I was pleasantly surprised to follow these instructions and get rid of the annoying creak in my gravel bike! My bike would creak near my bottom bracket when I was pedaling under load uphill, which drove me crazy. I thought it was bottom bracket at first and replaced that but found it was still there. I took apart and greased the wheel bolts, pedals, rear derailleur, and finally crank bolts which ended up being the source of the noise. After removing the crank bolts, greasing generously, and screwing them back in tightly the creak was gone. Thanks for this video!!
You MUST be from Kentucky, USA. My grandmother used left-over bacon grease to make gravy and to grease the biscuit skillet. A "great meal" is measured by how long the chest pain lasts. I think KY people are born WITHOUT a gallbladder, AND common sense. Enjoy the summer my friend
For clicks or ticks, the most common issue that I have had has been the pedals. I usually remove the spindle from the pedal body and re-grease it and that almost always takes care of the problem. On an old cup and cone bottom bracket, I found a pit in one of the races. It was amazing how such a small imperfection could make such a loud noise.
Here's a story about creaking on my bike. Bought it new from a store, rode it for a couple of months (commuting mostly) in all kind of weather and then the creaking started. I thought it was from the BB since it was the BB30 kind and we all know about them. In the next 6 months, I have been to the workshop 3 times and every time they cleaned the BB and lubed it but the creak was still there. We checked everything else (or so we thought) and since the manufacturer does not guarantee for the BB I decided to buy a new one but not BB30, rather I got the conversion to Shimano via a BB converter. As you can imagine, that was not cheap. And to my disappointment, the creaking was still there! In the end, my mechanic, frustrated as much as me, did the cleaning and lubing of the rear mech hanger, and IT WORKED!!!!!!!!! So, instead of a 5min job, and a coffee for my mechanic, I spent nearly 150€ and 9 months on reapring this creak.
Exactly the same for me, was driving me mad. I'd bought coloured bolts to match the bike. Strip, clean and lube now the bike is so quite. Massive thank you GCN!
Thanks Simon. I've been chasing creaks on and off since I had cottered cranks on my first, 5-gear road bike (present for my 13th birthday, which my Dad bought for £13 through a classified ad in the local paper. In other words, a few weeks short of 45 years ago.) My experience echoes your advice : cleanliness and a thin film of grease on all flat mating surfaces. Makes disassembly a doddle, too. If, at the end of it all, your steel frame is still creaking, cracked brazing in the BB lug could be your problem (and it's even repairable!) Can't understand why anyone would give this video the thumbs down.
@@The44kGaming hahaha exactly my ride just now hence why I'm here. It really gets to you doesn't it. The bike was new 2 years ago and it's driving me mad now.
Hi fellow cyclist! I haven't read all the comments below, but speaking of personal experience about drivetrain creeks, here is another two point you can check: - Clean/Grease the springs of your clipless pedal - Clean/Grease the contacting surface between each cog of the rear cassettes and the freewheel Hope that helps!
In Soviet Russia, creak fixes you! I spent forever making my bike silent. Every time I fixed something noisy, an even quieter noise became more apparent. I was chasing my own tail by the end of it and gave up.
Click from Left Pedal when at 2-3 o’clock with pressure. Torqued pedals, chainring bolts, crank arm bolts. Still there. Replace bottom bracket. Still there. After watching this video, I removed pedal and greased threads. That fixed it! Thanks.
Hi, I have gone through all your vids on creaking bikes, just wanted to tell you about another creak in the list of things that creak, I had done the BB twice, and swopped out crank, and chainrings, and pedals, and seatpost, and new cassette, and new hub bearings, and new freehub bearings, and all pivot bearings opened and lubed, along with drop outs and new chain, turns out my rear deralliour was making a creaking noise as it moved milimeters when the chain passed over the jockey wheels in gear, and i don't mean a small creak, this was commented on by other riders a few times, solution was to remove and lube, and check if creaking has gone, then re-fit. thought I would post as it took me over a year to get to the bottom of this creak!
Another really informative video, thank you! I tried the tighten chain rings option first, (not particularly hopefully it must be said), but this actually has fixed the issue of my previously nauseating and frustrating "creak!" Now if I could only prevent the rider from making similar noises...
Retighten my bike derailleur hanger, no more squeak ... Was about to buy BB and BB tools and go all the way replacing the hollow crank BB.. im very happy
I haven't read all the comments, but another creak source may have been overlooked. I know everyone seems to have newer frames with internal cable routing, but for those of us with older frames, a source of creaking can be the under the BB cable router. When that plastic (or metal) guide gets clogged with leaves, road grit, sticky stuff dribbling down from your bidon, etc, it can cause a creak when there is sufficient cable tension ( e.g. larger rear cogs). Cleaning this track can sometimes eliminate an otherwise unfathomable creak.
+GCN took my specialized camber comp in today because of a chirping noise from my bottom bracket and apparently it was just the grease had stiffened up. Glad to have her back in working conditions. love your videos, very informative!
I know I'm late, but this video helped EXTREMELY. I realized not only my BB was creaking, but some bolts and my pedals AND derailleur were creaking. Lots of grease.
A couple of my chainring bolts were loose, causing a clicking sound when pedaling. Thanks to your video, I checked and tightened those first, and viola! No more clicking, nor worries about my bottom bracket.
