I don't get enough time to ride, never mind maintain my bikes

Quick bit of roadage tonight and, bloody hell, what a racket as I was putting down some ossum power up a hill !!

I ended up stopping to see whether the back end was about to fall off – not yet apparently. tried pushing on the BB from either side, nothing. no visible cracks and couldn't get the bars to creak as I stood there.

In the end, doing the rear QR ded tight seemed to calm it all down a bit but didn't stop altogether. Again no cracks seen and "stressing" the wheel/frame by hand didn't make any noise

I assume carbon frames are great for propagating noise and disguising the source. Anyone got any top guesses so far ? (the less time I spend sorting this the better)

saddle rails or pedals?

cheers – don't think saddle as it's worse standing. Hadn't thought of pedals but do you reckon I'd have felt it if they were that noisy?

FWIW, my money's on chainring bolts (or was, til the rear QR helped)

try cycling with one foot and then the other, might be tricky if only appears when cranking up a hill

Hauling on the bars makes mine creak – has from day one and not a worry as lots of bikes do that with me

My money is on the lower headset race, especially as it's worse when standing up and applying all that brute maximum awesome force…

Try greasing the threads on everything! Especially bars and stem in my experience…

Mines just started doing the same, new headset, new chainset, chain, cassette, rear mech and its driving me nuts. It sounds like its from the rear drivetrain, like the mech wants to change gear ( SAME NOISE BUT LOUDER).

Last thing i can think of would be the rear wheel has cracked again. It made an horrendous noise last year and found out i has cracked my rim. Just greased the rear skewer and tightened it up in case its that

I would have the rear hub to bits to check each of the bearings. Any that don't feel super smooth are mullered. If it's got a cheapy throwaway freehub body then checking the bolt for that may help.
Just for good measure I'd check the BB bearings are tight and still smooth too.
What wheels and cranks?

hmmm, rear wheel is a few yr old (not that much use though) – it's a cheap campagnolo one (vento ?). Front is a newish ultegra

BB is a xtr octalink, ultegra crankset

ah i thought we'd ruled out bars, if not then thats a pretty solid bet

I couldn't get the bars to creak with bike stationary, don't suppose that's proof they're OK though

Ten whole bob says it's the BB……..probably a tad dry……..

Grease everything, tighten everything

When does it occur:

Pedalling?
Bum on saddle?
Freewheeling? (can't be BB, pedals or cranks)
Bum off saddle? (can't be seatpost/saddle)
Hands off bars? (can't be bars)

What is the frequency of the creak?

About one pedal revolution whatever the gear? (crank/bb/pedal likely)
Speeds up with higher gears (hub/freewheel possibly)
Random?

Freehub body bearing or has it got a replaceable dropout? if so is the bolt tight?

… so what you're all saying is, (as suspected) it could be anything so I have to sort everything 😥

I'm told that carbon "talks" to people while riding…so it might just be natural carbon creak.

If not, be thorough and methodical, check everything that should be is tight and well greased etc. try and notice if there's a pattern in what makes it creak most, might give you more of an idea what it is.

My super light had chronic creaks from the off as I transferred a lot of parts over. The creaks were definitely from different areas.

I found that:
Repacking the creaking pedals with grease, as well as greasing Seat post bolts, stem bolts on steerer and bars all had a very positive effect on the creakings

I then found that I was missing a chain ring bolt which had disappeared some time in the last 12 months and was the cause of the clicking noise on each crank revolution. Sorted that out

Last night the BB which had felt a little rough suddenly went into cracking creaking overdrive. but as it is in an Alu shell in the frame, the noise wasnt amplified up too much. Inspected it later and discovered I have properly killed my first ever BB. Al my others seized eventually with dirt and water but this has turned the ball bearings in the cartridge into a nice grease/metal shards mix and there is very little if any balls left in there. Sweet!

New BB today should mean no more creaks hopefully

Front QR or headset races is my bet.
Problem is that smashing the headset out of the frame is a pretty major job…

Put some coppaslip or anti seize on the headset cups then press them back in (and while you're at it you may as well clean and grease the whole front end, all the bar/stem bolts).
Failing that it's probably the chainring bolts.

Also, check it's not your knees.

when my (aluminium) bike does this, taking the bottom bracket out of the frame, cleaning and regreasing the threads usually sorts it.

Some carbon frames have the tendency to collect water in the BB, which can work its way out the next time you use it. So if its sat still for a period of time maybe its caused the problem??

chainring bolts and pedals tend to make more of a 'clicky' noise.

always worth checking chainring bolts are tight, they make an awful creak when out of the saddle if even a tiny bit loose

crazy-legs – Member

Front QR or headset races is my bet.
Problem is that smashing the headset out of the frame is a pretty major job…

Put some coppaslip or anti seize on the headset cups then press them back in (and while you're at it you may as well clean and grease the whole front end, all the bar/stem bolts).
Failing that it's probably the chainring bolts.

If its a planet-x carbon superlight it will have an integrated headset.

I should also point out I greased up my upper and lower headset "cups" and the crown race when doing my creak chasing at the weekend there and the sounds went away

not sure if the campy rear hub will be put together the same way but I had some creaking issues with a shimano rear wheel, it turned out that the threads on the hollow bolt that holds the freewheel assembly onto the hub body had corroded away – so the freewheel bit eventually just fell off. Must have been the axle deep puddles …. new hub required 🙄

you can eliminate the rear wheel by borrowing one from somebody else 😀

My £0.02 worth – my CF road bike creaks found to date.

Rear QR sl. loose
Stem/bar clamp
Stacks
BB/axle – take out and cleaned and serviced
Pedals – still creak as worn cleats
Worn chain (oops)
Seat clamp 🙂

My Alu superlight creaked like a good-un where the gear outers went into the little adjuster things on the downtube. It was worse out the saddle too.

Have to re-visit this after chasing a creak around someones bike yesterday. I'd literally tried every other bolt in the bike, refitted the BB and headset, checked all the pivot bolts and shock mounts, rebuilt the rear hub, tried another rear wheel.. Cursed and swore at it some more….
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Check the bolt that holds on the rear mech hanger. That's what is creaking. 🙄

try a smear of grease on the inside of the dropouts, you can get a little movement and it creaks- you say tightening the QR quietened it down so I'd try this.
My tail of woe….creaking on bike was discovered when the Ti bolts holding the stem faceplate on sheared and left me dumpped in the road.