Typical….I veer away from shimano for the first time ever and get a pair of Middleburn RS7’s off the classifieds. Chuck in a brand new Isis BB (yes I know these are bobbins)get 2 bloody rides on it and its creaking worse than anything. Stripped it out re-greased and re-tightened another couple of rides and CREAKKK…arggg!!.

Is there a magical tip here or shall I just chalk it up as a mistake and get good old shimano hollowtech.

do you know what is actually creaking though?

crank/spindle interface?
crank/spider interface?
BB/Frame interface?
Chainring bolts?
BB itself?

They don’t (and shouldn’t) normally do that, but step one is to work out what is actually making the noise before you go giving up on the whole lot.

edit – just spotted the cranks were 2nd hand, have you checked that you didn’t get a set with fubar’d splines?

Is there a magical tip here…

Flog the ISIS versions on and buy some Square taper RS7s…

Quite possibly fubar’d splines…they looked ok but ive never had isis before so hard to know.

Its the uno type chain ring which is done up pretty tight. Frame is brand new.

start process of elimination

does the noise come from a particular side?

only when applying power?

try standing on bike and bounce/apply pressure on crank until noise happens, rotate cranks 180 and repeat to see if you can attribute it to something moving back and forth/around spindle.

repeat with no chain attached to see if it is linked to chain load or just the cranks on spindle.

removes chainring/spider and inspect for contact marks or signs of movement or loose fit.

check all interfaces, just cos frame is new doesn’t mean anything, could still be one of the BB support cups creaking or a washer moving etc.

was the frame faced? any lumpy paint that might mean a cup isn’t seating properly?

Until you actually know what bit is causing the noise then it’s hard to advise on a suitable remedy.

As above, be sure that you find the source of the creak. They can be hard to trace; I’ve been burned by chainring bolts as well as a seatpost causing the creak before.

And the bolts that hold ISIS cranks onto the BB spindle get torqued on pretty good. So much so that people on this forum have accused manufacturers of using an impact wrench at times!

I have a RaceFace crank that uses the ISIS spline and they say to torque it to 45 ft-lbs or 61 N-m. I have a torque wrench, and that’s a lot of force! I can’t say for certain that Middleburn would be the same, you might want to look into it, though.

When mine creaked, it was the chainring bolts. Stripped everything down, cleaned and greased. Sorted.

I replaced everything and noise was still there.

Turned out it was the rear quick release. Stripped that and cleaned it and problem solved.

Make sure its the cranks before you give up.

I’ve had the rear wheel QR creak as well!