Top tip, put the new bearings and crank in the freezer before fitting. This will make the bearing fit much easier. Once the bearings are in let them warm up to room temperature before pushing the crank through. You should not need to use a drift. Also you risk pushing the bearing out by using a drift.
I used to laugh at the noisy bike videos. now that my baby has developed a creak in the bb I want to cut all my spokes with bolt cutters and saw my frame in half before giving up cycling altogether.
BB30 plagued my life until I learned that blue Loctite between the bearing shell and the frame solves it. I was ready to throw the Quintana Roo in the recycling until that day.
+A S I'm not sure what you're referring to exactly, but I have a cannondale caad2 frame and it's creaked for years when I pedal hard. 'feels like it's coming from between the pedals and a big snap noise reverberates through the frame. Any advice?
Justin - I hate to say this, but the real solution is to replace the BB with a quality one. As I noted in another post, companies like Chris King, Hope or Legit Engineering make much higher quality precision milled metal PF BB's that will likely outlast your bike. Not cheap, over $100 to do yourself, but it will completely take care of the problem if you do it right.
The cleats, it was the cleats that were causing the clicking noise, it was driving me crazy, I thought there was a major problem with the pedal. But I put lub on the cleat and it silenced the click, thank you GCN.
I had that problem. It drove me nuts, because I didn't think of that as a possibility and so it took me way longer than it should've to locate the noise
Thanks so much. Bike was creaking going up hills, thought I had checked everything and doing my head in. Watched video and realised I had forgotten to check chainring bolt tightness, they weren’t fully tight. Torqued them up and hey presto creak has gone. Cheers again.
Wow i did it! That bike kit i bought years ago finally paying off. I took the whole crank assemble off while having no idea what I was doing. Clean it all up and greased it, then tightened the crap out of everything and know that annoying clunk sound on every rotation is gone :)
Great video. Super helpful. My creak ended up being my adjustable dropouts (loose) on my '21 Chameleon R (Raspberry Sorbet). Tightened em' up to specified torque after removing, cleaning, and greasing. BOOOOLT CHECK!! LOL. Thank you for posting these. Cheers from the Beastcoast.
Thanks for the post. I fixed my pedal creaking after watching this vid. I had worried it was the bottom bracket noise which I do not have tools to grease and install. Lucky me!
Oustanding guideline! Thank to your videos I sort out a composed creaking on my brand new Grand Canyon slx 29. 9.9. Handle bar plus seat post plus rear hub. The rear hub was the most tricky one. In the end I replaced a through axle with a Syntace and applying a torque 13nm. Thank you! Daniel
Hi, I had a really annoying creak when I was riding on my turbo. Thought BB was the issue, but it turned out to be between the turbo's clamp arm and my QR skewer. Dab of dry lube on each of the outsides of the QR skewer - problem solved and sanity saved!
My creaking bike was driving me mad, did the full works, bolts, greased touch points bottom bracket etc and voila, silent running, so much more enjoyable, Cheers
If nothing else works check your frame for cracks in the welds. I've had 2 frames that have cracked near to the saddle stem. Both times the creak was only heard while seated but went away when stood on pedals. With the lifetime warranty on the frames, each time I received a free replacement frame from the manufacturer. Always worth checking your frame regularly from a safety perspective.
A friend of mine with a Bianchi Oltre had what he was convinced was a creaking bottom bracket. He's a very experienced rider (aged over 50, ex divisional road race champion etc.) & expert at diagnosing & fixing problems. Eventually having tried everything else he thought the only thing he hadn't done anything to was the spokes, so looked at spokes at the hub end. He put a drop of thickish oil on the back of the spoke hole, (lie the wheel horizontal on the floor) let the oil run down the hole to the spoke head, turn wheel over do the other side, wipe off any excess - "bottom bracket" creak gone! He could only conclude that the noise was travelling through the hub & echoing along the chain stays to the bottom bracket.
Thanks for the video. I followed your instructions and was able to fix the squeak by removing and greasing the BB. Now I have a quiet mountain bike again. Awesome.
Great video - thanks for posting. In my case the bottom bracket had failed. 631 miles on the bike which was shocking. Anyway, retailer replaced part under warranty which was nice. Also, the faulty bracket was on tighter than a tight thing, luckily I had a 60" torque wrench, wouldn't have got it off otherwise. Just advice for anyone taking on the bottom bracket. Retailer reckoned it was on too tight from factory, which caused it to fail. Seems plausible I guess.
My 5 year old daughter watched this and has decided that she wants a toy set of bike shop tools for her bike. Nice job, Simon! (SO glad I'm clinging to my BSA BB's as long as possible . .... even if I had to order a clone bike frame from China for my new bike to get one...
Just spent the day striping down and greasing my old Stumpjumper, in all the areas you covered... Finally got rid of that annoying creaking I've been putting up with for years, feels and sounds like a brand new bike again, I love it! Thanks heaps for your very informative vid, helped me greatly!
Creak/click coming from bottom bracket when out of the saddle and applying down pressure on pedals. Very annoying, hopefully lbs can lube it fixed. Great video!
Thanks for the help guys! I had to stop my ride short this afternoon because the creaking was driving me nuts, but I greased up my cleats and pedals, and that seemed to do the trick.
