Recently my Giant Trance 29 1—only purchased in August, about 1100 km now—started to make these noises when the rear shock is compressed. It is getting worse to the point that every pedal up technical sections would induce them.
I have identified that the noise comes from the left pivot/bolt connecting the upper rocker arm and shock, air valve end: When clicks were induced, significant vibrations can be felt there but not anywhere else. I took off the shock and tested it—it seems to be ok. The threads on the bolt and in the shock socket also look good. I also took apart all the pivots, cleaned and degreased all of bearings. Also tried locktite 243 on that bolt, but the problem still persists. I should make a note that there are two spacers put in between the shock and the rocker arm, and the entire assembly is VERY tight even before torquing to the specified 11 Nm.
The clicks hear like something is being over-tightened (those “squeaky” sound when one rubs two clean surfaces.) My phone somehow augmented the sound, they are not that loud but very noticeable—my friends could hear it when we rode together. As it is getting worse, I’m getting nervous that something will snap soon… could it be that rocker arm/press in bearing is not snugly fit or misaligned? My understanding is that piece is carbon fiber even though the frame is aluminum.
Any idea/suggestion will be appreciated! This has been troubling me in the last month. I will bring it to a LBS soon, FWIW.
Clicking noise of my Giant Trance 29
byu/Numerous_Tea_2318 inMTB
by Numerous_Tea_2318
3 Comments
I had a similar noise on my last two bikes, maybe not quite as loud, but it turned out to be the shock, to fix it I let all the air out of the shock, unscrewed the air can, and greased the threads, then screwed it back on and pumped it up again and the noise was gone, I didn’t even need to remove the shock from the bike, it wasn’t a fox shock though, it was a rockshox, but it could be worth a try.
You said you degreased the bearings but didn’t mention applying new grease. Though if you think it could be bearings just replace them.
Lower the shock pressure a lot so you can smoothly compress, this should help you determine if the shock is sticking etc.
Check the frame diagram from Giant and make sure you’re not missing spacers and they are installed in the right places.
On my old trance it was always the dropper and/or the saddle. Considering you aren’t putting too much force on the seat though and still hearing the creaking I would disassemble and clean all the suspension linkages and bearings.