Bike recently developed an annoying creaking/clicking noise. Yesterday I finally narrowed it down to my Hope bottom bracket by swapping it out with a old Shimano one I had knocking around. The odd thing is the bearings in the Hope were running smooth with zero play. So I decide to remove and repack with fresh grease. Cleaned it all up – put on new outer seals, then reinstalled it with a small amount of anti seize grease on the threads. Tightened it all up correctly etc. and the creak was still there. Once again removed, and replaced with the Shimano, and the noise disappeared.

What’s going on? Should I replace the bearings? Seems odd as they were running so smoothly.

Thinking about this last night, is it possible the cup threads could be worn? The BB has been on a couple of different bikes and is about 4 years old.

hello,

I feel your pain re your hope bb creaking… mine recently did this I tried everything – even replaced those crap plastic spacers with nice alloy ones before I replaced the drive side bearing – clicking went. Once the bearing was out of its housing/cup I could feel a slight roughness in one spot…

Still it lasted along time for an external bb !

good luck

paul