I had a creak that just would not go away despite all the fixes you mention in the video. Turned out to be the pedals themselves... I think the bearings in the pedals were dry or damaged. Nothing to do except replace the pedals. Solved it finally. At least I have a spare BB now.... :) LOL
I had a creaking crankset for the past month with a 1x11 apex drive train and a kmc chain. Started with a single light cracking noise. It got more and more noisy with almost a full crankset rotation, only at high load. I dismantled and put grease on my plateau like two or three times without any change. Today I replaced the chain after seeing a portion of it what above the 0.075 MM limit. Noise seems to be gone 😊 Advice: check the chain at multiple location to see if it need replacement.
At one of the UCI World Tour bike races last year, I watched as the cyclists came up a 12-15% climb. As soon as they began to stand on the pedals, you could hear almost every bike creak! It only lasted for a second or two, but I think it goes to show that all CF frames with press-to-fit bearings, even when maintained by pros, will creak.
I just fixed an interesting creak - the cross over point of spokes on my rear Zipp 303 wheel. I was getting a creaking sound whenever I applied pressure in or out of the saddle. The noise increase over time. I cleaned the crossover point of the 2 spokes, applied a little thick grease and wiped off the excess. I worked my way around both sides of the wheel, repeating the process at each crossover. Now it is nice an quiet.
My derailleur hanger annoyed the hell out of me for weeks and even after cleaning, and even gluing it in place, it still creaked (after the glue gave away) lol. Now, when I lube the chain, I lube the hanger too and the silence is as good as gold!! :D
Suddenly started to get a creaking sound whilst turning on the pedals. Discovered it was the rear derailleur hangar by turning the cranks by hand reproducing the creak when the chain tensioned, but could stop the creak by holding the derailleur. Cleaned and greased between the hangar and frame and all was good.
Great video! Only 1 more thing I can think of, and that's the pedal spindle itself. I've had it happen to me with 3 different sets of pedals over 20 years. Easy fix!!
Having added a new chainset and bottom bracket to my bike, I was frustrated to hear a creaking noise - especially when out the saddle. I immediately thought that the bottom bracket was the likely culprit or maybe some of the bolts attached to the chain rings etc. In addition to the creaking, I was also minded to check the headset as there were some handling issues. Anyway, cleaned out the headset, added new grease - which resolved both the handling issues and the creaking noise! With hindsight, thinking about the headset being the cause of the noise - obviously when out the saddle, there is also a lot of force / weight being put onto the bars / headset. So if checking the bottom bracket or cranks doesn't fix the creak, then maybe have a look at the headset!
Thank you so much. I had to do the majority of the things you suggested but it worked and runs smoother than before. Thanks again and keep up the good work.
Excellent video to chase down drivetrain creaks. My 2022 Cannondale CAAD13 105 HDisc uses the BB30 bottom bracket. Yes, it can creak a little when cross chaining under a hard load, but changing out bearings is easy-peasy. More importantly, the design is brilliant! It is only 68mm wide compared to 90mm for a threaded BB. That means the pedals are 11mm closer together each side benefitting pedaling speed and wind resistance. Also this spacing favors the larger cogs on the cassette for greater power transfer at lower speeds. Bow legged riders do not fit well here.
I don't want to be a downer on this very good video but I do have one issue with warranties they are usually worthless.Unless it is some thing major like the frame snapping. Anything mechanical such as indexing fail or bottom braket failing after a short time is usually dismissed as ware and tare by the makers making the warranty basically useless. I have hear the same excuse of bottom bracket fails from two different bike mechanics which is "sand and grit getting into the supposed sealed bottom bracket unit and wearing it out prematurely". Sadly I have learnt that bicycles today and made to fail regularly to keep you spending money on them. A sad fact to be sure. Brilliant video as usual guys thanks.
Oh I REALLY hope that the press-fit BB's are a passing fad. I've yet to hear anyone (who doesn't have a team mechanic) who's happy with them. Finding one with a BSA BB has affected my choice of new bike this year. (Where I live there IS no LBS and I do all my own maintenance... with the help of Zinn's book and a computer in my shop)
Hi Si. If you ride on carbon rims, sometimes there's a huge racket of creaking. This is mostly down to your valve making the noise. Simply use some electrical tape, then tape your value down on to the rim!
Thanks for this - just replaced my BB bearings and was dismayed to have a creaking noise that made me worry i'd not fitted them properly. But sure enough it was the chainring bolts that i'd had to remove to get the drive side bearing off and not tightened enough ..... phew!
Don't forget that on BB30 bearings like those fitted to Simons bike can be repacked with grease. Just use a blade to pop off the seal covers, flush out with degreaser and repack with grease. Pop the cover back on and repeat on the other side. I've done this twice as I developed a creak after hosing the grease out with a hose pipe over several months and takes 5 minutes per side. It saves you a few quid till payday at least. Check out videos on RUclips. Have I just given you guys another hack? Bottle or capilino coming my way???
I found that copper grease is good for those areas that you don't really want to move, such as bottom bracket, pedal threads etc. It's an anti seize compound that does just that, it's not a grease to reduce friction between moving parts. It stopped a titanium frame/shimano bottom bracket creak that had proved particularly stubborn.
Checked my chain ring bolts and they were showing very tight. But then two were not and the torque wrench made a lot of rotations. Next ride after the rain ends! Thanks!!
