Ended up at Wakefield yesterday evening in an attempt to meet up with Pete for the night ride. Pete ended up not being able to make it so I went and wondered around on my own for a bit. As I did I was getting tired of some various squeeks etc the bike was making. So having had enough I loaded the bike up headed home early and got to work.
I tore down most of the bike to clean things up and hopefully eliminate the squeeks. Among other things I serviced the headset, I broke down the stem and handlebars, the bottom set of pivots, the seat post, saddle and salsa flip lock, cranks etc. Pretty much anything I could break down and clean I did.
I think the culprit was a combination of the lower pivot bearings and the seatpost / saddle and or the salsa quick release on it. It really only squeeked when I was in the saddle. The 2nd squeek was only when I was hard on the peddals and I think that was the bearings mentioned. So I cleaned everything using parts cleaner and carefully greased and put everything backtogether.
It took a couple hours but the bike seems much quieter now. I’ll know more as soon as I get it out on the trails. The lower pivots and bearings were pretty dirty and will need replacement bearings soon. I asked Paul at Bike Doc to order me a set so I can swap those out soon.
In related news I ordered up fluid and seals from fox so I can service my f100x on my IF. I noticed the right side stanction is a little on the juicy side so I think the seal is going. Rather than let it go until it becomes an issue I’m gonna knock it out. I spoke to Pete at length regarding the maintenance involved and he pointed me to the fox tech site for more info. I’ve read through the excellent instructions there and I’m confident that I can knock this out with a little time and patience. The stuff from fox shipped today so hopefully by next week I’ll be able to get started. I’ll take lots of pics of the project to document either my success or epic fail 