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There’s nothing more annoying than a noise coming from your expensive bike and I’ve found that it is difficult to find information on how to solve your noise problem.
The best information I have found is from BBINFINITE website blog: https://www.bbinfinite.com/blogs/news/74410883-kill-that-creak
In my case this blog didn’t solve my issue (I have a bbinfinite bottom bracket) but the blog and the Bbinfinite owner whom I had numerous emails with got me thinking in a methodical way to resolve the pesky noise.
I will start with two cases that I resolved and I hope folks can use this as a resource to solve or help you find and remove the noise.
The noise and how I repeated it:
A “ping” every time I was out of the saddle and rocked the handlebar from side to side.
Initial Theory:
The noise seemed to come from the stem headset area. So I tightened the stem and headset bolts but that didn’t resolve the issue. I tried tightening the brake rotor on the front wheel but no dice.
The solution:
Applied a little bit of grease to the front through axle and tightened it to spec!
I have a MTB that was driving me crazy, it had intermittent noises that started after 30 minutes (really hard to show to a mechanic), but everyone riding with me could hear then. With time it got worse and more frequently, specially in colder days. Took to mechanics 3 or 4 times, couldn't find anything wrong with the bike.
I was sure the noise was coming from the bottom bracket area, and only when pedaling. I was also getting some uncomfortable feeling when pedaling and some knee pain.
After a while the freehub started to skip/fail to engage, and I found a young mechanic that was really experienced, that already knew this problem. He assured me that all the noises and the weirdness I was experiencing was from the freehub, that would need a rebuild or replaced anyway. I paid him for a rebuild, and everything was gone, the bike felt really firm and rigid to pedal, and the knee pain was gone (I believed it was caused by "micro-skips" of the freehub). It's a fancy freehub with a lot of engagement points, but it's certainly not worth with this chronic problem.
Volsung wrote:The majority of my squeaks are from my pedals, which start making noise anywhere after 100 miles. My Garmin power meter pedals have a quiet side and a squeaky side.
v.gcl wrote:I have a MTB that was driving me crazy, it had intermittent noises that started after 30 minutes (really hard to show to a mechanic), but everyone riding with me could hear then. With time it got worse and more frequently, specially in colder days. Took to mechanics 3 or 4 times, couldn't find anything wrong with the bike.
I was sure the noise was coming from the bottom bracket area, and only when pedaling. I was also getting some uncomfortable feeling when pedaling and some knee pain.
After a while the freehub started to skip/fail to engage, and I found a young mechanic that was really experienced, that already knew this problem. He assured me that all the noises and the weirdness I was experiencing was from the freehub, that would need a rebuild or replaced anyway. I paid him for a rebuild, and everything was gone, the bike felt really firm and rigid to pedal, and the knee pain was gone (I believed it was caused by "micro-skips" of the freehub). It's a fancy freehub with a lot of engagement points, but it's certainly not worth with this chronic problem.
dangle wrote:
I don't usually trash Garmin too much, but squeaky Rally pedals seem extremely common so far.
bnystrom wrote:One of the biggest issues when trying to track down noise is that it travels through the frame, so it's hard to tell where it's actually coming from, as shown in the examples above. This seems to be more of a problem today's more rigid frames than it was decades ago.
Another common source of creaking is the saddle clamp/saddle rail contact area. If there's any looseness, you'll hear it, but also dirt and moisture can cause creaking here. Depending on the clamp design, the bolts and pivots may also need cleaning and some dry lube to eliminate noise. I've even seen cases where the saddle rails creaked where they met the saddle shell.
Seat posts often make a loud snap sound if they move at the frame clamp. This is typically something you hear as the result of a hard impact, rather than a rhythmic noise.
The handlebar-to-stem and stem-to-steer joints are prone to creaking. Even steerer tube spacers can creak against each other.
Cleat bolts can creak, as can cleats against the shoe sole.
Although it's not an issue with thru-axle equipped gravel bikes, quick-release skewers are notorious for creaking at the lever. This seems to be a bigger issue with titanium skewers than with steel.
I've had cases where compressionless shift cables creaked at the ferrules or where they entered frame fittings, and have even had segmented cable housing creak.
I'm currently dealing with a very mysterious creak on one of my road bikes. It's a rhythmic creak/click once per pedal revolution, but it goes away after the first mile or so of riding. It happens sitting or standing, on both chainrings, and mainly when I'm not pedaling hard. It seems to be in the drivetrain, but I've triple-checked everything (BB, cranks, pedals, cassette, cleats) and can't find it. It's not my creaky, old body, either. ;-)
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