A couple thoughts on this.

Firstly, and I don't mean this in an abrasive way, but welcome to racing- or more correctly, race maintenance.

A normal, recreational bike is a wondrous vehicle because it requires so little work to keep going. For that matter, so is a modern passenger car- not much maintenance needed.

A high end race bike is also a wondrous vehicle, but it is optimized for light weight and aerodynamics. As designs have become more sophisticated, so have the maintenance requirements. Think about the car analogy: A race car- be it a top fuel dragster, Formula 1 car, Indy Car or a NASCAR requires an incredible amount of maintenance. Welcome to racing any type of vehicle- the higher tech it gets, the more maintenance is required. It isn't a "problem"- it is just the way it is.

Now, Specifically: The Bayonet and Bayonet II are excellent forks that do require skill and experience in set-up and adjustment. Your mechanic should have received a clinic from his/her Felt Outside Sales Rep at their store. Additionally, Dave Koesel, Road Brand Manager for Felt Bicycles (SuperDave on this forum) has prepared excellent videos on the Felt website that describe Felt Bayonet P.M.C.S. (Preventive Maintenance, Checks and Services).

The Bayonet system is good- but it does require correct initial installation and regular maintenance. That's racing equipment.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Lots of people have had similar problems.

It should be noted, the creaking is different that the loosening.

Creaking usually comes from the splines of the adjustable stem.

The loosening is a result of "the rest", some combination of the length compensator, the countersunk bolts up front and that long m6 bolt is my theory.

I know that mine originally came loose at about 1200 miles. I took it in and it came loose again about 100 miles later. However, the LBS did the same fix and it happened again. Felt Customer Service kept telling me to go to the LBS who didn't have a clue. SO, I took matters in to my own hands after confirming with Felt Customer Service that I wouldn't lose my warranty by working on it myself(this was the first time I touched the system). The threads on a couple of pieces had become galled/loosened through as far as I know proper riding and maintenance.

I took in the trashed parts and the new ones came about 3-4 weeks later. I haven't had problems since but I also have not been riding much because of injuries.

Good Luck. You're not the first, you won't be the last.

Thanks for the reply Tom. Your review of the B2 played a significant role in my decision to check out Felt... so, thanks! I understand the requirement of more maintenance with a bike like this. But I equate maintenance with normal wear and tear. This issue seems to be a problem with the bike. Many others have had this issue (I've done some research after my initial post which I admit is backward) and some have reported it fixed. I just cannot accept that mid-way through a 100+ mile ride I need to deal with a creak that drives me crazy. :)

I found the Felt video on bayonet assembly, but it sounds like you are referring to a different video, true?

Thanks for this post Runless.

Hoping it helps me get rid of major creaking like the OP described coming from the bars on my B2.
Would rather not need to get new parts, really don't want to replace them frequently either.

Love the bike, but the creaking bars...

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The Ride of Truth - OWN your ride.

Creaky bar syndrome just reared it's ugle head on my 2009 Felt DA as well, I have the Bayonet 2 fork and everything was assembled by a pro mechanic...me. I am going to take everything apart, relube, re-torque etc and hope it goes away.

I stopped in at two LBS I've had 100% good experience with. Asked how the %$! do I get rid of creaky bars?! Did not specify brand/model. Both said it's not uncommon. Wonder if you concur.
They could only say trial and error, take apart, clean, etc. to eliminate one possible cause at a time -just what I was hoping to avoid. I haven't done it yet.

If you identify a cause please share, maybe there's commonality.

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The Ride of Truth - OWN your ride.

Will do, a friend of mine has an older DA as well, 2007 model I believe and he has had numerous issues with creaking bars/stem etc. We took his apart, followed the Felt information on how to tighten/adjust everything with the proper torques, lubes, anti-seize compounds etc and he hasn't had a problem since. We also greased the various splines, grub bolt, all other bolts, put carbon assembly paste on the handlebars and his issues appear to have vanished. I think it might just be something you have to keep on top of with regular maintenance, I was caught in a rainstorm for a few hours the other day and that might have been the culprit, still though, it sucks to have to rebuild your front end after every rainy ride!!

