Squeaking wasn't your saddle after all!

September 28, 2016 0 Comments

Carol,

Thanks for your offer to give the saddle a “tune-up”.  However, I feel I must decline and offer an explanation as to WHY.

I removed the saddle from the bike a couple of days ago, after trying grease, T-9 lube, loosening, tightening, prayer and also calling it every name I could think of.  I reached my limit!  I put on the old saddle (which kind of feels like riding on a marshmallow) and then took off for a quiet, squeak-free ride.  And it was… for the first couple of miles… and then the squeak came back.  Not quite as loudly as it was previously, but loud enough to both piss me off and to make me realize that I had falsely accused this saddle of a crime it didn’t commit.

It appears that what I thought was a creaking saddle was actually my SPD cleat grating against some part of the pedal.  A guy at a local bike shop listened to my description and then suggested a teflon based lubricant spray… and the 20 mile ride home was pedaled in blissful silence.

So I thank you for your offer of taking care of the saddle — it’s nice to see a company that will REALLY stand behind their product!  But apparently it’s not your product that was giving me all this grief for the past several months!

Now… can anyone explain how a pedal and clip combination can do a ventriloquist act that makes it sound like the squeaking is coming from the saddle instead of the pedal?  Because both my wife and I could have sworn that the sound was coming from the seat area — not from the pedal or crank!

Rich