Creaking near headset
 

I'm new to road cycling and bought a new bike a few weeks ago. I notice a small creaking sound in the front when under torque, especially uphill. This could be normal...just keep hearing it. I checked to make sure my headset was tight, brakes weren't scrubbing and removed the wheel, reinstalled it and tightened down the skewer. What else could be causing this, or do bikes just make a little noise when torquing uphill?

New bike? On a used bike I'd take it out in the sunshine and look diligently for fatigue cracks at the head tube to down tube and head tube to top tube joints, not because it's the most likely, but because it's the most serious issue. Could also be your headset needs some loctite blue.

Remove the front wheel and gease the bearings.

Remove the front fork and grease the bearings before you adjust the headset.

And remove the seatpost and grease it, along with the saddle mounting rails.

New bikes are slapped together at the factory and not tested. Very seldom do bike shop mechanics take everything apart and grease everything that should be greased, resulting in a squeeky new bike for the Buyer/Owner.

Thanks. I just took a bright light and looked all around the headtube, toptube and downtube. No visible cracks at all. The bike is used, but is in really good condition. A buddy who is a very experienced rider, and who races, found the bike for me and checked it out, too. He said it is in near perfect shape and only a year and a half old. The creaking isn't loud. At first, I thought it might be the cables up front moving against the frame. It's no louder than that. Might be nothing. I'll have the LBS check out the headset for grease. Just always scared to buy something used and have something go wrong with it....especially a bike this expensive.

Is it a BB30 bottom bracket or other pressfit system?

BB30. The bike is a 2013 Focus Izalco Pro with full Ultegra component set, if that helps.

Creaking from BB30 bottom brackets is a well known issue.

Does it sound like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hizLW-zJikc

Here's a thread with suggestions:

http://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycli...ing-noise.html

No, it sounds nothing like that. It's more of a small clicking, I guess. And it's definitely coming from the front of the bike...that, I can tell.

Check that the front quick release is tight. I replaced a BB not long ago because I was sure that was the source of a creak. Nope, just the quick release...

They can be a pain to track and diagnose, so be sure to start with the simple stuff.

A click is not a creak. Have the front wheel checked to see if the spoke tension is even all around the wheel. What you are hearing could be a a spoke tensioning and untensioning as the wheel rotates.

An obvious question is if the head set is properly tightened? Since you mentioned a new bike, the press fit bearings may have seated in a little bit. I had a dogged creaking sound coming from my bike that turned out to be head set and not bottom bracket. Removed fork, bearings, cleaned everything and reinstalled them. Now very quiet.

This sounds exactly like what I was experiencing last week. Creaking that I could have sworn was coming from the headset...and at one point I was convinced that it was the cables making the noise as well. Well, last weekend I put my bike on the Cycleops fluid 2 we just bought to check it out (and this was after my LBS spent some time checking out the creaking noise and we thought it was fixed) and lo-and-behold the noise was still there. So I had my wife come out and see if she could pinpoint where the noise was. Turns out that I was certain that the noise was coming from the front of the bike in the headset area and it turns out I was completely wrong. It was the seat post the whole time. Took it out, cleaned the old grease off and reapplied new grease and it hasn't made a peep since.

Front wheel QR lever might need tightening. Stem or bars not tight enough.

this, make sure there is enough space between compression cap and spacers/stem. or it will loosen and creak. this happened to me and usually when under load.

also, since i ride a focus, it could be the cables rubbing against the stem and bars creating a popping noise. the cables internal routing is all up front creating tight bends

and lastly the BB30, most likely press fit, could also be a culprit.

Tighten the bars more, that was my creaking issue a few weeks ago. Could be the headset spacers, especially if they're plastic ones. I had some plastic ones I actually had to put a little grease on.

Mine did the same thing when new. Grease the threads of the fasteners on the stem and the headset cap. Retighten to the proper torque. The creaking on mine went away when I did this.

ETA - A quiet bike is bliss. Bike noise is one of the most annoying things I can think of. I hope you are able to find it and silence it OP.