Weight Weenies

Hi

I bought one of the ultra-lightweight Cannondale compression top caps when they first came out and have been running it without issue until recently.

I bought a Deda Superleggero/a stem and bar combo for my and for some reason the super light Cannondale compression top cap makes a nasty creaking / twisting sound when installed. I have since gone back to the regular Cannondale compression top cap. Anyone else had similar issues?

I noticed with interest that the Cannondale pro road team use the normal top cap unit and not the super light one, which leads me to believe it might actually be an issue...

I should add that the creaking noise only happens when I am laying down the God-Damn LAW in sprints, which is me effectively trying to twist the front of my bike off with my minotaur levels of power.

No insight into C'dale compression top caps, sorry, that's niche knowledge, just wondering why you're so sure it's the top cap generating the creaking? Putting a big effort in generates force all over the bike and there are numerous interfaces capable of creaking. It's notoriously difficult to pin down the source of a creak just by listening.

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Are you running the carbon fiber conical spacer? Mine creaks - and it's pretty annoying. If I up the preload, and grease the contact surfaces, it is greatly minimized.

have you used carbon assembly paste on the steerer tube and the bar / stem connection point

Can't help but say that I've had no issues with mine on a CAAD10 w/ stock fork.

Running a single 10mm carbon spacer under the stem.

No sound at all today while out training and sprinting hard - normal comp. unit.

Swapped back to lightweight one, with everything else identical - creak.

The fact the pro team opt for the normal one must be relevant.

OwenJames wrote:The fact the pro team opt for the normal one must be relevant.

not really, they can hit weight with the normal one, they ride ~10 times as far as you per year in all weather's, they probably adjust/swap the headset bearings on a far more regular basis so why opt for a super light top cap that will/may fail when you least want it to.

I had the same issue and tried all sorts of things to fix the creak on my stock Caad10 fork with the new lightweight compression/top cap. With the old one I had no issues. I am using a Thomson x2 stem and the creak only went away after I dropped my seat a little and correspondingly put a 5mm carbon spacer above the stem (previously the top cap was directly on the stem). Now issue seems completely fixed. Maybe you could try putting a very small spacer above the stem...

Also, I doubt it means much that the protour team is using the old standard assembly. I've read some on the team use custom solid steel spindles with their cranks just to get to 6.8.

Putting a spacer above the stem is usually a good plan, and should always be done for carbon steerers.

This has come up before. Cannondale state that a spacer should NOT be placed above the stem.

Perhaps OP (and others) should RTFM?

If I had to guess, the OP has read "TFM" and nothing he wrote would indicate otherwise. I have also read "TFM" and so has my great LBS. The fix for this specific problem, that the OP asked about, was to place a small spacer above the stem. It makes sense to not stack a huge amount of spacers above your stem, but...

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/pho ... aix/260583
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=102926
http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/pho ... evo/222701
http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/01/ ... evo_271418
http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/pho ... mod/259369
http://www.cannondaleprocycling.com/csg ... -mod-team/
etc...

Cannondale doesn't want you to use a spacer is because on stock Cannondales, they come with a cylindrical top cap that extends down into the steerer tube. That plus the expansion plug is about 40mm. That supports the area where the stem clamps. Who knows what setup is used on pro bikes.

Specialized also recommends that you not use a spacer above the stem on the stock setup.

OP can always swap out whatever compression plug he's using for one like this.



This is what I use on my carbon fork bikes.

mattr wrote:

OwenJames wrote:The fact the pro team opt for the normal one must be relevant.

not really, they can hit weight with the normal one, they ride ~10 times as far as you per year in all weather's, they probably adjust/swap the headset bearings on a far more regular basis so why opt for a super light top cap that will/may fail when you least want it to.

How dare you! I ride as far and hard as the next man!

bikerjulio wrote:Perhaps OP (and others) should RTFM?

What is with the attitude, mate? As the other guy pointed out, where does it indicate in anything I said that I have not 'read the f*cking manual'? I know how it work on a bike. It is not rocket science. Shall explain this all to you, so you can understand it properly, in simple terms? Here goes... I suspect that the lightweight Cannondale compression plug is not up to the extreme stress of sprinting, due to its' inherent fragile and minimal structure. The creaking sound I was getting, does not happen with the heavier, more solidly built original compression plug. I noticed that the pro team also use the original, and thought to myself, "Hey, those guys sprint extremely hard, and they are not using the lightweight compression cap, which is odd as one would have imagined they would use all the latest gear available, so I think that means this is not just an issue I was having, but one which is a problem with the nature of the lightweight compression cap itself."

I then posted this here to see if anybody else had experienced the same thing. Nothing was said about installing it upside-down, tightening it to 1,000,000nm by mistake, sawing it in half to save even more weight, or putting it in that machine Jeff Goldblum uses to teleport himself in the The Fly, but accidentally teleporting a creaking floorboard from a haunted house with it by mistake, thereby fusing the two things together into what looks like a regular lightweight Cannondale compression plug, but slowly goes through a twisted and disgusting transformation into a creaking compression plug - haunted floorboard hybrid, before installing it. You twat.

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