RatherGood

Mine aren't ready to snap because I've hardly used them so I will just grease the bolts, WD40 the bars and see what happens, if it doesn't stop i'll just put up with it if its normal for the Echo bars. Thanks for the all the advice.

Yes that's what I thought it was, but wouldn't greasing the bars make them slip?

Yes I thought it might be the headset as well, forgot to mention it's a Diatech D-cup and is as new as the bars and stem. I will give it a good grease later when i get to my bike (I leave it at a friend's farm, some good riding spots there). I'm pretty sure the creaking is coming from the handlebars though

I recently bought an Echo Tough bar and an Onza PZ31 stem, I have only had them for a couple of weeks and about a week ago I started to hear a creaking coming from the stem. I'm not sure why, I have tried loosening (wasn't a good idea ) and tightening the handlebar clamp and the steering tube clamp but it still creaks when I put wight on the bars. Any of you know why this is? It's really getting on my nerves... EDIT: I have used the search by the way and all I found was handlebars slipping

Can't you wrap the hose around your handlebars several times

You could try to spray it yourself the paint will cost around £15 - £30 i think for 3 cans (from halfords), you need the Primer (under coat), then you need the actual colour and then the finish. The primer takes 24 hours to dry and the others im not sure about. Just don't forget the finish! (like i did and it all scratched off really easily) Or you could take it in somewhere to get sprayed, not sure how much it costs or who does it though.

Hmm, not sure about the colour

Thanks for all the replies, helped alot. I will steer clear of the parallel push v-brakes and I already have some shimano xt levers a friend gave to me so I'll be using those. I think I will aslo *attempt* grind my rim soon

I heard somewhere that XTR v-brakes are as good as maggies. If they are, or atleast almost as good I will probably buy some as I dont have magura mounts on my frame and I dont want disc brakes. So has anyone used both?

Will be a Merlin DJ frame with trials components stuck on it Half way through building it up

Suspesnion BMX! used some suspenion forks off my friends old apollo. I fitted some rear U-brakes on the V mounts and rides suprisingly well