RE: [RBW] How do you fix your leather saddle creaks and squeaks?

[Bernard Duhon]

I have had this problem

Before you do all this “mechanical” stuff, try “Magic incantations”. They work 
just as well.

From: rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com  On 
Behalf Of Brian Turner
Sent: Friday, October 20, 2023 9:01 AM
To: RBW Owners Bunch 
Subject: [RBW] How do you fix your leather saddle creaks and squeaks?

At some point this week, my new (to me) Atlantis developed a creak whenever I 
pedaled. While standing and cranking, nothing... so saddle or seatpost, right? 
The Brooks B17 I have on it is very old and broken in, and it has never creaked 
before, but I decided to take it off, greased the rails, a few drops of 
Tenacious Oil on the metal bits, cleaned and greased the seatpost and clamp, 
cleaned out the seat tube with this long brush that I have (think, long 
flexible bottle brush). Took it for a test ride, and the creak was still there.

So, now I proceed to deep dive into this. Remove and regrease the pedals. 
Pulled cranks and cleaned the chainrings. Replaced the rusty chainring bolts. 
Greased spindles and crank bolts. I didn't really want to remove the BB - even 
though that was a likely culprit - but I left it alone. New chain installed. 
Tightened fender I have had this problem stays. Checked cable housing and 
stops. Greased QR skewers. Test ride again. Creak still there, and maybe worse. 
Damn it! Why didn't I just pull the BB while I had all that disassem


bled??

After all this, I suddenly remembered that I had an extra saddle in my parts 
bin. I felt stupid for not putting this saddle on first thing to test my 
initial theory. Sure enough, test ride proved NO CREAKING. A-ha! I'm an idiot.

So, now to go full-on assault with this saddle creak. I flipped it over and 
dabbed globs of Obenauf's around all the places where the metal undercarraige 
meets the leather. Then, I took a heat gun (on low setting) and melted the 
Obenauf's to let it ooze down into all those nooks and crannies. I've never 
tried this approach before, but it seemed like an idea that could possibly work 
well - for a while at least. Sure enough, it took care of the creak. We'll see 
how long it holds up.

Do you have a good creak, or creaky saddle story? How did you take care of it?
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[RBW] How do you fix your leather saddle creaks and squeaks?

[Brian Turner]

At some point this week, my new (to me) Atlantis developed a creak whenever 
I pedaled. While standing and cranking, nothing... so saddle or seatpost, 
right? The Brooks B17 I have on it is very old and broken in, and it has 
never creaked before, but I decided to take it off, greased the rails, a 
few drops of Tenacious Oil on the metal bits, cleaned and greased the 
seatpost and clamp, cleaned out the seat tube with this long brush that I 
have (think, long flexible bottle brush). Took it for a test ride, and the 
creak was still there.

So, now I proceed to deep dive into this. Remove and regrease the pedals. 
Pulled cranks and cleaned the chainrings. Replaced the rusty chainring 
bolts. Greased spindles and crank bolts. I didn't really want to remove the 
BB - even though that was a likely culprit - but I left it alone. New chain 
installed. Tightened fender stays. Checked cable housing and stops. Greased 
QR skewers. Test ride again. Creak still there, and maybe worse. Damn it! 
Why didn't I just pull the BB while I had all that disassembled??

After all this, I suddenly remembered that I had an extra saddle in my 
parts bin. I felt stupid for not putting this saddle on first thing to test 
my initial theory. Sure enough, test ride proved NO CREAKING. A-ha! I'm an 
idiot.

So, now to go full-on assault with this saddle creak. I flipped it over and 
dabbed globs of Obenauf's around all the places where the metal 
undercarraige meets the leather. Then, I took a heat gun (on low setting) 
and melted the Obenauf's to let it ooze down into all those nooks and 
crannies. I've never tried this approach before, but it seemed like an idea 
that could possibly work well - for a while at least. Sure enough, it took 
care of the creak. We'll see how long it holds up.

Do you have a good creak, or creaky saddle story? How did you take care of 
it?

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