[Closed] Diagnose my creaky piece of shit bike!!!

Stem bolts?

sorry yep - done that - regreased them!

Erm Push fit BB not quite in right? Not sure what BB standard a Bronson uses.

nope - its a thread BB - ive got a DUB sram one, and although its 9 months old, it still spins smooth and no notchiness and Ive that out and regreased the threads and torqued back up

Knees?

The Bronson is definitely not a shit bike.

Strange - but new wheelsets can make such a strange noise. When it's the wheelsets it's normal and will go away after 2 weeks of biking...

should have been more clear - the wheelset is older than the frame - wheelset was a brand new build dt swiss 240s in September 2018 - so 6 months old

Running out of options but maybe fork steerer csu.

Try leaning it while stationary and applying pressure to different parts of the bike, it'll help isolate where the creak is. Maybe

FWIW my money would be on the pivots.

Take headset apart and clean the bearings and frame up. Grease the outside of the bearings and put it back together. Could be the outside of the bearing rubbing in the frame. I have had this and it drove me mad for ages with the creak, headset was running smooth as well so I ruled it out at first. Turns out it was that all along.

When I’ve experienced similar sounds under similar conditions it ended up coming from the front end. Both times stripping the headset and stem / fork & stem / bar interfaces and cleaning thoroughly / re-greasing worked. A Renthal duo stem I think was the main culprit.

Fork CSU can give some horrible creaks that seems to resonate through the bike. I've also had a rear hub axle create a very annoying and hard to locate creak. If you're going to swap the fork maybe worth also trying different wheels.

Have you checked the bars and stem? A little grip paste on the surfaces can help stop creaks and movement

Dave, if you look on the mtbr forum I’m sure a few people were having issues with the lower shock mount creaking.

My guess is on pivot bearings, especially as it's doing it on the flat when leant over.

Could be CSU but should be possible to diagnose with a front brake on test?

My bike did the same until i replaced the pivot bearings and then it was silent. They span fine, I think they were just dry.

maybe a creaky rider - are your knees fine?

spray areas of the bike (one at a time) with bike spray then see f it goes away.

Last time I had a bad creak/crack/click noise it FINALY turned out to be the freehub pawls not engaging properly. After cleaning and greasing the badly sealed superstar hub the noise went away. Of course the frustrating thing about this sort of thing is it could be anything....but at least its another thing to try.

some good thoughts thanks

so to answer some of the above -

csu Im starting to wonder it could be that resonating through the bike - but im borrowing a set so I can soon rule that out or not

for bike being stationary I have tried and tried and tried to replicate it and it just wont make a sound at all, nothing, cranking it sideways, bouncing it, stamping hard on the pedals stationary doesn't recreate it, so to summise, its silent stationary

Ive had the pivots out, upper ones fine, and lower ones aren't the smoothest (like new) but still spin ok, regularly regreased using the grease port and purging it out which works as i see the old coming out... done this from new with grease gun etc

jsync - i was one of them guys on mtbr - i did have that problem from new , but that was a loud crack noise stationary, since fine since then, its not the same noise, that was a horrific one off crack noise

ndthornton - yep ive had the freehub off, its not got pawls as its a dt swiss so has a ratchet, but checked and all good

my stem is a renthal apex (the gold black one) ive regreased the stem bolts, but not done the stem face bolts, so I guess as a precaution I will try that also - though im doubtful its that tbh

My guess is on pivot bearings, especially as it’s doing it on the flat when leant over.

Hi Mate
I'd go with the above too. As you know SC bearings are free so nothing to loose. Even using the grease port one of mine (Nomad) wasn't greased up properly when I swapped them the other day. If they are the same bearings as the V2 Bronson, I've got the tools if you want to do it yourself? Its easy enough to do, worst bit is cleaning all the old grease up

hey bud - nice one - ill get some bearings ordered then, nowt to lose - it is weird that its louder/more creaks and clicks when its leaned over either side, at first I thought I thought it was just on steep climbs like upto charity - but since ive realised I can do it as long as im on the bike on the pedals on any flat ground with hardly any movement on the pedals but going from side to side....weird one, as I cannot for the life of me reproduce it when it stationary - even when im trying to throw it left to right...annoying as ****!

cheers for offer of tools to bud, I think they will be same bearings, but will let you know 🙂

front wheel out. bile upside down. stand on the bars and wrenvj the forks about.
CSU TEST from someone on here years ago. sorted me out!

yep I think that was probably me who started that thread 😉 haha!