Bumping this thread to ask a question about installation of the spline shaft assembly. I noticed the front end was getting a little loose and took it to the LBS. They mentioned that the different screws needed to be tightened down, and rather than charge me I could just take care of it myself. I took it home and tightened everything up, still loose...it was clearly the two bolts that screwed down into the fork. So I took the aerobars, stem and spline assembly off, tightened the bolts down...and noticed the ridges on the spline assembly were worn/broken.

Sooooo, I then ordered a pair of the spline shaft's from Felt. Two things: first, the assembly on my bike had a smooth portion 3/4 of the way down the ridged area (for easier adjustment of the aerobar height), these do not. Second, I can't for the life of me actually get the assembly to fit into the ridges of the stem. I tried in vain for two hours yesterday and it's just not fitting.

Any experience with any of this? I'm pretty sure I'm just gonna have to take it to the LBS, tail between legs, and have them take care of it. But my main concern is with the different spline assembly, I liked that I could easily adjust the old one if I had to adjust the aerobar height. Any thoughts or help on this? Thanks!

I can't really help, but thanks for the bump. I've put about 200 miles on my new B14 and I notice a decent amount of creaking from the front end when I'm on the brake drops climbing.

I don't have a bayonet fork but this makes me want to take it back to the LBS for a checkup.

Tom,

While you are correct in a lot of ways, you miss the mark in many key areas.

Automobile racing, especially F1 is more like prototype one off bikes than a production TT bike. A high performance bike is the automotive equivalent of a high end sports car and not an F1 car. Just consider production numbers a bit.

Also there are far less moving parts on any bicycle so there should be significantly fewer problems.

Your gravest error though is not to acknowledge that ultimately the customer is always right. As a businessman, I'm surprised you overlooked this one.

I have a Felt myself but stories of fork problems could easily prevent me from ever buying another. Especially if I have a problem and the help I get is just like yours.

There ard literally so few moving parts on a bicycle that major issues are just inexcusable.

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You will remain the same person, before, during and after the race. So the result, no matter how important, will not define you. The journey is what matters. ~ Chrissie W.

Had the 2009 Felt B2...know exactly what you are talking about...went through this whole process multiple times...after taking it to LBS over and over again...Messed with it myself...then finally watched the video over and over too see what they did...I have since sold the bike and upgraded to a Scott Plasma, but I finally did get it resolved...The trick is the order in which you tighten the screws in the head set. I am trying to remember exactly how I did this, but I believe I had to make sure the big screw that goes down into the frame and the two little screws in the front have to be tightened down properly before you put the stem back on...that is where the creaking/noise, ect. comes from... the cap has to be tighted down equally and flush against the frame...if it isn't secure and flush against the frame it doesn't matter what you do with the set screw and the screws that are on the upper part of the system...you will always get noise...I will say that after I figured this out I never had a problem with it every again and it was actually very stiff and responsive when I was climbing...Sorry I am a little vauge because it has been well over a year since I have had the bike and longer since I fixed the head set issue, but it will work if done properly and no you shouldn't have to run to the LBS every couple of miles as a part of maintanence....

Hope this helps....hopefully my post along with the installation video will resolve this issue for you....

Problem with the design. Tom I think you are really slick protecting Felt's design. You comparaison to race care is totally bullshit. You should not have to touch up your race back like that, name me other race bike that requires that much mechanic work?

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Formely stef32

Call "Moment Cycle Sport" in San Diego and they will tell you how to fix it. You have to use some teflon tape and wrap it around the spot where the cockpit attaches to the fork/head unit. My Felt B2R creaked from day 1. The guys at Moment were giving me a bike fit and asked me if my head unit creaked. I told them yes, and they said that about 50% of the bayonets were creaking and Felt could not help them and even denied that there was a problem. They experimented around and found that the teflon tape did the trick. I have not had a creak since.

