AlanW
Guru
- Location
- Not to sure?
First let me explain the current set up, I have a LifeLine Garmin stem mount with a Exposure Trace front light mounted directly underneath it in its own little Exposure cradle. Up top, I have a Garmin 1030 which has a Dog Ears repair tab fitted to it as one on the OEM lugs broke off a while ago. I have had set up for quite a while and its worked really well with no issues at all.
However, over the last few weeks "something" has started to rattle when riding on a certain road surface?
When I clasped the Garmin the rattle would stop, which made me conclude that it was the Dog Ear to LifeLine inferface. With that assumption, I decided that I needed to remove some of the free play between the two faces. I cut a small square of insulating tap and stuck it in the inside of the LifeLine mount, then attached the Garmin. Solid as a rock, thats it I thought no more rattling.
Went out on bike the next day, rattling still there?
So added a further piece of tape to the underside of the Dog Ear repair mount and clipped to the two items together, really very tight to assemble but if it stopped the rattling, so be it!
Next day, out on bike and guess what the rattling was still there?
Once again, every time I cusped the Garmin it would stop?
Its been like this for quite a few days and in truth I was doing my best to try and ignore it and just accept it.
On Saturday a group of us were out and I hit a pothole and the resulting shock wave caused the plastic LifeLine insert to break and fling my Garmin in the air. Thankfully, the little lanyard saved it from dropping on the road. One of the lads in the group had an elastic band in his pocket, so this was wrapped around the Garmin and the light underneath to keep the Garmin in situ as a temporary fix. Carried on with the ride and no rattle?
So prehaps the answer is to keep an elastic band wrapped around it then, not ideal, but I dont care now.
But I replaced the elastic band with a Garmin silicon band wrapped around the bracket and the Garmin, but not around the light.
Went out and would you believe its still rattling FFS? Thinking it's because there is not enough tension on the silicion band, I now pull it over the light as well to add even more tension. Carried on with the ride and the rattling has got less......
So now my attention turns to the actual light. I removed silicon band from around the Garmin and just wrapped it around the bracket and the light. Definite improvement but its still there? Tried several ways to wrap the light and bracket, all of which little to no difference?
Got home, removed the light from the bike and just stared at it.
What can rattle in such a tiny thing, I shook it in all manner of different directions and nothing?
Then I held the end and flicked the lense with my finger.....hang on, what was that, was that a faint rattle I heard?
Unscrewed the lense and removed the tiny battery that once upon a time had piece of grey foam wrapped around it to stop it from rattling. This had now broken up and was effectively doing absolutely nothing at all! Wrapped some insulation tape around the battery to give it a snug fit in the chamber and reassembled the light.
Replaced the plastic LifeLine insert, removed any traces of insulation tape and the silicon band, went out for ride.....bliss
However, over the last few weeks "something" has started to rattle when riding on a certain road surface?
When I clasped the Garmin the rattle would stop, which made me conclude that it was the Dog Ear to LifeLine inferface. With that assumption, I decided that I needed to remove some of the free play between the two faces. I cut a small square of insulating tap and stuck it in the inside of the LifeLine mount, then attached the Garmin. Solid as a rock, thats it I thought no more rattling.
Went out on bike the next day, rattling still there?
So added a further piece of tape to the underside of the Dog Ear repair mount and clipped to the two items together, really very tight to assemble but if it stopped the rattling, so be it!
Next day, out on bike and guess what the rattling was still there?
Once again, every time I cusped the Garmin it would stop?
Its been like this for quite a few days and in truth I was doing my best to try and ignore it and just accept it.
On Saturday a group of us were out and I hit a pothole and the resulting shock wave caused the plastic LifeLine insert to break and fling my Garmin in the air. Thankfully, the little lanyard saved it from dropping on the road. One of the lads in the group had an elastic band in his pocket, so this was wrapped around the Garmin and the light underneath to keep the Garmin in situ as a temporary fix. Carried on with the ride and no rattle?
So prehaps the answer is to keep an elastic band wrapped around it then, not ideal, but I dont care now.
But I replaced the elastic band with a Garmin silicon band wrapped around the bracket and the Garmin, but not around the light.
Went out and would you believe its still rattling FFS? Thinking it's because there is not enough tension on the silicion band, I now pull it over the light as well to add even more tension. Carried on with the ride and the rattling has got less......
So now my attention turns to the actual light. I removed silicon band from around the Garmin and just wrapped it around the bracket and the light. Definite improvement but its still there? Tried several ways to wrap the light and bracket, all of which little to no difference?
Got home, removed the light from the bike and just stared at it.
What can rattle in such a tiny thing, I shook it in all manner of different directions and nothing?
Then I held the end and flicked the lense with my finger.....hang on, what was that, was that a faint rattle I heard?
Unscrewed the lense and removed the tiny battery that once upon a time had piece of grey foam wrapped around it to stop it from rattling. This had now broken up and was effectively doing absolutely nothing at all! Wrapped some insulation tape around the battery to give it a snug fit in the chamber and reassembled the light.
Replaced the plastic LifeLine insert, removed any traces of insulation tape and the silicon band, went out for ride.....bliss
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Despite wrapping insulation tape around the battery something is still rattling, so then I thought it was the lense on the light rattling? Took the light apart again and added a small piece of sponge between the lense and the top of the battery.