I cannot replicate it that way by doing that, but my mates kindly lending me some forks to just test rather than sending the whole fork in first, its a quick sure fire way to see if its them

my stem is a renthal apex (the gold black one) ive regreased the stem bolts, but not done the stem face bolts, so I guess as a precaution I will try that also – though im doubtful its that tbh

Not just the stem bolts, bar/stem stem/steerer interfaces given a good clean so no trapped grit. Same with headset races / interface.

May be different for you, but happened twice for me giving a clicky sort of sound and this sorted it. Pressuring the bars side to side when cranking up a steep hill was when the sound was most noticeable.

Good luck!

chainring bolts ?  or driect mount chainring creakyness?

thanks razorrazoo - I have done the stem bolts, but will clean and take of stem face - everything below that has had a full on clean and grease (full headset etc)

howsyourdad1 - yep as further up, 3 chainring bolts for a eagle chainring, nice and tight, and greased ( Ive had this happen before where one was loose, and it creaked like mad! but not that sadly this time 🙁

If all the above fails I’d check headset again. I’ve had a few creaks(bb type) and been driven nuts. Turned out on occasion it was bearings flexing in cups in frame. Light grease on bearing surface and cup solved the click/creak.

I've narrowed a creak down to the rivets in a Sunrace cassette on my current bike.

cheers plus one - I have given the headset a thorough clean and shit loads of grease just last night - still there - but will be going over everything again soon I think!

got annoying creaky with my 5010 like your's. So it was the bearing/axle - so when you said:

pivots all cleaned, greased and torqued back up

Did you grease the axle and applied loctite to the end bit? That was the culprit in my case.

How does the cabling work? One of my bikes creaks a lot when it's been wet & muddy, or newly washed. Turns out to be where the outers slots into the cable stops at the top of the downtube, bit of oil in any of the stops can quieten things down.

Well, I have had exactly the same issue on my Transition Suppressor. I have not gone to the trouble you have of sorting it out, but (a) you will find it one day, so keep the faith and (b) you definitely don't have a rubbish bike.

Mine makes a click click sound, which to me sounded like it came from the BB. I spoke to the LBS store who had a quick look; they thought it may be the frame pivot bolts (the bike shop co-owner used to have a Transition).

Let me know if/when you solve the issue OP.

The bearings can also creak in their seats

Gilles - yep regreased the axle... Don't bother with loctite... I've had lots of SC's so got the routine down to a tea... With these axles they are 20nm on the newest ones so you don't have to keep adjusting them like that of the older versions... Once these are tightened they stay in place...

Hardtailonly - full internal routing is great no rattle or nothing I really can't see it being that tbh its the same now as when I had it and it was quiet then

Gribble - will do... I'm pretty good at tracking down creaks and clicks as I love my bike to be silent.. I cannot stand creaks and clicks so always get there in the end... But this has got me stumped as the usual suspects even the lesser ones are proving to be no use at the mo... But will stick at it.. I've got a set of forks to try to rule that out which is a big one... And if my wheel true doesn't work i ll hopefully be able to borrow a 650b wheel just to test it round the back to rule that out

And gribble it's probably a click click click creak creak creak type noise on mine

wheel spokes?

Wife's bike did something similar, wheels just needed a re-tension.

Baldie - that's the current step sending in shop for a wheel true as it' is out of true and does make a weird twangy type noise occasionally so fingers crossed its that... Which I guess could make sense when I'm away the bike side to side it creates more creaks and clicks

Seatpost lubed in frame?

its not but id struggle see it being that given its out of the saddle - but again worth a check so will add it to the list 🙂

Have you tried taking the chain off and recreating it?
Could discount the chain, mech & chainring that way.. though it could still be the BB.

not a bad idea that cokie - mentally noted - least it will remove them as a definite (tho ive tried a new chain and chainring, but still be interesting to see if it does make a noise with out it all on) but mech it would obviously remove for definite which is a great idea

im getting a new bb so I will soon be able to rule that out too