My new QR Caliente seat post is squeaking like crazy. I’ve tightened it as much as I dare. Tightening helped but it is still pretty noisy.
I’ve heard conflicting stories as to whether or not it’s OK to grease a carbon seat post.
No.
Also… NO,
…
but I so beleive there is some new type of grease you can use, but it was specially designed for carbon. I forget who makes it.
…
if you have squeak, clean it, and don’t overtighten.
I have always heard no, have you checked all of the nuts and bolts on the bike, and seat? I do know sometimes the noise is actually from somewhere else on the bike than where we think we hear it.
After I had a post freeze, Yes. No problems since.
Yes, I’m pretty sure it’s the seatpost. At it’s worst I could make squeak by pressing sideways on the nose of the saddle. I’ve gradualy tightened the seatpost bolts and it has gotten a lot better but I can’t get it completely quiet.
The sticker on the seatpost warns not to exceed 35 inch pounds of torque. For those of us without a torque wrench that measures inch pounds does anyone have any rules of thumb for how tight you can get these? I’m paranoid about cracking it.
Here’s an article talking about the new carbon grease blakeski mentioned. Looks like FSA and Tacx have it.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech.php?id=tech/2006/news/10-25
instead of grease, grab some of that tacx dynamic paste.
It’ll help hold your seatpost without those scary high torques on the retaining bolts.
CS7,
Grease your carbon seatpost after a previous carbon seatpost froze?
The reasons one greases a seatpost (metal) are two fold. One, is to inhibit surface oxidation/rust that can cause a metal seatpost to freeze up in the seat tube of a frame. The other reason is to inhibit galvanic corrosion that can occur when two dissimilar metals are put into contact with one another, i.e., when an aluminum seatpost is placed in a steel frame seat tube.
Neither of these conditions can occur with carbon seatposts, they are not metal. Now why do you use grease on your carbon seatpost?
“35 inch pounds of torque”
That’s about a grunt and a half a groan.
Seriously, it’s a reasonable amount, but if in doubt it’s best to buy/borrow/beg/steal a torque wrench rather than over torque.
hugh,
35 inch pounds of torque is one inch pound of torque less than 3 foot pounds of torque. Someone will correct me if I am wrong but one foot pound of torque is one pound of pressure on a wrench that is one foot long from the fastner being tightened to the point on the wrench where one’s hand is applying the pressure. If the wrench is so short that this distance from fastner to hand is only 6 inches, then two pounds of pressure is needed on the wrench to apply 1 pound of torque to the fastner.
As you can see, we are talking about very little pressure on a wrench. Most mechanics who don’t regularly use torque wrenches grossly over tighten fastners which require such low torque values, in part because they fear the fastners are not tight enough when only such a low amount of torque is applied.
Most gauges, including torque wrenches, have their accuracy measured at full scale. Therefore using a torque wrench rated in foot pounds and trying to measure torque so close to zero will often result in widely different amounts of torque. You really need a torque wrench that measures inch pounds of torque for such low torque values.
CS7,
Grease your carbon seatpost after a previous carbon seatpost froze?
The reasons one greases a seatpost (metal) are two fold. One, is to inhibit surface oxidation/rust that can cause a metal seatpost to freeze up in the seat tube of a frame. The other reason is to inhibit galvanic corrosion that can occur when two dissimilar metals are put into contact with one another, i.e., when an aluminum seatpost is placed in a steel frame seat tube.
Neither of these conditions can occur with carbon seatposts, they are not metal. Now why do you use grease on your carbon seatpost?
I would’ve agreed with you, but I was suprised to read what Craig Calfee wrote to Leonard Zinn’s tech column. Dear Lennard,
Thankfully! An opportunity to dispel the myth that one shouldn’t grease a carbon post!
I don’t know where the myth started, but carbon composites are not affected by grease. Our advice is simple: If the seatpost fits tight, grease it. If it slips, de-grease it. As has been known for many years, when aluminum and carbon fiber contact each other, galvanic corrosion can start. That is why Calfee uses a fiberglass sleeve as a seat tube shim. Aluminum seat tube (or sleeve) and a carbon post will result in corrosion of the frame and possible seizure of the post within the frame. A carbon sleeve on an aluminum post will result in corrosion of the post. Salty environments accelerate this corrosion. Anodizing merely slows it down. About the only common chemical that will hurt carbon fiber is paint remover (which attacks the resin between the fibers). But there are many solvents that will dull a nice paint job.
Craig Calfee
I still don’t think I will be greasing my carbon seatpost anytime soon…
I had a similar problem with new carbon USE RX seatpost about a month ago. I’m commuting on bike early mornings and a squeaking sound was driving me crazy. I was tightening the seatpost, seat, tried changing seat. I finally found exactly what the problem was when I held the bike seat tube in one hand and moved the seatpost back and forth with another hand. Sound was coming from the end of seatpost rubbing the seat tube. I knew that greasing a carbon post is a bad idea and decided to use Johnson’s baby powder that I normally apply to tubes before placing them on wheels. I applied just a little bit of baby powder to the seat post and the sound disappeared! To make sure that you have a similar problem don’t hold the seat, grab the seatpost and try moving it. Hope, it helps…
I grease all my poles, cant be too careful out there…
my carbon seat post in a carbon frame, usually not although I’ve been using Syntace’s friction paste (same thing as the Tacx and FSA stuff) recently and have been very happy with it. No squeaks, easier in and out and it NEVER slipps.
I’ve had to lube an aluminum post in a carbon frame before, otherwise we could never get the damn thing out with the help of several people to hold the frame while we crowbard the saddle and post out…
I grease all my poles, cant be too careful out there…
Eh, lotion does a good job and leaves poles feeling silky smooth.
Carbon and metal will produce galvanic corrosion because they are both somewhat conductive. This week I watched my mechanic saw a piece of seatpost stuck inside a frame into pieces so he could get it out. I was really glad that wasn’t my frame (Trek w/ alu seatpost broken during removal attempt) and there was a fair bit of corrosion, causing the two to bond. They did have some Tacx carbon prep stuff which felt pretty cool, you can feel the little polymer beads which supposedly compress to prevent slipping. Anyhoo, I take all my carbon to metal interfaces apart ot least once a year for maintenance and I’ll probaly add the Tacx stuff next time for added protection.
Not sure if this applies to your bike, but for mine I rotated the clamp 180 degrees so the nut was forward and the creak was eliminated.
For Blue Competition bikes & Aerus seat posts… No