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"Wait.....and Hope" -Edmond Dantes

Hey guys, I am not kidding...I can honestly say that I can fix any Bayonet headset from creaking (as along as it isn't actaully cracked or something really broken)...but I believe the issue people are experiencing happen relatively quickly without any possiblity of REAL damage. I think you can even look back and find one of my first post on slowtwitch was about this very same issue...The design is definetely not ideal (for the mere fact that you have to find 1 of about 10 people who can actually put it together properly)...I didn't need any tape or any thing special to make it work....Make sure it is clean...get some lock tight (don't really need this, but make sure the screws are nice and clean maybe a little lube)...Read my above post...the key is the putting the cap on correctly....

Sorry, when I said cap above, I meant the crown with the compensator adujtment screw...I think the key if I remeber correctly is to make sure the crown is flush...I don't have it right in front of me so this makes it a little tought to describe...There is a little comment on the installation video that says someting about pushing up on the comensator screw to put it under a little load (it is very sublte, but the key to making the whole thing work)...if I remember correctly, I think I actually loosened the compensator screw up to the crown and made sure there was a little upward force on the crown (or at least very flush) before I tightened the two screws on the crown down (this created the load)...if you tighten the crown and then move the adjuster screw up like the video show you don't end up tightening the crown down with any load under the back end...if there is not proper support under the back end of the crown (when you go to tighten the rest of the stem/headset down) you will always get a creak/noise...now that I am remembering all this I believe the video has the steps backwards or doesn't properly explain how to create load to support the crown....without this when you start moving around on the bars, pulling on them/riding ect...things eventually loosen up....

Anyways, maybe super dave will read this and look into it an makes some changes to the installation video...but if you follow the video exactly I am pretty sure it will never work properly!

Though I applaud Felt for taking an innovation risk, the Bayonet fork was not ready for consumer production. The technology has too many flaws, has too many pieces and loose assembly tolerances. Obviously Felt did not test it enough to discover these flaws before retailing them on their TT bikes.

I have tried to alleviate the noise many times and I now know every millimeter of the complete Bayonet system. The perfect fork setup will not remove the creaking permanently unless you 'luck' into the perfect setup and perfectly matched set of parts. My Felt is set up the best it can be and it still creaks.

There is not one universal cure for everybody. With the under-enginerred and excessively high the number of parts of the Bayonet, small amounts of play add up and cause large creaks. My Bayonet's creak is from the stem / crown / splined shaft assembly. The stem-to-crown tolerance is loose and the splined shaft fits loosely into the assembly. The splined shaft holds it all together just fine, but it doesn't tighten the loose tolerances. Why do you think they added a 'set screw' in the Bayonet II?

As for the compensator, if it isn't aligned 'perfectly' when assembled, the crown will not sit on a flush level surface, which can cause it to flex and make noise. Heck, look at the compensator 's design... a large flat platform with a narrow shaft... that's a obvious area for excessive play. This flexing can also put an excessive load on the 2 bolts that attach the crown to the fork.

I can conceive other ways this mis-engineered fork can cause creaking.

BOTTOM LINE: You can't fix a poor design. You can replace the fork with a 1" aero fork. That will also give you the ability to use an Integrated Aero Bar and/or give you more flexibility in aero bar positioning.

THE GOOD NEWS: I've disassembled my Bayonet several times and the creaking and flexing hasn't caused any excessive wear or damage (yet). So for me, I choose to ignore the noise for now until I decide on a new frame or maybe I'll just install a conventional aero fork on my Felt.

IS FELT PERFECT? I love my F Series Felt road bike and it's been great. But if you think the Bayonet issue is isolated, look at my '08 TT bike seat clamp. I've broken two of them while riding. Now they make the seat clamp in stainless steel instead of aluminum. And that's ok, it happens... but the Bayonet Fork is more then that, it's a total mess.

+2, those guys are the best. I also had problems with my Bayonet but was able to get it squared away eventually. The B2 is a great-riding bike once you get rid of the creaky fork.

I Love my B2 as well...but the fork has been a constant pain for a year and a half. So far these are the steps to correct the creak that i have taken....

