Creaky bike??
 

I have a creak in my bike. It is a mtb aluminium frame and whenever i pedal hard or out of the saddle there is a creak. I recently overhauled the entire bike with new cables, greased all pivots and gears, cleaned the chain and then lubed it up. Checked saddle checked and reinstalled bb with plumbers tape. It worked fine for about a month and then it started to creak again. I use the bike on the road for the majority of its life. I have been riding the frame for a few years and maybe its time to get a new frame.

Try tightening your crank bolts. Do not grease them; they should be clean, dry and properly torqued (see the website of the BB mfr. for torque specs).

If the crank bolts don't stop it, check the chainring bolts. I don't know about mtn bikes, but for my road bike, the chainring bolts were the source of a very annoying creak for a while.

BR

I tightened the crank bolts and the chainring bolts. still creaking. I may have to break down the drivetrain and check everything.

I fixed an extreme creak recently in my MTB (by extreme I mean ppl 20 paces away were looking back :eek: ). After several vists the the LBS where they _claimed_ to have swapped the cranks and BB with no result, I bought a BB tool and opened it. Inside the BB there was a fine brown powder, like rust ground up, that looked mighty suspicious to me, so I cleaned out the BB by squirting in WD40 until it washed all the cr@p out. Then I reassembled the BB with grease everywhere, even between the cartridge bearing interfaces and the spindle and housing, put it back in and now the bike has been quiet for 2 weeks, the first time in months. I also greased the crank bolts, both the thread and the flange, as well as the square taper. (I did that before to try and cure it with no result.)

I fail to see why the bolts must not be greased? The changing of the torque argument, perhaps? Or self-loosening?

the thing is that i recently did a overhaul on the bb and crank. I guess I will have to do it again this weekend.

Sorry if I was not clear. It's OK (actually, it's recommended) to grease the bolts; it's the taper that should be dry. The tapered spindle/crank relies on friction to remain secure and lubricating it defeats that, allowing the crank to cinch up too far on the spindle. If the crank bottoms out on the spindle it will work loose, ruining it.

This is gonna probably upset some people, but you really should grease the spindle.
If you actaully read a lot of instruction/warranties with product (Race Face for one) they reccomend greasing the spindle for installation. Id much rather have some kind of grease in a alu-steel interface... but hey whatever you want.

Uh, you SHOULDN'T grease your spindle.

Is it a Cannondale, by any chance? The Super V, and similar frames have a factory installed creak. They're designed by the same guys that puts the oil leak in Porsche boxer motors.

as I said to each his own, but when I installed my tapered RaceFace cranks the instructions clearly indicate "grease the BB axle tapered surfaces", their not alone. A buddy of mine who is a mech engineer told me it cant hurt, there's no way you'd deform the alu with a bolt that small... its only repeated crank pulling that deforms the hole..

You are not deforming the hole, you are expanding it. The taper acts as a wedge against the softer aluminum and lubrication accelerates this. BTW, I'm an ME as well; really, don't grease the taper.

it is not a cannondale. I still havent got a chance to really look at what the problem is

How about if Jobst Brandt says grease the taper? He explains in detail why it can't matter. See http://draco.acs.uci.edu/rbfaq/FAQ/8f.11.html

Is Jobst Brandt even alive?

Einstein isn't, yet Space-time still does as he said... :D

Was that a yes or no?

You may want to check the rear wheel spoke tension and also see if there's any play in the hub. A source of noise for my road bike creaking woes. Funny thing, it still sounded like a bb creak.

Good luck.

Use anti-seize on a taper for easier removal.

Don't know, I would assume yes...

Everything Mr. Brandt wrote makes sense, but I have watched mechanics bottom out crank arms on spindles after greasing them and am just not comfortable taking that risk. As to the steel/aluminum interface, I suppose the galvanic thing could be a problem but I have not seen it.

Of course, ISIS and Octalink have added a new dimension here.

This is the kind of subject that makes chats interesting.

sirshane13

that was going to be the next step. Last time I had a creak and it turned out to be the rear sprokets. I greased the hub and the noise was gone. You are right the creak did sound like it was coming from the bb