Very chatty bottom bracket
 

It makes a lot of noise. Never had one making this much noise. Breaks my concentration on hills and I keep thinking about it when I'm just cruising. I can hear it over my music, barely, but it is still noticeable.

Usually I can just take some teflon tape and wrap the screw that holds the crank on then crank down on the screw and that makes the noise stop. I've checked if it has come loose when I get home and it is still seated solid.

But that trick didn't work.

If I get a good spin, the noise stops, but if I go up a hill or put some load on, it starts making a creaking noise. If I'm just riding on flat road, bike path around here, it will make a ticking sound with an occasional creak if I don't have a good spin, kind of like when the mech cable is poking out and hitting the crank. The sound is consistent, usually when I'm pushing on the drive side. I don't always maintain such a spin, usually have to get a decent speed up and when I'm relaxing a bit, it starts being all chatty.

I'm thinking my bottom bracket may have a bearing go bad because it just couldn't stand my weight but haven't had that problem before. It came with the bike, it is a FSA RPM BB-7420.

I popped it out but it is a sealed cartridge. The threads that hold it in were greased, a bit dirty but still greasy. I can check the bearings(somewhat) on the left but not the right because I can't get the threaded part off(not sure if I can or how if it is possible.) When I do spin the left bearing cup, it has a rough spot in there. I was able to take off the seal, looks greased, could use a little bit more, but it isn't missing so much to be causing problems. Can't really check the bearings beyond looking at them unless there is a way to remove them safely.

I would like to do a thorough disassemble to check things out completely but I'm thinking I may just buy a 105 and be done with it. I only have 1600 miles on it so I'm not really wanting to do that very enthusiastically, but the noise is really driving me nutty.

Does not seem like manufacturer's instructions. [shrug]

The quickest fix would be to replace the cartridge.

Two common sources of creaking under loan on this type of BB.

1- crank movement on the spindle. Once this process gets beyond a certain point it's generally incurable. The confirming diagnostic is to try mounting a different crank (known not to creak) one arm at a time, starting with the left.

2- entire cartridge moving up and down in the BB shell. This is common with cartridge BBs. The confirmation is a loose or sloppy thread when the unit isn't tightened in the frame. The cure is to fill the thread so there's no room for vertical play. Some have reported success with teflon pipe dope, but I find it tends to tear too easily. I use old fashioned fibrous pipe dope (shredded fiber in a sort of putty), or paint the threads with a nylon based paint to fill the roots so it's a tighter thread. The material has to be pliable when dry so it can be squeezed our or reshaped as the threads engage. There's a commercial product called Vibra-tite that does this job pretty well.

Of course, if your chatty BB can hold up it's end of a decent conversation, you might leave things as they are.

It was the paint on the lock ring surface.

Messed around with the bottom bracket to make sure it was tight, still got the noise.

Started searching for some more answers, finally put in something along the lines of paint and bottom bracket(my search fu is really bad so I had to look for a while.) I was wondering how important the paint was on that surface. Finally found an answer on, bicycling mag forums I think, anyway, paint chipping around there can make it make sounds.

I didn't have to deal with that before because all my previous bikes had been purchased when I had access to a facing tool, I used to work in a shop and those things are expensive so I haven't bought one even with the discount, and I'm also OCD so I would face the holder on my bikes. Don't have access to that tool anymore so I gently used some 200 grit sandpaper and worked that paint off that surface. It was flaking off around there anyway so it wasn't too difficult to remove the rest.

Doesn't make that noise anymore.