Creaking BB

Hopefully a simple question, but I’m not used to the “internal” style BB (square taper), as fitted to my Mrs’ Orange 5.

It’s started creaking noisily – is this a sign that it’s worn, or is it just a case of remove, grease the outside, and replace at the correct torque?

Cheers for any advice.

could be the first, but it’s worth trying the second to see what happens

just give it a good clean/degrease – then regrease and tighten it up nicely.

its surprising what a good clean can fix on a bike.

although if its still creaking after that – then its fecked! 😀

If its a square tapered BB. Its probably the crank arma loose on the taper. Take the cranks off and clean the tapers. Whether you grease or not grease the tapers when you refit the cranks is still a matter of debate. Its probably not the BB as they seem to last for ages.

Make sure the shoulder of the crank bolt is bottoming on the crank & not the BB axle – if it is bottoming on the axle then your cranks need replacing.

whats the debate about greasing the tapers?

Greasing square taper axles can allow you to push the cranks onto the axle further than their meant to be more easily, thereby enlarging the hole in the crank and eventually leading to a sloppy (and wrecked) crank. Grease obviously stops creaking however.

Its still possible to overtighten cranks without grease on the tapers though.

Thanks everyone, that’s all really helpful.

I’ll have a crack this weekend and see where it goes.