Pedal? Creak
 

Trying to diagnose what I suspect is from a bent pedal axle on my road bike (Shimano R-540). It creaks at about the top of the left pedal stroke, and occasionally the bottom. When I take the pedal off I don't feel any binding or bent axle shimmy. But a bearing going out or a bent axle would seem to be most likely. I've got about 800 miles on them, but I've been in the 320-280 range since I got them. Also if it is bad are those pedals rebuildable?

Thanks,
Paul

Let's back up here.

You have a creak. It happens about once a revolution, right?

Take a look at these two pages. Go through each thing methodically. It's often very tough to figure out exactly where your creak is coming from without going step-by-step.

http://sheldonbrown.com/creaks.html

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

Sorry... reading my initial post and it's really unclear :).

Went through the things on sheldon's website, and (without knowing) many of the things on the park site.
Pedal was plenty tight.
Cranks are firmly and properly mounted.
Bottom Bracket cups properly torqued.
FD isn't hitting the chainring.
Cranks not bent.
And if the cranks were cracked I'd need a microscope to see it.

That said.

I'm pretty sure that it's something with the pedals themselves, either the bearing or the axle. But I'm not entirely sure how to diagnose that, as with the pedals removed the bearings seem to spin quite smoothly.

Thanks,
Paul

that does help ;)

Do you have any other pedals you can try out on that bike. That would verify your suspicion, which is probably what I'd want to do first.

The things that you said you checked (bb, pedal, cranks, etc): are they clean, greased, AND torqued? A creak can so easily be a dry connection at the crank arm or the bb.

Your comment about the 540s spinning freely when off the bike makes me wonder whether the pedal is really the problem.

I'll try a different set of pedals in the morning. I can pull the cranks easy enough and clean/grease/torque them this evening as well.

Thanks for the help.
Paul