I've started riding my Trek 8000 again after sitting letting it sit in the back room for 7 years. I remember that my Shimano LX Cranks would creek once in a while when I put a lot of pressure on them, but now they creek loudly with almost no pressure. Is it just because I am 20Lbs heavier or do I need to replace my cranks? I recall the bike shop tightening them as much as they could but they still creeked a bit. Now it's brutal.

Any thoughts on how to quiet my ride? Thanks

Creaking cranks are usually the result of a loose or worn bottom bracket. Tightening the crank arms themselves will not fix the problem. The arms need to be removed and the bottom bracket cups checked for tightness. Removing and greasing before reinstalling and properly torquing would be even better. The bearings can be assessed at this time as well. If it's a cup and cone bottom bracket, it can be disassembled and regreased and if needed have fresh bearings installed. If it's a cartridge style bottom bracket, you just replace the entire thing when it's worn out.

I had a creaking crank and fixed it by disassembling and regreasing it, as stated in the quote. Once it was reassembled and adjusted, there was no more creak.

My friends bike was creaking and it turned out one of the crank arms was just coming loose.. when it happened on my bike I took out the bottom bracket (cartridge) and put anti-seize on the threads and reassembled and it stopped.

First, have a friend really help you track down that creak. Often it is not coming from where it seems. Second, since its been laying around for 7 years you might want to do a general overhaul of the BB and the hubs, as well as a tune-up and chain cleaning. I had a creak that seemed like it was the BB, but the rear wheel hub was out of adjustment.

can we have the post button replaced with a link to https://www.sheldonbrown.com/creaks.html for new posters to this forum?