This is causing me much pain and distress!

My commuter bike recently (post HONC) developed a squeak that appeared to be the left hand crank (old sq taper job). After servicing the pedals and removing, cleaning and retorquing the LH crank the creak persisted, so I bit the bullet and replaced the whole lot with a nice fsa gossamer external bb chainset. For the 1st couple of rides it was quiet and sweet – however this morning the damned creak returned! 👿

I've checked the BB shell and can't see any cracks, it's not the saddle / seatpost as it creaks when standing, chainrings are on tight, the cranks are tight and the bb is good.

I've noticed that the RH dropout is a wee bit big, i.e. the axle can shift a bit during a ride, could this be the problem?

cleats?

good thought, i'll try some different shoes, thanks

I had something similar a couple of times – first time it was the bars, put some grease on the bars, stem etc. and that fixed it, second mystery noise, I took out the BB, greased the threads excessively and put it back in and it stopped.

Oh and my pedals go creaky every so often, particularly after wet rides – just bunging some oil/grease on the clippy in bit fixes it (not opening them up and servicing the bearings – just the clipless bit).

Joe

[SwissTony]

Riding a road bike is like making love to a beautful woman….

…first cover liberally in lube.

[/SwissTony]

Oh yeah, one last annoying 'noise coming from the bottom bracket when I pedalled hard' – loose spoke on the back wheel. I tightened every bloody other thing before I worked that one out. From the saddle it always sounded like it was coming from the bb, and annoyingly, it only made a noise when I was standing on the bike pedalling, never when off the bike.

Joe

sounds like I'm going to have to get my detective hat on!