jmeissner

My road bike has Shimano's External bottom bracket and I found that it was making a creaking sound (the same sound that my cartridge style bb does on my mtb). I don't have the tool required to tighten this external setup but I stopped by my LBS and they tightened the bb for me which fixed the problem.

Now after about 400km the sound is back - is this normal? Is there something I can do to keep the bb from loosening or is there something that my LBS or I am missing?

Thanks

jimc101

The BB shouldn't loosen under normal use, are you sure that it is what is causing the creaking?

For tighting, there is tool you can buy, Shimano, Park and many others make them, like this https://www.parktool.com/product/bott...ket-tool-bbt-9

HillRider

English threaded bottom brackets usually don't loosen spontaneously but a small amount of water or dirt getting into the threads could have caused the creaking to return. During installation you should heavily grease or wrap the cup threads in a couple of layers of plumbers teflon tape before torquing them to spec. Done properly they should remain completely silent until you remove them intentionally.

ultraman6970

Put teflon tape and grease to the threads and put the cups back in.

jmeissner

I had tried to see if it could possibly be anything else when the creaking noise first started and the only thing that fixed it was when I had the LBS tighten the bb.

jmeissner

I will try the teflon tape but I will need to wait for my bottom bracket tool.

Thanks so much for the info!!