After about 6 miles of riding yesterday, my age old Schwinn Sprint started creaking real bad, almost all of a sudden. The creaks happen when I pedal. I checked the seat post, the creaking is not coming from there.
I wast sure what was going on, and so walked all the way home.

I was given the bike, and I am new to cycling. Can you help me go about testing and locating the trouble (and possibly correcting it)? I have been going for 12-20 mile rides everyday since I got the bike, and I really dont want to think I wont be able to go today.


thanks.

akkahagar

you can do a couple of quick tests to determine which part of your bike creaks:

1. Torque the hadlebars side to side while not riding the bike (eg standing on the ground). If yu bike creakes then it is probably your handlebars or your stem.

2. When you are pedaling the bike and it is creaking, take your hands off the handlebar (only if you are comfortable) and see if the creak persists. If so, it could be your bottom bracket or your pedals

Goodluck

Sounds like the right crank arm needs tightenting. I had an ole trek that would work loose like that until some kind person showed me what to do. All the best!

https://www.parktool.com/repair_help/...queaking.shtml

My older road bike gets to doing the same thing every couple years. When it's the stem causing the creaking, remove it from the bike, clean it, if there's any rust just lightly remove it with some very fine emery paper, then spread on a thing coat of any decent automotive or other grease.

I've never had my crank or change rings creak, but there's a lot of advice on this site on how to get rid of it.

I haven't been able to find it yet, but I think it is somewhere in the area around the chain, probably at the rear cog.

My LBS is too pricey to work on my bike, and he just sold me a pedal and box wrench. Am going to take the pedals out today and grease the threads, and am going to try to tighten everything down there in general.


Thanks a lot for the responses!

The LBS may be "pricey," but if you inflict some sort of damage through lack of experience, lack of tools, or otherwise while attempting to troubleshoot and fix the problem, a proper repair or replacement may become REALLY "pricey." A $25 repair on something you got for free will always seem "pricey," but won't necessarily be out of line for the experience and equipment required. Things may be in far worse shape than you think they are... It may even be some sort of frame damage or misalignment. If it happened suddenly, maybe the rear wheel slipped in the dropouts? I would check the alignment of the rear wheel in the stays. That's an easy problem to fix.

Check the rear quick release. I had a creaking problem not long ago and it turned out that when i tightened that thing properly it stopped all the creak

I should have said "snobbish" rather than pricey. It is a one man shop, and the owner is a decent sort, but looks with great disdain at bikes like mine - he won't touch it himself.

However, he usually knows what is to be done, so I just hang around the shop listening to his harangue, and he usually would tell me what to do and sell tools to do it. Still, I don't like hearing a 10 minute lecture on how cheapie me and my bike are, and I discovered these forums some time ago, so wanted to try spending some time myself on the bike before going to him again.

aint no quick release here, phatomcow plain old 15mm nuts. Thanks though, I am checking it right away.

If the noise is every revolution of the pedal, than the one crank is loose a little. I think every other revolution means the right pedal. You might also want to check the chainring bolts. Those can work loose also. I'm assuming you have old pedals with maybe toe clips on them. The grease may have worn away and the noise could mean it's time for new pedals.

Depending on the cranks, I have an old Motebecane Nomade with cottered cranks and I have to tighten to nuts down every couple of days when I ride it. My other bike is newer about 5years old, that is really easy in terms of tightening the cranks. It uses an 8mm hex wrench for the tightening process.

For you, I would first check the pedals. Since they are really old and original, I'm guessing it's your pedals. You may need a new pair.

I had this exact problem after my last ride on Saturday. Sounded like a creak from my pedal. After the ride, I checked out my cranks. Turns out the pedal had stripped out about 4 threads out of the left crank. I replaced the crank, no more noise. Check it out!!!