Bicycle Mechanics - Another Noise

I have been having some bad creaking type noises lately. On my ride today all of a sudden it sounded like I was dragging a metal wire for a second, then it stopped and my creaking went away a little bit. A few minutes later it did it again. This time the creaking sound remained for the entire ride. Pretty noticable too. It made the noise whether I was holding the handlebars or not so Im pretty sure its not a stem/bar interface problem. My seatpost is nice and tight and wiggling on the saddle I couldn't get the sound to duplicate. However, when I got home I did some single leg pedaling, only one foot clipped in. The noise was only present when I was clipped in with my right foot. I got no noise what so ever out of the left foot and I was pushing harder too. The right foot just pedaling it sounded bad. Also, when I get into a pretty high gear, 39x15 or maybe 53x21-19 going downhill there feels like there is a buzzing almost coming through the cranks and its not the road because it only does it when Im pushing harder. Any ideas at all? I just had my cranks/bb removed and greased, they dont seem to be loose but could the LBS have maybe not tightened something? Could this even be a rear wheel/hub issue some how?

The obvious first place to look is the right pedal's bearings, if the sound doesn't occur when you pedal with your left foot.

If you check that, and you're sure it's not the right pedal, it could be the bottom bracket (which would have different forces acting on it depending on which pedal you were using.)

But it seems unlikely to me that your problem could be anything but the right pedal.

Loose pedal, torque it down?

Actually, take it off and check it. If fine, put it on tight and see if the sound is gone.

Also look at the cleat on the right pedal, and the cleat on your right shoe.

Is it a constant noise, or cyclic? Could it be that when you're pedaling with your right foot, you're twisting/torquing something to put it in contact with something else? I know this sounds silly, but check the clearance between your smallest chainring and the right chainstay. Have you done the "grab and shake" on everything (wheels, crank, steerer, "fixed" parts like ders and brakes) to make sure something isn't obviously loose?

I unscrewed and put back on the pedal and the noise was still there. When I had the cranks parallel to the ground and put weight on them there was a big popping noise coming from what sounded like the bb. I could get the sound by putting weight on the left one but the sound was easier to get using the right pedal. I checked all my chain ring bolts for tightness. There arent any cracks anywhere that I can see. The popping is pretty loud. I just checked something else out. I think the sound is coming from my rear hub. When I spin it pretty slow it sounds rough. It still spins freely, doesnt stop right away or anything. Maybe some kind of hub problem? Any new ideas?

Somebody please? I had the bike shipped to me about 1.5 weeks ago. The rear wheel was a little out of true, could the shippers have bumped it hard enough to do something to loosen some bearings or pawls or something like that in the hub?

I find its good to oil the pedal platform and surrounding area that engages with the cleat (wipe excess oil off). Stops any noise developing while pedalling.

As for your problem its best to try and eliminate an area as you've done with not holding the handlebars.

How many times do you get the noise on one complete pedal stroke/cycle? Is it always in the same position and time?

Shift to the innermost gear on the front chainring and then grab the chain completely off the chainring and rest it on the bb area of the frame. Spin the cranks freely without the chain attached and try to feel for any feedback or noise. Try clipping in again and start pedaling (hold on to something so as not to fall over :)), any noise?

Try another set of non-clipless pedals off an old bike and ride around.

Try spinning the rear wheel without the chain attached. Still sound bad? Any broken spokes (grab every spoke to check)?

Check for any tight links in the chain. Also has the chain been oiled/lubed?

Hmmmm. You didn't say what kind of bike.

The first thing that I would do would be to clean the area of the frame surrounding the bottom bracket very carefully. Then I'd take a flashlight and examine that area very carefully. On an aluminum framed bike, the tig welds usually look like a series of overlapping pancakes. If you see what looks like a human hair at the very edge of the weld, you have a frame crack. On a steel frame bike, you're still looking for the "hair" but the welds are much smaller so the pancakes are less pronounced. On a carbon fiber bike, it might look at first like the bottom bracket is bad unless you look carefully enough to notice that the whole frame shell is moving.