eflayer

Prior to my last visit to the shop I took one last ditch effort on my own and tried something new. All parts in the stack were preloaded, including the headset cover cap; and remember all the steps the shop took ensure all was padded, tightened, and lubed beyond spec. Things were better but I swear I was still hearing a rattle over a certain type of road imperfection = mostly a certain sharp bump style of crappy road. When I was on a road with a bunch of this stuff I tried putting pressure on the black rubber boot below the stem. I will swear again and say there was even less rattle when this pressure was applied.

I came home and took a few inches of bar tape, wrapped it tightly around the boot, and then wrapped that tightly with black electrical tape. This translated to a bit more pressure required to push the bars up and down and less ease of bounce in the FT. It may also have acted as insulation against whatever is going on in the moving parts of the FT.

Specialized said they'd send the shop a warranty replacement FS. They did that. I went into the shop and they replaced the original FT with the warranty unit and that meant medium spring installed and not MY cush spring. No discussion from them about why my boot was wrapped in tape. I went for a ride and hope against hope I thought the new FT with medium spring was the magic bullet. But after a 50 mile ride yesterday, again was pretty sure some part of the rattle was still there.

This morning I again wrapped the boot in bar tape and electrical tape, went for a short ride, and think this may be it.

I am coming to the conclusion that the FT is good tech, but there are metal on metal parts going up and down and moving against each other with every bump or big chip seal in the road surface. There must be a resonance factor in those parts coupled with the carbon frame that I just can't ignore. There are a bunch of FT Roubaixs in our club. I have asked every person if their bike rattles. A few have said yes but most have said no. I am thinking some people notice and some don't because it is hard to believe my bike is an outlier. Some people ride with a crud-covered chain, I don't.

Will try this boot wrap experiment for next few rides, report back, and decide if I should make a stink with Specialized.

Thanks for listening.