Here's the story, I stopped using the brake for a few commutes to see what being brakeless would be like. I'm a lardass and the was a lot of pushing and pulling on the cranks. They started creaking when I got out of the saddle. I cinched down the allen headed cap screws that hold the cranks on just a little tighter, but it's still creaking. Have I trashed my cranks?

The bike is a black soma rush, the botom bracket is a cheapy shimano, the cranks are suginos, and I'm a pisces

Loose chainring bolts?

I bet it's something with the chainring bolts too.

Make sure you don't have a problem with them. I had a creaking from my cranks today and when I got home I discovered that one of the chainring bolts had broken. Both pieces were still there, but quick poke with my penis and they fell out.

No, at least I don't think so. It feels like the left side crank.

You must have a very narrow penis.

Is it an old loose ball bb? They loosen?

My last creak was pedal bearings. New balls and lube..YAAA!
(Phil Woods grease is lovely.)

note to self, do not handle labramatt's bike, ever.

you just have to add something stupid like this to every otherwise useful post, don't you? your avatar is fitting.

Okay, so I used a hex wrench instead of my penis, but I bet there was little or no confusion when I switched the word penis wih the words hex wrench. It was a joke meant to put a smile on your face.

At least my post to this thread was useful. Your post served no purpose at all. Oh wait, you did show us that you're an as$hole.

Thanks for comparing me to my hero. Woody is brilliant.

Why do you think it's the left crank? What does it feel like?

Like Jeff said, take a quick look at the pedals. If not, maybe the bottom bracket?

Does the sound occur when you rotate the pedal with your hand when you've got the bike upside down?

right, okay. i'm an "as$hole" and you're a sad little pervert. deal.

I'm glad there's no conusion between a hex wrench and your penis. That could prove embarrasing...

is "apparent internet hostility" some kind of april fools joke?

I can creak the crank by standing on it, as in say a track stand. If I rotate the cranks 180 degrees and stand again, another creak. This tells me it's not the chain ring bolts, I'm not moving. It isn't the pedals because it isn't happening with every revolution. Only when I'm pushing very hard, or changing the direction of my push on the cranks.

Alright kids, group hug.

What makes Woody or I a pervert? I don't understand. I make a dick joke and now I'm a pervert? What did Woody do to make you think that he's a pervert?

What's your problem? Why are you stirring up ***** with me? I make a mostly helpful post and I get ***** for it. Gees...

Sounds maybe the races are loose in the pedal, the creak is the ball scrape as the race moves.
Does the pedal jiggle at all on the spindle?
One nut tightens both races so if it's loose, you'll get the noise from both sides and at different points in the rev.
Loose ball pedals need repacking and new balls once in a while.

no, it could still be the chainring bolts. tighten em down. but i bet your left side crank is loose... try tightening that too. if it ain't a pedal, after that, i'm out of suggestions.

Believe it or not, the last creak I had like that in my drive train turned out to be coming from a chain that had seen too many rain days without being cleaned and lubed. Loose chainring bolts have always manifested as "ticks" or "clicks" for me...

systematically remove all bolts and components, clean, grease, and reinstall. otherwise, you'll never know!

heres my 2 cents-- remove clean and regrease pedal threads, if that doesnt solve it remove the cranks, and _lightly_ grease the spindle and reinstall the cranks. dont forget to check you crank bolt tightness after you put some miles on them after re-installing. while the cranks are off you might as well pull you BB and clean and regrease the threads. also check you chainring bolt tightness.

yeah um. I wouldn't grease spindles. I made the same suggestion in another thread pertaining to this same topic and got educated. Coincidentally, or not, two days later my (greased) drive side crank nearly fell off as I was riding. I got a lot of creaking as a warning, but it was over a course of an hour of riding, which was creepy. The proper solution to this is to get the sugino BB and spindle, which will exactly match -as opposed to clone- the taper on sugino cranks. I'm riding some cheap sealed bearing BB with sugino 75's which is supposed to clone shimano which in turn should clone sugino. Too many degrees of separation. I got the spindle from QBP, now I've just got to save for some cups.

Also, I ride a Soma Rush.

Actually, as one person mentioned, I would suggest to check the chain. Take it off, stand on the pedals and listen for the sounds.

I had installed a new sealed *** bottom bracket with a new chain, but OLD chainring, and it creacks when teeth are engaging with the chain. With fresh lube, sound quitens for a while.

"I cinched down the allen headed cap screws that hold the cranks on just a little tighter, but it's still creaking."


Try taking that cap off and tighten the crankbolt that might be hiding inside?

I would almost be willing to bet that your cranks are loose. You say you tightened the fixing bolt, but was it with a short allen key or a full sized torque wrench with a hex wrench on it? It takes a damn lot of twisting with your wrist to get the proper torque. The fact that repeats 180 degrees off says to me that you seat the crank in one off-square orientation and then spin it 180 and can push it over to the opposite off-square orientation.

Also, I have no idea where the don't-grease-your-BB-spindle thing comes from, but it's never made sense to me. It will help your cranks seat to the appropriate depth at the proper torque (versus getting "hung up" by metal-on-metal friction). Jobst Brandt covers this and other points on proper crank installation here: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/brandt/i...ng-cranks.html

(assuming square taper cranks)

I would check the bb, bb's tend to be a source of many mystery creaks that sound like they're coming form pedals, cranks, chain, chainring bolts, etc
remove the bb from frame, degrease bb, and bb threads in frame, then grease and reinstall.