What is causing my creak?

I have a creaking noise on my gravel bike which I am 95% sure if coming from the BB area – Shimano Road threaded.

So far I have replaced the saddle, Seatpost and this lunchtime the BB and the noise is still there, especially under load.

I doubt it’s the pedals, these have been on the road bike the last two weeks (whilst I waited to fit the new BB to the gravel bike) and have been fine.

Does anyone have any other ideas for things to check? I feels like it’s coming from the non-drive side area, possibly the crank arm but I struggle to see what it could be with the crank arm.

Answers on a postcard please…

Worn chain ring or cleats on shoes?

chainring bolts or spider

pedals

Thanks. Not the shoes as wore them on the road bike and no problem.

Will check chain ring bolts

Noises travel oddly on bikes, I once got to the point of replacing what I assumed was a creaking BB then found it was the rear QR skewer. Obviously the noise was being generated at the rear wheel, but it seemed to come from the crank area, so don’t assume it’s definitely what you think in location terms. I’d suggest some yanking and pushing of various components to see if you can replicate the noise. It could be anything on the bike tbh.

Only happens when I pedal so assumed something drivetrain related but will check the wheels and thruaxles as well

I’ve had suspected BB creaks turn out separately to be a loose rear thru axle and worn pedals. The rear thru axle only creaked under power, and it wasn’t loose just not nipped up tight enough…

Rear axle or rear wheel bearings are worth considering. Re the wheel bearings they can also feel fine under no load when you feel by hand but under load there is an issue. I only say this is worth checking because my, bet my life on it, BB creak was the wheel bearings on one bike and rear axle on another. :)

Good point, I have different wheelset with road tyres on them. Might put them in a see if that makes a difference. Thanks for all the ideas, will go fettle in the garage over the weekend.

I’ve just had a very similar thing – really did sound like the BB or cranks.

Turned out inside the freehub was a rusty mess – only one pawl had movement and was engaging. Cleaned and regreased and all good.

Chainring to crank interface.

Are your spokes poperly tensioned? Rear QR/ axle good and tight? Wheel bearings OK? Freehub bearings running nicely?

@swdan Are you sure you’re not riding with @Mattoutandabout?

I did wonder about that but no sign of him when I turned around

Dropout?

Today’s fettling included regressing and torquing the thru axles, greasing and tightening pedals and tightening chainring bolts and the creak is still there. Hopefully over the weekend I’ll swap wheelsets and see what happens

Get a little spray bottle with water and try part by part to see if you can identify it.

Cassette?

My wife had a similar creak and swapping wheels got rid of it. We took off the cassette and cleaned up all the separate sprockets and no more crack. We assumed it was a bit of dirt that was stopping the cassette from sitting properly on the freehub.

Does it creak when pedalling standing up as well as seated?

Check bolts on stem, might be caused by pressure on the handlebar as you pedal. (This tends to only happen with older bikes)

Replace knees?

Yep, when standing and seated, creak happens on the forward revolution of the cranks, feels more noticeable on the drive side *I think*

@reeksy – sorry, I don’t understand what you mean. What would the water do?

The water temporarily lubricates the offender. If you go through things methodically you can find it.

BTW XD cassette interface can be creaky too.

Some of the harder ones to locate …….I have had this turn out to be seatpost a bit lose…felt pretty stupid?. Also had drive side spokes worn where they cross over had become a bit flattened and then creaked.

Thanks reeksy, will add that to the list of things to try.

Cassette?

Worth checking this, given all the other things you’ve eliminated so far. Could be the cassette onto the freehub or the sprocket-spacer contact areas.

Welded / metal frame? If so another thing to try is some thin oil down the seat tube and into the down tube via cable holes or the head tube-DT breather holes. Unlikely but it can be tube edges shifting in the BB area.

I’ve had a bit of grit in the seat tube on two separate bikes. First one took me a while to locate and solve, second one was within minutes due to the first time it happened :)

Oh and one time I had a Scott Spark that developed an awful creak/cracking noise on the third or so ride.  Stripped it down and found it had been assembled with copious amounts of blue thread locker that had leaked across the pivot bolts.

Was a right laugh cleaning all that off with hot water!

A sort of update. In addition to all the things above I have also tried a third set of wheels and it’s still there. It’s going into Balfes on Saturday for a full strip and rebuild service, hopefully that will sort it. I don’t have the time or more importantly the energy to chase this thing around any longer.

what frame is it ?

what about stem/steerer/contact points between stem and bars ?

It’s a Sonder Camino, aluminium frame. Not suling anything out so could be that I guess. To be honest, it’s time to pass it into a shop to look at, I’ve spent too much time on this already!

So this reminded me to sort my gravel bike creak after doing King Alfred’s Way a few weeks ago, was still creaking after a few of the usual suspects checked on last night’s ride…

Steerer is crack ?

Spesh are going to do a reduced price on a replacement which is nice. Bike is 7 years old and has had a hard paper round!

Have you checked the pedals

@nwgiles yes, i used the pedals on my road bike for my commute as I was midway through working on the gravel bike and they’re fine

Seat. The answer is always seat :-)

It’s the rear mech. Or the mech hanger. Or the freehub body

Saddle has been replaced already

Noises travel oddly on bikes

The only firm rule, is that it won’t be the thing you were absolutely convinced that it was.

Have you been out in the rain much OP? That usually helps with creaks IMO.

Cracked hub body? That’s what it was on one of my bikes when I was adamant it was the BB.

Of cracked frame near the BB? That was on another bike.

The last creak I had was the stem/ steerer interface and down to a star nut that was sitting a very jaunty angle.

Not sure how it got like that, I used the proper tool to fit it (round bit of wood, a long bolt and a hammer) but it was at such angle that it was moving around in the steerer causing the stem to move.

I’ve bought the actual proper tool now…

@lunge, I did start to worry about cracks but I can’t see anything. Need to give it another proper clean before dropping it off at the shop so will inspect it again then