My Ribble CGR AL hasn’t been immune to a few issues. Firstly the paint flaked off at the dropouts which, in my opinion, was premature and unusual but Ribble washed their hands of it and sent me some touch up paint.
I was plagued with rear dropout issues for a while. Coming loose and creaking although a dab of threadlock on the the threads of the screws holding them on the frame finally sorted that.
Recently though the bike has been creaking like a rusty hinge again. My initial thoughts were dropouts again but they were all tight. I even took them off and refitted them again just in case. Over time, as it has got worse and more annoying, I’ve swapped my freehub, my pedals, removed my seatpost and saddle, my front mech, my chainset and removed, cleaned and refitted my headset bars and stem too. All seems fine initially and as you get into a ride then the creak comes back and gets worse. So f**king annoying!
Shimano 105 R7000 disc brakes are absolute shit btw too. Not impressed.
The only thing left was the bottom bracket which I bought a tool especially to remove it and that didn’t cure it either so I was at a bit of a loss and considered just getting rid of the bike.
Then after riding to work this week I’d had enough and temporarily swapped my rear wheel. It seemed to work but I’ve had it before when you think it’s fixed and isn’t. I wondered if it was the spokes? Really? The creak just didn’t sound like a spoke creak. I’ve resolved enough creaks on customer bikes in the past to be quite good at diagnosing them but this one was a head scratcher. The wheel was perfectly true, spoke tensions were fine so I just worked the nipples clockwise and back a quarter of a turn. Some of them cracked and popped and some were quite stiff but thats naff alloy nipples for you.
I always used to get a load of fresh repairs when the weather warmed up as bikes began to creak. Most often caused where things are bolted or clamped
I rode to work the next day and the creak was better and sounded different so, finally, I was happy I had diagnosed the spokes as the issue and took it as a lesson learned too. The Ribble saved from being moved on.
Now I can’t be arsed with the Mavic Aksiums anymore. Decent enough wheels but I fancied an upgrade as a birthday treat to myself anyway. I’ve been looking at Scribe Cycling wheels on and off for months now and could never really justify a set until now so I just pressed the button on a pair of Race-D’s which will probably save me almost half a kilo because they are so light. Which is ridiculous to be honest.
I currently have a set of Hunt 4 Season wheels on the Dolan GXA and these (even the website) are very similar and they get great reviews and are obviously in high demand as they constantly sell out. Mine are due end of August
Can’t wait to try them and report back. They come taped for Tubeless + valves so I can swap my Schwalbe One’s over without fuss and just a bit of sealant. Should roll really well.
Now I just need to book a mini cycling tour and use them
They’ll be quite the improvement!