The creak started happening after she dropped her chain climbing a hill.
I checked all the usual suspects before deciding it was probably the piece of shit rear hub, Mavic 6sp or something, and used it as an excuse to upgrade everything (except the bb and cranks).
I bought new, like new new, hubs, spokes, shakes, pusher/dangler, chain cables. Laced the wheels, rode them myself, problem free.
The bike is MUCH nicer to ride now, according to her, but the creak remains.
The ONLY thing I didn’t fuck with was the crank and BB.
The creak is in the crank arms, the frame or the BB (my hope and I think most likely source.) It was probably poorly installed and un-maintained to date.
Installed my dropper post. Ordered a lever that didn’t have the right I spec mount. Oops. Used a reflector mount as a temporary solution as well as some roadkill cable routing. Had to drill the frame too. Whatever. It works and I have a new bar mount on the way.
Also order a woom freewheel rear wheel for $29 With shipping to eliminate the coaster brake. Still kinda surprised by the weight of it. Probably going to have to take pedals and cranks off it first for a while.
Aluminum. All the weight is on the ass end. Probably gonna throw a lighter chain on when she’s ready for pedals and call it good. Might replace seatpost too with a pivotal or a one piece seat and post to see if that drops some weight too
Had one. It’s the fucking coaster brake that my kid kept accidentally engaging and then the bike would buck him off. The freewheel here is gonna solve a lot of problems
Well wife shot down my plans for making flat carbon bars from 22mm Carbon tube stock. Definitely going to still do a lighter chain. Also dithering making carbon fiber axle nuts because I can. Kid is getting tall but she’s still so skinny and light that this bike is almost half her weight.
