the alloy seat post was clamped into the steel frame. After greasing the post it was blissfully silent.

This is one way technology will help in finding noises that come from the bike while riding. Of course, it will come from the bike manufacturers who are engaged in the Grand Tours and spend lots of research and development $$$ to tweak the rides for the professionals.

Various kinds of sensors attached to the bike situated in areas and monitored and recorded. Not only that, but these sensors detect movement as well as noise. They are movable and can be attached to the bike in different areas.

Think of it as a collection of data later to be analyzed for bike performance under various conditions. It would be useful in how bikes respond under loads and then the different types of material that change these responses.

So then the natural byproduct is the "noise" we experience from time to time.