Last week we asked if your fork crown has ever creaked, and the answer was overwhelming. Over 45% of people who responded said they've have had at least one fork crown creak. That's a HUGE percentage. Respondents also said 87% of those creaks happened in the first two years, and only 33% of them were resolved seamlessly by the manufacturers.
Over the years I've experienced creaking CSUs from several of the major manufacturers, and it seems to me there's a problem that needs addressing, but I've also seen lots of falsely accused CSUs, and my own anecdotal impression is that less and less forks are having problems. These numbers make the issue of creaking CSUs look so huge that I'm skeptical. It wouldn't be viable for brands to continue making product if they had a 45% failure rate—the after sales service costs would be unimaginably high.
I suspect there was some participation bias in our last poll, and that people who haven't had issues responded in lower numbers. There's also of course going to be some misidentification of creaks from headsets, stems, etc., and we didn't ask about how many forks have been creak free over the years.
So, is the issue overblown? Just how serious is it?
We'll tally these results and update with some conclusions in a couple of days. What's your guess as to percentage of forks that have creaking issues?
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If you wasn't there and no one heard it. Did it creak?.......
for ownership: 12% more riders have owned Rock Shox than Fox
for creaks: 45% more riders have creaks with Fox compared to Rock Shox
Likely at lot less than buying a new CSU every year (after the first year) or new fork every year
Every fork manufacturer is working on solutions for this issue. All of them.
It's not like they're sitting at their desks going... oh well. No one likes shit to creak... especially engineers and FOX is an engineer driven brand.
The loctite fix doesn't work for BC riders. As well, around here the use fenders or not does not make a difference.
My old F32 29" does not have problems, but the arch and crown look beefier than my F34. Even my old F32 26" 140mm 9mm QR did not have such problems, and both the F32s are plenty stiff enough for me.
I’ve ran fox, RS, marzocchi, Pace, RST and Suntour.
Plus I’ve never weighed less than 210lb.
I reckon a lot of it is misidentification of the source of the creak
New fork headset may have been tightened to different torque or greased better. Working in bike shops for 2 decades and most "fork creaks" are fixed by just taking it out and refitting it properly. Need to actually test the fork in isolation to prove it.
When I raced, I had 4 creaky fox 32’s between the years 2013 and 2016. I’m talking full-on, multi-click “chiropractor” creaks. Fox handled it with open arms.
What is a CSU?
Anyway, I still think it is very odd that you've never wrecked a derailleur but hey to each their own.
That being said, some people are sensitive to sounds. I know of some people who ride their bike regardless of what it sounds like (a trolley full of pots and pans) while myself will stop a ride to fix any minor sound.
I just had my first one and I had taken in the fork to a certain place in the lower mainland that services DVO to get the full service done. They are the ones that told me when they said they did a test on it and now will not service it because of the creak and my options are a really expensive repair and still service or replacement. Prior to their diagnosis I had no idea that I even had a creak. But if I would have heard a creak, it could have been from a variety of issues that I nor most people are reliable enough to diagnose.
BTW - I appreciate what you guys do and that your are bringing light to this even though some people don't agree or think there is ulterior motive behind it. I bought my bike pre-COVID, got laid off during COVID, had to take a lower paying job and biking has been my only saviour. When I found out about this creaky CSU thing, it was devastating. I saved up to do the service and now have to dump more money on it to get a working fork. It was amazing to see that this is such a problem and the manufacturers really need to do something about this. So thanks for the poll, enlightening!
If people take away one thing from this PB article it should be that you can't fix bad data with a little more slightly less bad data. All of this is participation biased, and if you want another fancy data science term: availability heuristic. Creaky CSU goes to the top of a person's list of 'probable' sources of noise because they've heard of it. They've heard of it to this great extent because of the echo chamber effect of social media like this. It becomes a little part of a shop's business model, further cementing the meme as something real and important and worth your $ and your worry
Slight disc rub? Who cares.
Rattling brake pads? Rattle away.
Creaky Crown? Whatever.
Compared to 4/4 creaking Pikes.
CC is actually pressing their own CSUs in NC using proper pressfit compounds - I've seen the process in person. Pretty sure most of the big guys pressing things together haphazardly without application of pressfit compounds.
I've never had a fork creak before 2007, then almost all of them since then creaked at the CSU. After rebuilding forks and headsets each time, checking the bike for every other problem, and finally sending the fork for warranty, my diagnosis were all confirmed right by the warranty center.
To get more "reliable" results, this poll would at least need to ask :
-How many single-crown forks have you owned in total? (that would put more perspective)
-If it was creaking, was your fork warrantied or denied? (that would prove if the self-diagnosis was right)
There are many more questions to ask to get the answer right, but it feels like either you don't trust your Pinkbike readers, or you don't want to acknowledge that this is a real problem.
If Fox and Rock Shox forks didn't creak as much I could have bought one, but I went with a Cane Creek Helm and a DVO Diamond because they were reputed to be less prone to creaking. I can't stand this noise on my bike!