Had an awful creaking today. Last week everything from the bars, seatpost and BB were cleaned and greased. I have yet to tackle the cleats. It is so difficult to pinpoint the noise. It mostly occurs during climbing with considerable power being used.I will endeavor to get the bottom of the noisy beast! 👍🏻
Great video, but it would be good to have some examples of the noises. I'm having trouble with a noisy chain at the moment and I've tried googling creeks, rattles, rubbing, clicks, groaning and all sorts. My wife thinks I have a fetish and my bike is driving me crazy.
Loving the maintenance series Si & GCN - thanks ! I think my "old school" road bikes with 68mm external bottom brackets & external cable routing are keepers :)
Told by an very good experienced bike mechanic to take your saddle stem out and spray wd40 down the seat tube and surprisingly it worked. Apparently to do with riding during this very wet winter.
Having gone thru' all the steps Si suggested, my Campagnolo BB gear cable guide turned out to be the source of a pedalling-related noise. The retaining screws were surprisingly loose, and the noise vanished once re-torqued to 2Nm.
Step 1: Ride bike with BB30. Step 2: develop horrendous creak Step 3: Swear Step 4: Pawn everything you own and sell body to science/sex trade. Step 5: Buy lots of bikes and discard when they develop creak. Win TdF. Profit.
I really think most of the cracks and creaks are caused by the bottom bracket. My Fuji was cracking for a few months on harder climbs and I thought, now I'll fix it, and it didn't even take me 15 minutes to remove the problem. When I pulled out the crank from the bottom, it felt like I was pulling it over sand. So all I did was use some dish soap to remove the grit and the old grease, cleaned the outside of the bearings in the bracket, and lubed everything up with regular bearing lube (probably not the best, but it did the job for now). Screwed everything back in place and went out for a ride. Immediately it felt a lot smoother and the creaks went away. So nobody should be very afraid to fix their own bike!
![Lethal Company Music Video 🎵 "Follow The Orders" [VERSION A]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QeooZB4Z7RA/mqdefault.jpg)
I was pleasantly surprised to follow these instructions and get rid of the annoying creak in my gravel bike! My bike would creak near my bottom bracket when I was pedaling under load uphill, which drove me crazy. I thought it was bottom bracket at first and replaced that but found it was still there. I took apart and greased the wheel bolts, pedals, rear derailleur, and finally crank bolts which ended up being the source of the noise. After removing the crank bolts, greasing generously, and screwing them back in tightly the creak was gone. Thanks for this video!!
I DID ALL THAT AND IT TURNED OUT TO BE MY KNEE JOINTS MAKING THE RACKET.
😂😂😂😂
Doug Calder regrease it man 😂😂😂
I "re-grease" weekly with extra bacon on my pizza.. 85kg and holding !!
Doug Calder try the pure bacon grease it works better
You MUST be from Kentucky, USA. My grandmother used left-over bacon grease to make gravy and to grease the biscuit skillet. A "great meal" is measured by how long the chest pain lasts. I think KY people are born WITHOUT a gallbladder, AND common sense. Enjoy the summer my friend
For clicks or ticks, the most common issue that I have had has been the pedals. I usually remove the spindle from the pedal body and re-grease it and that almost always takes care of the problem. On an old cup and cone bottom bracket, I found a pit in one of the races. It was amazing how such a small imperfection could make such a loud noise.
Here's a story about creaking on my bike.
Bought it new from a store, rode it for a couple of months (commuting mostly) in all kind of weather and then the creaking started. I thought it was from the BB since it was the BB30 kind and we all know about them. In the next 6 months, I have been to the workshop 3 times and every time they cleaned the BB and lubed it but the creak was still there. We checked everything else (or so we thought) and since the manufacturer does not guarantee for the BB I decided to buy a new one but not BB30, rather I got the conversion to Shimano via a BB converter. As you can imagine, that was not cheap. And to my disappointment, the creaking was still there!
In the end, my mechanic, frustrated as much as me, did the cleaning and lubing of the rear mech hanger, and IT WORKED!!!!!!!!!
So, instead of a 5min job, and a coffee for my mechanic, I spent nearly 150€ and 9 months on reapring this creak.
Thank you so much for this awesome video! Removed and lubed the chainringbolts and now the clicking is gone. Keep up the good work guys!
Andreas Baumgartner Glad to hear it Andreas! Happy riding.
Exactly the same for me, was driving me mad. I'd bought coloured bolts to match the bike. Strip, clean and lube now the bike is so quite. Massive thank you GCN!
Thanks Simon. I've been chasing creaks on and off since I had cottered cranks on my first, 5-gear road bike (present for my 13th birthday, which my Dad bought for £13 through a classified ad in the local paper. In other words, a few weeks short of 45 years ago.) My experience echoes your advice : cleanliness and a thin film of grease on all flat mating surfaces. Makes disassembly a doddle, too. If, at the end of it all, your steel frame is still creaking, cracked brazing in the BB lug could be your problem (and it's even repairable!)
Can't understand why anyone would give this video the thumbs down.
@
I really hate creacking... I can't concentrare on my ride, especially while doing steep climbs!
Edoardo Luppi try to play music with headphones
*Click click click click*
*Sweats nervously*
*Hits brakes*
*Brakes squeal*
"Oh for fucks sake..."
