Tip of the Week
After washing a bike before doing a little light maintenance on it, I noticed a stiffness to the rear suspension as well as a squeaking sound when I pushed down on the seat area.
Upon inspection I noticed that the bolt attaching the lower shock mount to the suspension linkage had worked its way out of the shock mount allowing the bolt head to rub on the linkage support arm.
This rubbing action between suspension parts was creating the stiff feel in the rear-end as well as the squeaking sound. Gone unnoticed or not repaired the bolt would continue work its way out doing damage to the suspension linkage, and left unchecked the linkage will bind to the point of not working or parts will break, both could ruin a good day of riding.
The bike that I was working on is in excellent condition and would not indicate a problem with maintenance by looking at its condition, but bolts do come loose even on the best maintained bikes, as I have noted in other posts.
Check your bike over before each ride and/or after each ride.
I like to wash my bike or any bikes that come into the shop, with a hose and brush, so I can get a close look at all parts of the bike, looking for loose bolts or anything out of place on the bike.
Also, listen for suspension noise, stiffness and looseness.
Listen to the chain as the bike is rolled from the wash pad to the garage, the chain should ride easy on the sprockets with a slight clicking noise with no binding, forward and backward.
When compressing or turning the front suspension, listen for noise, there shouldn't be any. Feel for stiffness or roughness when compressing the forks or turning the front end from side to side. Noise and stiffness will come from an out of align or loose, front wheel and forks, loose, dry, damaged or tight steering head bearings or loose handle bar mounts.
If you have any questions about a Trials bike, maintenance or a noise on your machine give Thumbs Up Trials a call and let's see if we can figure out what is going on.