Originally Posted by wrench

Hi
Had a few of these in the workshop over the past few years, mainly roadbikes. The creak happens mainly when climbing out of the saddle. In all cases the wheel axles were of the Hope or Dura-Ace type where there are no threads on the end of the axle. This smooth area rubbed slightly against the inside of the alloy dropouts, causing the creak. Smearing a tiny amount of grease on the inner 'U' of the dropout where the axle touches invariable cures the noise. People have changed headsets, bars and even bottom brackets as a result of not identifying the cause of the creak. Hope this helps.