Noise when turning the front wheel

[RoadRaven]

I wonder about the head set too - you seem to have covered the other things I can think of...

My partner's RR training bike, a Wheeler, has a noise too, and he has replaced, refitted and fiddled with everything he could. We are assuming it is the frame itself, and considering the 1000's of kms it has done, this is plausable. We are looking at getting him a new RR bike so his current one can become his training bike. We're just worried the frame may give out somewhere/time while he's riding.

[ridebikeme]

Assuming like everyone else that it might be the headset... let me give you some other things to think about. How old is your R5000?

It could also be noise coming from the stem/handlebar area...that area takes ona lot of stress from all sorts of things.... road shock, we pull on the handlebars quite a bit when riding hard, and simply a portion of our weight over them all the time. That is why I asked you how old you bike was.. someting else to rule out. You might also check your housing where it feeds into the frame... that can also make quite a bit of noise.

If you aren't able to isolate the problem,: I would definitely have your LBS take a look at it.

[equus123]

My R5000 is about 3 yrs old or there about. My stem is only a month old and I got new bars about 3 months ago...so I think that can be ruled out.

When I was at home last night I picked up my girlfriend's bike and turned the bars from side to side and it was fluid and easy. I picked mine up and it seems to be tighter turning from side to side and has just the slightest bit of resistance in the sense that it doesn't just move fluidly. Does this change anything you guys were thinking?

[KnottedYet]

That sounds like the way my bike behaved when it needed a new headset.
(mine didn't make noise, but it fought turning left and right, and almost acted like it was spring-loaded)

[velogirl]

definitely sounds like the head set is either too tight or needs to be serviced.

however, creaking (and resistance) can also be caused by cables rubbing on the head tube when you turn the front from side to side.

[equus123]

gotchya. thank you for your help!

[Eden]

Yeah sounds like when your stem was changed the headset may have been over tightened. It can be a tricky thing - it needs to be tight enough to not move back and forth(like I described when I thought the clicking might be looseness), but not so tight that it binds.