dmanthree

When I stand on the pedals climbing a hill, the rear wheel seems to creak a bit. Question: does this mean the spokes are too loose, too tight, or means nothing?

habilis

When you stand, you put maximum stress on the drive train. Spokes (which don't care whether you are standing or sitting) are the last things I would suspect, but you can check them manually for damage or looseness. I think I'd look at crank set and BB first.

Marcus_Ti

Hunting down noises is one of the hardest things.

It could also be a less than clamped QR skewer. Could also be a not-fully-torqued cassette lockring. Could be the crankset or BB too, as mentioned above. It could also be the spokes, which could mean either an inadequte wheel build, or a bad wheel build, or cheap wheels (read both).

Since you don't mention anything about yourself (weight) or the bike/wheels you are riding, we're left to guess wildly.

Andrew R Stewart 

But one cause of wheel noise under stress/power is when spokes have worn a notch at their cross/touch points. As the spokes flex they ride in and out of the notches, a tick or creak results with the notches engaging each other. Andy.

dmanthree

The wheels are a hand build, using HED Belgium + rims, White Industries hugs, and flat steel spokes with brass nipples. I did have to tighten them recently, and the noise was reduced after that. The bike is a Trek Madone 5.2 (2012), 58CM H3 fit frame. It was last services in February and I've done about 1,800 miles since that service.

I'm 60, weigh 175, and tend to hammer hills a bit. But I'm no Lance.

cny-bikeman

The reason you are getting multiple guesses as to cause is that we have insufficient info on the symptoms. Please provide the following:

1. Did the problem start after a particular incident or maintenance procedure, or come on gradually.
2. When you say it "creaks," do you mean a more drawn out sound, rather than a single/multiple clicking sound?
3. What is the rhythm related to - pedal strokes (right/left/both sides), wheel rotation, or random?

Also, if you are able to do so one way to isolate the cause is to temporarily switch out the rear wheel. That would typically allow you do tell whether the problem is crank/bb or rear wheel.

dmanthree

The noise cam on gradually, and I noticed some spokes were loose. I tightened them up, and the sound mostly went away, but there's still some noise.
Creaking, meaning it consists of a series of smaller ticks, not a "horror movie door" creak.
Rhythm is related to pedal strokes, especially the right foot, downward stroke.

And yes, I'll switch out the rear wheel and see how that goes. I didn't think of that, but should have. :-)

cny-bikeman

It it's in rhythm with pedal stroke and only happens out of the saddle it's not the spokes. Most likely is BB or pedal/crank/spindle interface. less likely interface of hub/dropout/q-r.

dmanthree

I'll be able to swap wheels sometime this week, so I'll post when I can do that. In the meantime, I went for 80 today and while they made a little noise, all else seemed normal.

prathmann

Certainly could be those causes, but I wouldn't rule out spokes that are too loose either. Usually out-of-the-saddle riding involves more side-to-side swaying of the bike synched to the pedal stroke and therefore lateral pressure on the wheels. Combined with spokes that are too loose this can cause some of the spokes to lose their tension momentarily and move relative to other spokes at their crossing point resulting in a series of little pings.