The poll intro asks "how serious is it"?
1. How severe a problem is creaking? Is it just annoying, or is it a real safety issue? A safety issue makes it gravely serious. Otherwise...
2. What other fork related issues surface in 18% of owned forks? If creaking comes up more than other (non-safety) issues, then the creaking crowns is "serious". If there are several other annoying issues that come up more frequently, then it's probably down on the list as far as priority to fix, and I wouldn't call it that serious.
Can't really answer either of those questions with this poll. So it's really hard to say.
*If you take the 10+ data points out, it's 1709 of 6960, or 24.6%, which have issues.
for ownership: 12% more riders have owned Rock Shox than Fox
for creaks: 45% more riders have creaks with Fox compared to Rock Shox
for ownership: 12% more Rock Shox are owned than Fox
since some people can have owned multiple forks and have had both Rock Shox and Fox.
So how much would it cost us for Fox to put a key in the steer tube, so it can't rotate in the CSU?
Likely at lot less than buying a new CSU every year (after the first year) or new fork every year
I couldn’t hear my fork creaking over the cacophony of the front derailleur and bucket of bolts bikes I rode back in the day.
My singlespeed is mostly silent, but when it makes a noise, I notice immediately. The same thing is beginning to happen to trail bikes as they’ve gotten better and quieter.
Funnily the only one without problems is a cheap DPS!
I have had to warranty 4 forks for this issue (4/5 bikes in the past 7 years). Each time the manufacture admitted it was a warranty claim and replaced the upper fork unit. It was not an easy claim to make each time, however, with some (fox) making me send my fork to California for a month so that they could inspect it. They wouldn't even let a reputable shop declare it was an issue when it clearly was.
And I'm not even talking about how many fox i've sent under warranty because of bushing play (1x34, 3x40, 2x36 and soon a 3rd 36). I'm only 65kg, average rider, not Loic Bruni, but not beginner either.
And Yes, warranty service costs money, but not to the manufacturer, don't worried guys, it' all include in the price tag :')
I had a click sound from the front of my newest bike a while ago. I was dreading a csu creak from my 38s. Turned out to be the handlebar clamps needed a tiny bit more torque. Silent again.
- only in my most recent fork
-only in previous forks 1 to 10 years old
-only in forks older than 10 years
- both new and old forks
etc.
I have had greater than 10 forks but only answered yes to creaks for 1 fork, but than was my latest F34.
and since it went if for service I have been riding a ten year old F32 (29" with 9mm QR) and can't feel any flex or hear any creaks. So since I am not heavy or aggressive enough to have problems with old 32s and other weight weenie XC forks from other brands (except the original SID and that was night and day) I think the problem is with current fork manufacturers and not my riding.
But can we talk about creaking stems for a second? It seems like such a simple thing but I've had issues with multiple stems, and no amount of cleaning or carbon paste remedies it.
I don't see how you can calculate percentage in a meaningful way, based on the questions asked. Question should be, "has your most recent fork creaked?"
I put down 3 since I had a bike with a mystery creak from the head tube back when I didn't know fork crown creak was a thing. Greased everything and replaced the headset, but no luck. 3 out of 10 or so... hmm, that's like 1 susp fork owned for every year I've been seriously riding.
A more annoying issue is bushing slop. Had a couple RockShox have an issue with knocking like a loose headset. Didn't notice it until I switched to a 203mm rotor up front and only when braking at under 5 mph. Now that I confirmed it was the bushing, I notice it adding harshness everywhere, from washboard/braking bumps to actual chunk. Hmm, wonder if RS will still warranty 3 years after purchase.
It's just polling for the sake of it at this point, you can barely draw real conclusions, if any, other than "half the people out there have never had this issue". 21 people have had more than 10 creaking forks? Really?! Did they have 10 of the same creaking fork, or 10 different ones? Is it environmental? Is it the rider? You can't glean anything!
for ownership: 12% more riders have owned Rock Shox than Fox
for creaks: 45% more riders have creaks with Fox compared to Rock Shox
m.pinkbike.com/news/video-specialized-status-review-aluminum-frame-with-high-end-suspension-review.html
Really? Try a survey on dropper posts!
Is it because of your stupid/useful yet obsessive/objective article about creaking suspended things?
Merci beaucoup for your answer.
All 6 of the long travel 27.5" wheel forks that have been on my bikes have creaked.
2000's forks I owned creaked but nothing I've had in the last 5 years or so has creaked.
I feel like this poll was inspired by the comments from the last one, nothing wrong with that, a lot of people there asked these questions so why not look into them instead of another sick y00tuber edit.
By the way I've only had one creaky fork and it was a Fox 36. Rockshox, Marzocchi and Suntour I've had have never creaked.
#cullthecreek
my last 2 fork (pike ,36) creak in a year
Speaking of which. I need to put my stinking fender on my 38 before mine starts creaking.
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