-12+ trips to the bike shop where i bought it to have it redone (its over 75 miles away) They no longer carry Felt, largely because of this reason. Their head mechanic told me that it cant be fixed. I even helped him on several occasions, watching the video with him while he worked on it. He also recieved the training on it BTW.

-3 different felt reps that just shrugged their shoulders and told me to take it to the shop to have it "torqued properly"

-15+ times redoing it myself ( about every 100 miles or so)

Every Felt with the bayonet system i have come across has this problem...every person i talk to at every race complains...so if there is a cure, then why it being communicated to the bike shops that deal with these bikes?

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Rattlesnake Blake
With the "Venom Enom"

I disagree strongly with this. Tightening hard-to-access safety-critical screws regularly is a design flaw, not standard maintenance. Maintenance is cleaning, replacing wear parts, adjusting brake alignment etc.

and comparing the fine tuning of a "race" bike to a F1 is a bit of a joke as well

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Formely stef32

I agree is a design flaw, but I 'think" it's an easy fix.
I bought a 2009 Felt DA with the Bayonet 2. 1st thing I noticed was the front end was a tad loose. Did all my research and contacted Felt who after several emails and taking it to a felt dealer....wasn't able to fix it. So I just learned how the system worked on my own setting out to fix it myself. Personally I could NEVER get the steerer lock screw tight enough to eliminate the last bit of play in the fork....I haven't messed with it in a while...as I just have been "dealing with it", but from what I remember I think the steerer nut is too thick and needed to be machined down a few mm. I could be remembering wrong, but that's what I recalled.

http://2009.feltracing.com/...y%20Instructions.pdf

Michael

It's definitely not a flaw. I have a 09 B2 and it creaked terribly. I took it apart tightened everything and the creaking would stop but start again after like a 20 mile ride. I thought it was just a flaw in the fork but if you put it back together CORRECTLY it won't creak. The trick is before you screw the long M6 x 60mm bolt down into the steering tube you NEED to FIRST screw the Steerer Length Compensator tight (by hand is fine). If you do it in reverse order it will just keep coming loose.
I did it correctly and I've put about 500 miles on it with absolutely NO issues.
here's a link to the pdf assembly...Step 8 is the important step.
Hope this helps!!

http://www.feltbicycles.com/Resources/Manuals/Bayonet%20I%20and%20SL%20Assembly%20Instructions(3).pdf

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Squats = Watts
"The lady thought his arms were his legs, that's why his numbers are so big. Then she thought his calves were quads, so she wrote on his shins. This was after they tried to put his wristband on his dick." ~Louis Chee Cayedito

My .2. I have a 2011 B10 that I love. I wanted (as in willing and able to pay...money in hand) to buy a Bayonet system the bike this winter. My LBS, a Felt dealer, basically did everything they could do to talk me out of it because of all the issues stated in this thread and many others like it. I would be curious to know how the front end system on the 2011 DA is working out. Can you imagine spending $12.5K and having front end creaking? I would be ready to burn down all of Irvine.

The B14 uses a standard headset. The bike comes equipped with several 5mm headset spacers. On a 1" steerer tube there is enough deflection when left uncut that if debris enters the small gaps between the spacers it will creak. Clean up the front end with using 1 x 20mm spacer instead of 4 x 5mm and clean and lube the thrust surfaces.

The service and assembly of the Bayonet forks does require following the assembly instructions. It is unlike a standard fork and often the casual mechanic may assume their experience or understanding of bicycles is enough to adjust this new system. We've seen similar threads when the P4 rear brake was introduced and the SpeedConcept bar/stem/fork/brake. The ongoing integration and propriatary systems will continue and a firm grasp of the understanding of the assembly should be the first step in working on these machines. It is the responsibility of the manufacturer to present enough information so this is possible. I think this is where we've fallen short when introducing these new technologies. The online tools and video instructions have been key to resolving the misinformation that proliferated the web just after release.

-SD

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https://www.kickstarter.com/...bike-for-the-new-era