@@The44kGaming LOL
@@The44kGaming hahaha exactly my ride just now hence why I'm here. It really gets to you doesn't it. The bike was new 2 years ago and it's driving me mad now.
Hi fellow cyclist! I haven't read all the comments below, but speaking of personal experience about drivetrain creeks, here is another two point you can check:
- Clean/Grease the springs of your clipless pedal
- Clean/Grease the contacting surface between each cog of the rear cassettes and the freewheel
Hope that helps!
You're really good at lubricating things with your finger.
I think I know how he learned that... 😂
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ☞ 🍑
The 44K 😵🤣
Wtf bro
we all filipino do the finger greasing thing
Someones itching for a prostate exam...
Cleaned up the rear mech hanger as suggested................ problem solved. Thanks a million.
In Soviet Russia, creak fixes you!
I spent forever making my bike silent. Every time I fixed something noisy, an even quieter noise became more apparent. I was chasing my own tail by the end of it and gave up.
Click from Left Pedal when at 2-3 o’clock with pressure. Torqued pedals, chainring bolts, crank arm bolts. Still there. Replace bottom bracket. Still there. After watching this video, I removed pedal and greased threads. That fixed it! Thanks.
Hi, I have gone through all your vids on creaking bikes, just wanted to tell you about another creak in the list of things that creak, I had done the BB twice, and swopped out crank, and chainrings, and pedals, and seatpost, and new cassette, and new hub bearings, and new freehub bearings, and all pivot bearings opened and lubed, along with drop outs and new chain, turns out my rear deralliour was making a creaking noise as it moved milimeters when the chain passed over the jockey wheels in gear, and i don't mean a small creak, this was commented on by other riders a few times, solution was to remove and lube, and check if creaking has gone, then re-fit. thought I would post as it took me over a year to get to the bottom of this creak!
Remove what?
Another really informative video, thank you!
I tried the tighten chain rings option first, (not particularly hopefully it must be said), but this actually has fixed the issue of my previously nauseating and frustrating "creak!" Now if I could only prevent the rider from making similar noises...
Retighten my bike derailleur hanger, no more squeak ... Was about to buy BB and BB tools and go all the way replacing the hollow crank BB.. im very happy
I haven't read all the comments, but another creak source may have been overlooked. I know everyone seems to have newer frames with internal cable routing, but for those of us with older frames, a source of creaking can be the under the BB cable router. When that plastic (or metal) guide gets clogged with leaves, road grit, sticky stuff dribbling down from your bidon, etc, it can cause a creak when there is sufficient cable tension ( e.g. larger rear cogs). Cleaning this track can sometimes eliminate an otherwise unfathomable creak.
Great tip, thanks!
I've found the best way to eliminate creaking is by playing music out of my phone. Also keeps the bears away.
Ditto!
Lol
This is also how I fix my car! Very efficient
@@brettferrari2719 I
@@lsalas300974 I a
Never thought of the pedals creaking! All lovely and quiet now - cheers!
+GCN took my specialized camber comp in today because of a chirping noise from my bottom bracket and apparently it was just the grease had stiffened up. Glad to have her back in working conditions. love your videos, very informative!
I know I'm late, but this video helped EXTREMELY. I realized not only my BB was creaking, but some bolts and my pedals AND derailleur were creaking. Lots of grease.
A couple of my chainring bolts were loose, causing a clicking sound when pedaling. Thanks to your video, I checked and tightened those first, and viola! No more clicking, nor worries about my bottom bracket.
Top tip, put the new bearings and crank in the freezer before fitting. This will make the bearing fit much easier. Once the bearings are in let them warm up to room temperature before pushing the crank through. You should not need to use a drift. Also you risk pushing the bearing out by using a drift.
Yes, agreed! It's also poor form to great the race of a bearing. Bearings are supposed to rotate on the balls, not on the race.
Just found my creek, it was a loose pedal bearing. Thanks for the video it will help with future creeks.
I used to laugh at the noisy bike videos. now that my baby has developed a creak in the bb I want to cut all my spokes with bolt cutters and saw my frame in half before giving up cycling altogether.
dylan welch
You can thank Cannondale - a company with a long history of selling useless gimmicks - for starting all of this bb30/pf30 nonsense.
BB30 plagued my life until I learned that blue Loctite between the bearing shell and the frame solves it. I was ready to throw the Quintana Roo in the recycling until that day.
+A S
I'm not sure what you're referring to exactly, but I have a cannondale caad2 frame and it's creaked for years when I pedal hard. 'feels like it's coming from between the pedals and a big snap noise reverberates through the frame. Any advice?
Justin - I hate to say this, but the real solution is to replace the BB with a quality one. As I noted in another post, companies like Chris King, Hope or Legit Engineering make much higher quality precision milled metal PF BB's that will likely outlast your bike. Not cheap, over $100 to do yourself, but it will completely take care of the problem if you do it right.
I replaces my bb30 with a converter to shimano 105. finally fixed the noise.
This video saved me a lot of stress, presuming it was my bottom bracket, it was in fact my rear skewer and derailer hanger. thankyou GCN
I honestly did everything on the video, it worked oh my god what a satisfaction. Thank you @gcn you guys are lifesavers.
