powpow

I've got the dreaded elusive creak going on in my crankset. It happens only when climbing and standing on the pedals. It's getting to be pretty bad and I'm surprised something hasn't broken yet. Here's is what I've checked:

Pedals: removed and regreased the threads and the pedals themselves
Cleats: rode with my sandals, the creak didn't go away
Crankarms: tightened
Crank bolts: tightened
Bottom bracket: the mechanic at the Performance store took off my crank and tightened the bottom bracket, saying it was a bit loose. This did not help. He also said it didn't need more grease.
I also switched out the seatpost and that wasn't it either.

Thoughts?

neil0502

You many find the following links helpful in tracking it down:

https://sheldonbrown.com/creaks.html

AND

https://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=123

It's usually just a matter of patiently removing, cleaning,
re-lubricating, and re-torquing fasteners until it quiets down.

Crash716

my creak turned out to be a cracked BB on a Carbon bike....did you check it with a Flashlight for cracks?

sideshow_bob

if you've simply tightened the bb, in order i'd:

a) remove bb, clean bb threads and shell. reinstall using grease and teflon tape
b) if it still creaks .. remove the chainring bolts, grease, teflon tape and reinstall to spec
c) if it still creaks .. replace bb entirely

past that if it's still creaking, it's probably unlikely to be the bb, unless it's cracked.

i was once convinced i had a creaking bb. every time i stood on the pedals for about a month. it was driving me nuts. turned out to be a hairline crack in the rear rim. so as has also been posted, the noise isn't guaranteed to be coming out of the bb.

--brett

ultraman6970

Change the Skewers... sometimes the QUick releases get old, specially the plastic ones. Sometimes put grease and oil to them fix the problem.

UM

mparker326

I had the same thing. Finally tracked it down to the chainring bolts.

jacksbike

Try a different set of pedals first. I used to spend gobs of time dissasembling bb's until I discovered that a lot of the time it is the pedals themselves. If not that, I would check the frame itself for hairline cracks in and around the bb shell. Check that the chainring bolts are tight. Left and right cranks can flex, depending on the quality of the unit itself.

Roadplay

What kind of wheels do you have? I had a set of Mavic ESs that creaked under load (front wheel). Tightened them up and solved the problem.

tellyho

Lots of Teflon tape solved my creak - pull the BB, tape the hell out of it, grease the interface between the NDS cup and the cartridge, reinstall.