Rolla

Given all this, I would pull the BB cartridge, clean and grease the threads, and re-install. It could be bottom bracket bearings, but the "ticking" tells me one of the BB cups is a little loose and probably dry.

If you have the tools, this is a ten-minute job and costs nothing. If it doesn't help, you'll at least have eliminated one of the possibilities.

yannisg

I had a creaking problem from the BB area that troubled me for awhile that was caused by the chain ring mounting surfaces. I cleaned thoroughly all the mounting surfaces, lightly grease them, and used loctite 202 on the chain ring bolt threads. Occasionally, I disassemble the chain rings for cleaning without problems. No loosing of bolts either.

grizzly59

My last creak was pedal / cleat interface. Sounded like BB. Do the easy stuff first like seatpost, seat rails, wheel skewers before tearing into a crank / bb. If your chainring bolts come off ok, I would grease then wipe off the face of the chainrings / crank where they go together and the smooth piece of the bolt that goes through the holes.

anthonybkny

If the frame isn’t cracked then my next guess would be the saddle. Spray some lube into the saddle where the rails enter underneath.