The cleats, it was the cleats that were causing the clicking noise, it was driving me crazy, I thought there was a major problem with the pedal. But I put lub on the cleat and it silenced the click, thank you GCN.
Another thing that clicks is the end of the front derailleur cable. Often it hits the pedal arm.
I had that problem. It drove me nuts, because I didn't think of that as a possibility and so it took me way longer than it should've to locate the noise
Thanks so much. Bike was creaking going up hills, thought I had checked everything and doing my head in. Watched video and realised I had forgotten to check chainring bolt tightness, they weren’t fully tight. Torqued them up and hey presto creak has gone. Cheers again.
Wow i did it! That bike kit i bought years ago finally paying off.
I took the whole crank assemble off while having no idea what I was doing. Clean it all up and greased it, then tightened the crap out of everything and know that annoying clunk sound on every rotation is gone :)
i guess the bottom bracket nut on the left side got loose, didnt even know what a bottom bracket was until this video
Great video. Super helpful. My creak ended up being my adjustable dropouts (loose) on my '21 Chameleon R (Raspberry Sorbet). Tightened em' up to specified torque after removing, cleaning, and greasing. BOOOOLT CHECK!! LOL. Thank you for posting these. Cheers from the Beastcoast.
thanks mang, really helped me solve a creak I had going on for months. Easy fix, had no idea where to start until I found this video.
Thanks for the post. I fixed my pedal creaking after watching this vid. I had worried it was the bottom bracket noise which I do not have tools to grease and install. Lucky me!
Brilliant video!!! Thanks very much, I tightened and greased up my rear-d hanger and the clicking is sorted. Cheers.
+Michael Tan Glad you enjoyed it Michael!
Did the pedals then the seat post and silence. I’m glad I didn’t have to look at the bottom bracket. Thank you for the video. Very helpful.🙂
Great tips! You've helped me finally get rid of the maddening creaks in my drive train. Thank you!
Glad to hear it Erik!
Oustanding guideline! Thank to your videos I sort out a composed creaking on my brand new Grand Canyon slx 29. 9.9. Handle bar plus seat post plus rear hub. The rear hub was the most tricky one. In the end I replaced a through axle with a Syntace and applying a torque 13nm. Thank you! Daniel
Hi, I had a really annoying creak when I was riding on my turbo. Thought BB was the issue, but it turned out to be between the turbo's clamp arm and my QR skewer. Dab of dry lube on each of the outsides of the QR skewer - problem solved and sanity saved!
My creaking bike was driving me mad, did the full works, bolts, greased touch points bottom bracket etc and voila, silent running, so much more enjoyable, Cheers
If nothing else works check your frame for cracks in the welds. I've had 2 frames that have cracked near to the saddle stem. Both times the creak was only heard while seated but went away when stood on pedals. With the lifetime warranty on the frames, each time I received a free replacement frame from the manufacturer. Always worth checking your frame regularly from a safety perspective.
A friend of mine with a Bianchi Oltre had what he was convinced was a creaking bottom bracket. He's a very experienced rider (aged over 50, ex divisional road race champion etc.) & expert at diagnosing & fixing problems. Eventually having tried everything else he thought the only thing he hadn't done anything to was the spokes, so looked at spokes at the hub end. He put a drop of thickish oil on the back of the spoke hole, (lie the wheel horizontal on the floor) let the oil run down the hole to the spoke head, turn wheel over do the other side, wipe off any excess - "bottom bracket" creak gone! He could only conclude that the noise was travelling through the hub & echoing along the chain stays to the bottom bracket.
this is in plain english easy to understand and very helpful keep up the gr8 vids
Thanks for the video. I followed your instructions and was able to fix the squeak by removing and greasing the BB. Now I have a quiet mountain bike again. Awesome.
Great video - thanks for posting. In my case the bottom bracket had failed. 631 miles on the bike which was shocking. Anyway, retailer replaced part under warranty which was nice. Also, the faulty bracket was on tighter than a tight thing, luckily I had a 60" torque wrench, wouldn't have got it off otherwise. Just advice for anyone taking on the bottom bracket. Retailer reckoned it was on too tight from factory, which caused it to fail. Seems plausible I guess.
Thanks Si. Another great video in your mechanical series. You do a good job with these.
Your videos are amazing and thank you for teaching us so much! You are gonna turn some of us into Bicycle mechanics.
Dunk the whole bike in a giant vat of WD40. Good as new.
Amen brother ;-)
WD-40=(Bike-Grease)=(Rust+Creaks)
Shawn Barrett you + this joke = r/woooosh
wait what grease do you use
_VENOM_ GAMING grease? For the nuts and bolts? I just use a grease my dad had for his car.
My 5 year old daughter watched this and has decided that she wants a toy set of bike shop tools for her bike. Nice job, Simon!
(SO glad I'm clinging to my BSA BB's as long as possible . .... even if I had to order a clone bike frame from China for my new bike to get one...
Just spent the day striping down and greasing my old Stumpjumper, in all the areas you covered... Finally got rid of that annoying creaking I've been putting up with for years, feels and sounds like a brand new bike again, I love it! Thanks heaps for your very informative vid, helped me greatly!
Creak/click coming from bottom bracket when out of the saddle and applying down pressure on pedals. Very annoying, hopefully lbs can lube it fixed. Great video!
