MAK

I'm in my 50's and recently back into cycling. After riding a hybrid for a year I'm now relatively new to road biking but eager to learn. Problem is, back when I rode as a teen we fixed our bikes instead of wrenching them and the repairs were done with the bike upside down on its seat and handlebars instead of on a $150.00 stand. The point is, I have a lot to learn/catch up on.

Here is my problem. I ride a Felt F80 which is full 105 except for the crank which is an FSA-RPM. I note that when riding at a constant cadence, everything is relatively quiet, but when I put additional force on the pedals to scale a hill or just up my speed, I get a creaking sound from the crank. I've tried using TriFlo but there's no difference. Yesterday I tried an experiment and found that the creak only occurs when putting downward pressure on the pedals and if I concentrated solely on pedaling by pulling up (I obviously ride clipless), I couldn't get it to make a sound no matter how hard I tried. I realize that downward creates more stress but I really tried hard.

Is this normal?
Is it fixible?
Another kind of lube?
Something need to be tightened?

I know it's not a top quality crank. Should I replace it?

Thank you for any comments.