I have a UN73 bought new/ unused about a year ago and fitted to my Soda with RF Turbine cranks (from a previous bike). Things went well and everything was hunky-dory for quite a while, with only an occasional loosening of the non-drive crank causing any hiccups.
But recently the BB’s been making a bit of a racket when under load – pedalling uphill, for example, or just putting some effort in on the flat. It’s not a squeak, and it’s not a grinding noise, but somewhere in between, as a regular ‘noise’ pause ‘noise’ pause under regular cadence.
I’m not that big a rider (12stone, tops), and don’t ride crazy stuff (XC/ trails around the North Downs), but I find it hard to believe the bearings have already gone.
So, marvellous forumites, what’s the creaking and how do I fix it?

with those symptoms, fist thing I do is a dab of grease smeared on the drop outs.

Then I check the crank arms bolt torques.

then the chainring bolts, greaseing them and the chainring/crank arm interface – if they’re alloy, maybe try steel.

On the dropouts?
Crank bolt torque on the drive side is fine; non-drive I need to put threadlock on it as it keeps loosening up (twice on my last ride). But all good thoughts and I’ll try them. Thanks

sometimes its the twist when cranking that makes the QR squeak on the dorp out. The frame carries the noise up front.

oh – never heard of that! Will try it

well known on frames with boxy swing arms (mentioning no names rhymes with Sporange)

grease the tapers, and do up nice and tight. Dust is just as bad at making thing creak…then check all the interfaces, stem/bar, seat post/frame that sort of thing, as Stoner suggests, could be anywhere, and just pretending to be BB

Can you drop it round the house and I’ll have a look?

It could be ANYTHING!

Having said that, I’ve not had problems with my UN52 BB for many years. I suspect those resin cups…. 52s have metal cups. Anyway, grease everything.

al.

I had a similar noise….. turned out to be the pedals

I recently had some annoying creaks which I had ,been trying my patience for weeks,and I had suspected them to be from the cranks.
In the end there were 2 causes.One was the tread of my shoes rubbing on my spds.This was cured by some grease on the pedal interface,though a more permanent cure may involve trimming the tread of the shoe with a stanley knife.The other creak was cured by a smear of grease on the seatpost.
You sometimes just have to methodically work through each,component,to get to the problem.

Similar noise too – pedals again.

could be a loose cassette

Any chance your crank arm is getting a bit baggy around the taper? I had a crank arm on a square taper that kept loosening itself. This happened a few times and I ending up abandoning the crank arm for another. It made creaking noises just like you describe which I assumed was slight movements under load which in turn loosened the bolt ont he BB…..however it could easily be something else.

Could the crank arm that comes loose a lot now be knackered?

But as said, could be about anything, its summer, both my bikes are developing creaks here and there, deing dry isnt good for everything.

Last weekend I had to remove seat and grease rails on one bike, and the same for bothe bikes stems and shims and bars to stop creaks. then I got a brand new creak out last night!