Your guys videos have been so helpful in helping me to begin to commute by bike
Thanks for the help guys! I had to stop my ride short this afternoon because the creaking was driving me nuts, but I greased up my cleats and pedals, and that seemed to do the trick.
I had a creak that just would not go away despite all the fixes you mention in the video. Turned out to be the pedals themselves... I think the bearings in the pedals were dry or damaged. Nothing to do except replace the pedals. Solved it finally. At least I have a spare BB now.... :) LOL
I had a creaking crankset for the past month with a 1x11 apex drive train and a kmc chain. Started with a single light cracking noise. It got more and more noisy with almost a full crankset rotation, only at high load. I dismantled and put grease on my plateau like two or three times without any change.
Today I replaced the chain after seeing a portion of it what above the 0.075 MM limit.
Noise seems to be gone 😊
Advice: check the chain at multiple location to see if it need replacement.
At one of the UCI World Tour bike races last year, I watched as the cyclists came up a 12-15% climb. As soon as they began to stand on the pedals, you could hear almost every bike creak! It only lasted for a second or two, but I think it goes to show that all CF frames with press-to-fit bearings, even when maintained by pros, will creak.
Ha, that's a great story! I bet the guy with the silent bike was the winner that day.
I just fixed an interesting creak - the cross over point of spokes on my rear Zipp 303 wheel. I was getting a creaking sound whenever I applied pressure in or out of the saddle. The noise increase over time. I cleaned the crossover point of the 2 spokes, applied a little thick grease and wiped off the excess. I worked my way around both sides of the wheel, repeating the process at each crossover. Now it is nice an quiet.
My derailleur hanger annoyed the hell out of me for weeks and even after cleaning, and even gluing it in place, it still creaked (after the glue gave away) lol. Now, when I lube the chain, I lube the hanger too and the silence is as good as gold!! :D
The shoes and peddle tricks worked for me... thanks @GCN
Suddenly started to get a creaking sound whilst turning on the pedals. Discovered it was the rear derailleur hangar by turning the cranks by hand reproducing the creak when the chain tensioned, but could stop the creak by holding the derailleur. Cleaned and greased between the hangar and frame and all was good.
Great video! Only 1 more thing I can think of, and that's the pedal spindle itself. I've had it happen to me with 3 different sets of pedals over 20 years. Easy fix!!
Thanks. Sounded like the noise was coming from the back but it was the crank.cleaned everything up. Grease it. Nice and quiet again :)
Thank you for this video. I had creaking cranks on a used bike. Took it apart and greased all the joints. Problem solved.
Having added a new chainset and bottom bracket to my bike, I was frustrated to hear a creaking noise - especially when out the saddle. I immediately thought that the bottom bracket was the likely culprit or maybe some of the bolts attached to the chain rings etc. In addition to the creaking, I was also minded to check the headset as there were some handling issues. Anyway, cleaned out the headset, added new grease - which resolved both the handling issues and the creaking noise! With hindsight, thinking about the headset being the cause of the noise - obviously when out the saddle, there is also a lot of force / weight being put onto the bars / headset. So if checking the bottom bracket or cranks doesn't fix the creak, then maybe have a look at the headset!
Thank you so much. I had to do the majority of the things you suggested but it worked and runs smoother than before. Thanks again and keep up the good work.
The reason your watching this video starts at 4:00
I'm too be doing my BB soon...its good to do these things every so often...
Excellent video to chase down drivetrain creaks. My 2022 Cannondale CAAD13 105 HDisc uses the BB30 bottom bracket. Yes, it can creak a little when cross chaining under a hard load, but changing out bearings is easy-peasy. More importantly, the design is brilliant! It is only 68mm wide compared to 90mm for a threaded BB. That means the pedals are 11mm closer together each side benefitting pedaling speed and wind resistance. Also this spacing favors the larger cogs on the cassette for greater power transfer at lower speeds. Bow legged riders do not fit well here.
I don't want to be a downer on this very good video but I do have one issue with warranties they are usually worthless.Unless it is some thing major like the frame snapping. Anything mechanical such as indexing fail or bottom braket failing after a short time is usually dismissed as ware and tare by the makers making the warranty basically useless. I have hear the same excuse of bottom bracket fails from two different bike mechanics which is "sand and grit getting into the supposed sealed bottom bracket unit and wearing it out prematurely". Sadly I have learnt that bicycles today and made to fail regularly to keep you spending money on them. A sad fact to be sure. Brilliant video as usual guys thanks.
Yes!!! The pedals and / or cleats just needed greasing!! Wow. Thank you! I can hear again!!!
Impressive work to every creak busting videos .I have already silenced my saddle thx :)
I'm so glad I never purchased a bike with a press fit BB. Interestingly enough some manufactures are going back to threaded, like Ibis and Pinarello.
Oh I REALLY hope that the press-fit BB's are a passing fad. I've yet to hear anyone (who doesn't have a team mechanic) who's happy with them.
Finding one with a BSA BB has affected my choice of new bike this year. (Where I live there IS no LBS and I do all my own maintenance... with the help of Zinn's book and a computer in my shop)
Hi Si. If you ride on carbon rims, sometimes there's a huge racket of creaking. This is mostly down to your valve making the noise. Simply use some electrical tape, then tape your value down on to the rim!
