Hey guys, i searched and found nothing regarding creaking. When i pedal the left crank arm makes a creaking noise so I tightened it and rode it to see if the sound went away. After 2 blocks the noise came back. Do I need new cranks or a bb? thanks in advance, matt

take off your pedals, wipe the threads and re-install. if not, check your chainring bolts to see if they're tight

Don't continue to tighten it, this can lead to failure. Try tightening the chainring bolts, and stand up while pedaling to make sure it's not in the saddle. A huge number of creaks that sound like other stuff are actually from the saddle area, bikes are a big pile of resonator tubes so finding the source of sounds can be tough.

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/creaks.html

I've had decent luck by taking everything apart cleaning and regreasing all the appropriate parts and reassembling

i had a similar problem on my fixed conversion. I actually ended up replacing the BB. I dont know if this will help you, but for me it made sense because when i bought the cranks from my local bike recycler, they came with a bottom bracket which was "used". When i pulled the old BB it had signs of rust and the bearings didnt feel right when i would spin the spindle. But after the replacement ive had zero creaks and it runs perfectly. The cranks in question where shimano 9-spd ultegras, 6500. hope this helps, what kind of cranks are in question ?

mine used to creak. The culprit on my bike was the chainring bolts. I just recently put real allen bolts through mine becuase they kept loostening up.

My Peugeot Sprint has creaking cranks. Listen to Sheldon Brown, he knows what he is talking about.

Square taper cranks, I assume? Left crankarm? Could be the square hole on the crank wallowing out. I've seen it happen on a few too many bikes, including my own. I did myself a favor and replaced (upgraded) the crank/BB to a splined system.

Make sure your left crankarm bolt is sufficiently tight. Otherwise, the BB is just gonna make the hole on the crankarm bigger and more out of shape, leading to continuing loosening and eventual replacement by the frustrated rider.

Yup, and don't grease the spindle.

-Rob.

i had to take out the 2 bolts for my thomson seatpost and grease them. that made the clicking noise go away. i had previously thought it came from the cranks, too. i figured it out by pulling/pressing hard on my saddle and found that that duplicated the noise. this may not pertain to you, but hope it may help you or someone else.

I've had this happen and fixed it by removing and reinstalling the bottom bracket.

+1 but make sure you lube the BB threads, that was my problem. I thought it was the cranks but it turned out to be the BB.

Ah, but did you have to remove and replace the cranks for this?

-Rob.

Go for the easy-to-remove-and-lubricate items first like pedals. Sounds reverberate and transfer all over bicycles...so what sounds like a bottom bracket creak could easily be from the saddle.

No, I didn't replace the cranks. I just took it all apart, cleaned/greased everything again and put it back together.

I also use blue thread locker on my crank bolts.