presto8

Hello,

I am riding a Madone 5.9 with a Dura-Ace triple chainring. Everything has been great for six months, but in the last few weeks, it has started creaking a lot, but only under the following circumstances:

- Uphill (or extreme hard riding on the flats, i.e., sprinting)
- Happens when in small chain ring only
- Happens seated or standing up

Suspecting the bottom bracket, I had my LBS open, re-lube, and seal back up. No fix. I verified the crank arm tightness at 15 N*m, and also made sure the pedals are on tight. The headset bolts are set at 55 inch-pounds and I have tried lubing and tightening the rear skewer.

I will continue to move around and diagnose, but thought I would see if anybody had any advice to give? I have heard that debugging a creak on a carbon bike can be difficult because the noise can easily travel through the frame to other locations. I am definitely finding this to be the case!

Thanks in advance for any help that anybody has to give :-)

-Preston

neil0502

Hm. A creaking noise, you say?

You rarely hear about one of those around here.

Might I suggest using these two links to help you in your diagnosis....

https://sheldonbrown.com/creaks.html

AND

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

presto8

That fixed it!! You have no idea how ecstatic I was to ride up my "test hill" and not hear that infernal creak :-)

The granny chain ring (stack) bolts were all bone dry. I pulled them all out, lubed, and put back at 60 inch-pounds of torque (is this enough?).

It was quite an education learning how to remove the chain rings, but I know how to do it now, so it should be much faster next time... This culprit was also listed on the sheldonbrown creaks link that neil0502 suggested -- thanks for the handy reference!

Thanks again for the help!