Very creaky (sounds like a break) on an orange 5

I was out for a very easy ride with the better half yesterday and could hear a very noticeable clunky creak from my bike.

It always makes the occasional noise (I’m told this is a design feature of the five) but this sounded like metal twisting or a ceased bearing.

It was common but intermittent, creaking for maybe a minute then silent (as it gets) for maybe five or ten minutes, creak, quiet etc. and pretty much regardless of surface be it smooth fresh tarmac or bumpy farm track it was the same.

I’m fairly confident it’s not the BB – both feet off pedals and the noise persisted.
Equally stand on the pedals out of the saddle and it persisted so thinking is not saddle rails or seat post.

I looked over the bearings when I got home, all looked ok as best I can tell, no obvious play or slop.

So I guess what I’m asking is has anyone broken a five frame? Any ideas where I should look for cracks or bits that are prone to being creaky? How easy/difficult is it to remove the bearings to check them over?

Cheers

rear maxle or qr would be my guess.

Mech hanger?

Hmm. I’ll give both of those a good look over at lunch.

Ta

i’ve found that if the hope skewer on the rear of my bike isn’t cranked down real tight (about 4 threads showing) i get a creak under load.

have good look at the actual bearing, i had a very annoying creak once which was a cracked bearing, don’t know how i did it, but it was almost invisible to the eye

2nd for greasing the much hanger, my Heckler had something similar that turned out to be that.

Why has no one suggested it could be coming from the drawer runners or the lock yet? 🙂

shock bushings

or your knees

As above if the bearings are starting to break up they make a creaking noise

My friends bike is doing the same thing on his 5. He’s replaced everything. Only thing left now is a crack, the free hub or the cassette it’s self.

https://www.orangebikes.co.uk/shop/components/pivot_bearing_kits

https://www.orangebikes.co.uk/shop/components/bolts_n_stuff/shock-mount-bolts

What era 5 is it? Shock mounts were a spot prone to cracking IIRC, but it’s way more likely to be one of the other causes mentioned above. My ancient 5 used to creak from the hanger & amplified through the boxy frame and it sounded terrible 🙂

Mine creaks like mad currently when pedaling. Pretty sure its the pedals or the BB. Its in with the LBS as i cannot be arsed to lose sleep over it! Creaks are the worse thing known to man!

My old one creaked, a little grease on the QR cured that problem. Less likely, but weren’t the swingarm bearing pinch bolts a problem area for cracking at one point? Give that area a good check over if the easier creak solutions don’t work.

What groupset are you running?

It’s a 2015 alpine 5 so no pinch bolts or qr (maxle maybe at fault though).

In honesty I could ignore it if it didn’t sound like something is going to break at the worst possible moment and dump me down the side of a mountain. a curb in front of a bunch of school kids.

X0 10 speed group.

Not thinking its a likely suspect though as I’d expect a clatter from the mech or it to stop when not under pedaling load.

Check the rear mech, could well be the clutch if its a type 2 or 2.1 they are creaky

If you’ve put the maxle in ‘dry’ then it’ll be that. Remove maxle, liberal application of grease and pop it back in. 😆

Cheers for the pointers. Had another look at the bearings, no sign of failure but hard to be sure short of drifting them out.

Maxle greased and tightened. Mech cleaned and all checked. Fingers crossed.

Following the ride home I’m not sure it isn’t my rear hub getting ready to die thought that may be wishful thinking since I’m looking for an excuse to get a new one.

My Alpine 160 had an annoying creak. I stripped and checked or replaced pretty much everything only to find it was the pivot bearings. Luckily they’re cheap to buy and dead easy to fit using nothing more advanced than a hammer and block of wood (see Orange website for guide)

+1 for the q/r. Grease it and really tighten it.

Hmm. None of the greasing or cleaning helped so next port of call is the wheel.
Having looked at that, some of the spokes are a bit below what I’d think of as suitable tension so hopefully it’s just those pinging and twanging and the swing arm is acting as a sound box.

After that I guess it’s swing arm off and inspect and replace the bearings.

Mine was the QR too! recheck for dirt on the inside of the hangers .

Well it looks like it may well be the rear wheel. Swapped my spare in and is very quiet on the short spin round the village.

One of the bearings in the hub shell broke up as I pulled the axle out to investigate so I’m blaming that for now…

Cheers for all the pointers.