Hi, I have a reasonably good road bike (Scott S10, Ultegra) and it seems that about every 3 -4 months, especially if I have been caught out in the rain, that I get an annoying creak or click in my bottom bracket.

When i take it in to my LBS, the mechanic usually strips down the bottom bracket, re-greases it, and it is fine. The LBS says that it is water gettting into the bottom bracket that causes the creaking.

Can I stop this happening?

How common is this with other riders?

How hard is it to learn to remove the bottom bracket myself? It's not a big thing, but taking my bike in every few months for $40.00 is a bit annoying.

Any suggestions welcome.

I get more bb noise issues when doing a lot of wet riding, and have always just pulled the bb out, cleaned and regreased and reinstalled. Keeping your frame free of water as much as possible will help (for example, if water tends to get into your bb shell, you might be able to drain it by removing the seatpost and turning the bike upside down or installing a drain in the bottom of your bb shell). You might look to see how water is getting in and making some effort to prevent that. All you need are the tools and a little bit of basic knowledge (parktool.com or sheldonbrown.com are wonderful sources).

Do you have a hollowtech II crankset? Removing the crankset is super easy and can be done with a 5mm hex wrench. The non drive side also has a shimano-specific bearing cap and it's easiest to loosen and tighten it with a special tool.

Removing the bb cups is even easier, using a bottom bracket socket fitting. Just torque the nds counter-clockwise and then torque the drive side clockwise. Each cup will unscrew. Pull them and the bb cup tube out of the bottom bracket shell and you're done.

I got a tool from Nashbar which fits both the bearing cap and the bb cups for $18, incl shipping. After that, you just need the 5mm hex wrench and a 3/8" ratchet. I like using a torque wrench to reinstall the whole thing but someone here will invariably tell you you don't need one. Your call.

There's a video on parktool.com but it's too brief to be informative, IMO. Bicycletutor.com is going to give a tutorial on this but he doesn't say when.

Do you have a bike kitchen or a bike co-op in your area?

You can continue to service the BB after each rain, but if that gets old you might want to deal with the problem directly. While water sometimes enters via the BB beaings, but more likely is running down the seat tube.

The rear wheel throws a steady stream at the rear of the seat tube and post, with a good deal of it hitting right at the pinch bolt slot. The fit of posts and frames isn't always perfect and the pinch system distorts the tube in that area, allowing water to weep in. Water in the BB was less of a problem with traditional spindle and cup BBs which allowed it to evaporate through the spindle clearance, but with modern cartridge BB's it collects, corroding the threads.

Two things you can do,

1- drill a 1/16" weep hole into the bb shell to allow it to drain. If you have one of those bolt on cable guides you hide it underneath, as long as there's a channel for the water to drain through.

2- prevent water from entering by using a thick grease (like water pump grease) or an alternate sealing material to fill the slot, and create a small fillet around the juncture of the seat post and frame. This works best on road bikes where seat post isn't moved often, if ever.

I actually have both the drainage hole in the bb shell as well as a heavily-greased seatpost and my bb still creaks when I get out of saddle .

Other than removing the crankset & bb, cleaning, greasing and reinstalling, any other ideas?

Creaks that SOUND like they are coming from the BB sometimes eminate from other areas. If the BB is properly greased and torqued, it shouldn't creak.

Here are other places to look....

1) The crank itself (pinch bolts and the bolt that holds the ND arm onto the spindle)
2) Chainring bolts
3) Pedal axles
4) Skewers (front and rear)
5) rear derailleur bolt and hanger (I chased this one for about 6 weeks once)

If you remove, clean, re-grease and re-install all off these, your bike will be quiet!

you could try a seal bb, and when it worn out just replace it.

I have the same problem on my Lynskey, pisses me off every time I have to remove the BB and lube the threads.

I think the point made earlier about preventing water entering at the top of the seat tube is important.

Another thing is: was the frame ever properly faced at the BB shell? If not, this may help a lot.

And last, I've found using a good anti-seize thread compound, such as Park's or Finish Line Ti-Prep, rather than regular grease gives me a nice feeling of doing the right thing.

If the problem goes away each time you regrease the BB, I suspect the source of the creaking really is the BB. I've heard of using Teflon plumber's tape in the threads, especially in non-ferrous frames, but this could be an urban legend of the equivalent of sending the new midshipman off to look all around the ship for the key to the keelson.

However another source of creaking can be the cleats of your shoes against the pedals, again especially after a rain. Try some Armour-All. Can't hurt, might work.

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/creaks.html

Too funny! Back my time in the aviation industry we'd send the new guys off for a bucket of prop wash or a roll of flight line. Man I miss those days.