When riding at Yankee Springs two weekends ago I thought I identified the cause of some bike noise on my Salsa El Mariachi Ti: the rear skewer. After trying out an old Shimano XT skewer from another bike during some local rides it held solid, and Lumberjack seems to have proven it out. I was subsequently able to acquire a new Shimano M770 skewer (so the old one can go back on the old bike) and I’ll use this one instead of the Salsa Flip-Off that came on the bike. This comes at a whopping eight gram penalty (55g for the Salsa Flip-Off vs. 63g for the Shimano M770), which I think is worth it for a more secure rear skewer.
I’m actually quite surprised that I had difficulties with the Salsa skewer as the other two that I own have been very solid. I suspect it has a bit to do with the way the rear triangle flexes, so maybe the different cam design of the Shimano (which I believe to be easier to get very tight) is what’s needed. A through-axle would be another good way to sidestep this, but I don’t have a TA-compatible rear wheel, so I can’t do that yet…