You've jumped the gun Justin! We cover that in next week's video.
Thanks for this - just replaced my BB bearings and was dismayed to have a creaking noise that made me worry i'd not fitted them properly. But sure enough it was the chainring bolts that i'd had to remove to get the drive side bearing off and not tightened enough
..... phew!
Probably the most helpful video on the internet 👍🏻 Thank you GCN!!
An old pro mechanic's trick to stop squeaky cleats is to use household furniture polish both on the cleat and the pedal.Works for me
Won't all that grease make my bike heavier?
yeah like 100 grams
+Melting Slurpee you actually made me laugh
What the most aerodynamic grease? I want it.
hahahah +
No, its nothing relative to your body weight scientifically...but I do appreciate your sarcasm.
I love you guys !!! my fav and only cycling channel !!! you guys rock !!
Thank you so much. I was afraid I was going to have to dive into the horrible world of bottom brackets. But it was just my chainring bolts.
Quick tip for those with through axles: Grease them up really good first, they are most likely the source of your creaking
Don't forget that on BB30 bearings like those fitted to Simons bike can be repacked with grease. Just use a blade to pop off the seal covers, flush out with degreaser and repack with grease. Pop the cover back on and repeat on the other side. I've done this twice as I developed a creak after hosing the grease out with a hose pipe over several months and takes 5 minutes per side. It saves you a few quid till payday at least. Check out videos on RUclips. Have I just given you guys another hack? Bottle or capilino coming my way???
Agree - this is something to check if you're going to go to the trouble of removing the cranks on PF30/BB30 bikes.
I found that copper grease is good for those areas that you don't really want to move, such as bottom bracket, pedal threads etc. It's an anti seize compound that does just that, it's not a grease to reduce friction between moving parts. It stopped a titanium frame/shimano bottom bracket creak that had proved particularly stubborn.
agree. it's something I use on nearly all my bolts, especially ti stem bolts.
thanks
Jon
Checked my chain ring bolts and they were showing very tight. But then two were not and the torque wrench made a lot of rotations. Next ride after the rain ends! Thanks!!
Fixed this clicking when pushing down on the right crank. It turned out to be the hanger!
Had an awful creaking today. Last week everything from the bars, seatpost and BB were cleaned and greased. I have yet to tackle the cleats. It is so difficult to pinpoint the noise. It mostly occurs during climbing with considerable power being used.I will endeavor to get the bottom of the noisy beast! 👍🏻
Tighten rear cassette ?
+Mongrel1980 cheers! I will have a look into that. That is literally the only thing I haven't tried!
I fixed my loose bb with Praxis BB Conv. Great product, simple and robust.
What type of grease do you use? It looked like the same on all the moving parts.
thank you.. it's so embarrassing riding around town and making some much noise. 😄
Great video, but it would be good to have some examples of the noises. I'm having trouble with a noisy chain at the moment and I've tried googling creeks, rattles, rubbing, clicks, groaning and all sorts. My wife thinks I have a fetish and my bike is driving me crazy.
very slick video si . you are very good in font of the camera
I would definitely recommend cleaning and re-lubing the chain before doing any of this.
Well...most people do that regularly, right? So if that's the cause, it'll be gone within a week or so...
Loving the maintenance series Si & GCN - thanks ! I think my "old school" road bikes with 68mm external bottom brackets & external cable routing are keepers :)
May the force be with anyone trying to fix creaking bikes
Easy. I solved the BB creaking sound by putting the plastic spacer on the right side and the metal ones on the left side. Be sure to leave no leeway.
Gave me so much good info to replace the gears the Bikes like new!
Great video Si. What about a video with your opinions of "The Rules" would/could be hilarious.
Thanks Toby. We've talked about that one for a while, maybe we should shoot something!
Told by an very good experienced bike mechanic to take your saddle stem out and spray wd40 down the seat tube and surprisingly it worked. Apparently to do with riding during this very wet winter.
Having gone thru' all the steps Si suggested, my Campagnolo BB gear cable guide turned out to be the source of a pedalling-related noise. The retaining screws were surprisingly loose, and the noise vanished once re-torqued to 2Nm.
Good tip, thanks Pete.
Pete Marsh Man, tomorrow I'll try that. You're my hero if that solve the problem.
Step 1: Ride bike with BB30.
Step 2: develop horrendous creak
Step 3: Swear
Step 4: Pawn everything you own and sell body to science/sex trade.
Step 5: Buy lots of bikes and discard when they develop creak. Win TdF. Profit.
Rob King step 6: realize you can't use bikes since you've already sold body to sex trade, meaning that they own you now.
Yesh
I really think most of the cracks and creaks are caused by the bottom bracket. My Fuji was cracking for a few months on harder climbs and I thought, now I'll fix it, and it didn't even take me 15 minutes to remove the problem. When I pulled out the crank from the bottom, it felt like I was pulling it over sand. So all I did was use some dish soap to remove the grit and the old grease, cleaned the outside of the bearings in the bracket, and lubed everything up with regular bearing lube (probably not the best, but it did the job for now). Screwed everything back in place and went out for a ride. Immediately it felt a lot smoother and the creaks went away. So nobody should be very afraid to fix their own bike!
After taking gcn's ( matt Stephens ) cyclocross lessons i find myself hitting the deck more often, might need to go back to plan a!