Creak when powering down.

dazzawazza

My Giant Escape M2 has developed an intermittent creak when powering down on the pedals. It occurs on either pedal and in any gear. I have checked the bike for anything loose and have tried to replicate the creak when off the bike, but of course it won’t.
About 600 miles ago I replaced the chain, chainset & cranks and cassette. The pedals are about 800 miles old.
The rear hub and bottom bracket have never been changed and I think the bike's travelled 6000-7000 miles since I purchased it new in May 2006.
Any ideas what could be causing it? Thanks

rich r

I had similar issues on one of my bikes, after much research turned out to be the crank bolts. I didn't realise they need to be really really tight - 8mm allen key with a large lever bar on the end sorted it out no problem...

dazzawazza

Last night I did tighten the crank bolts, but I do remember applying grease to the axle when I installed the new cranks. Was that a mistake?
Also, thinking about it, I never checked the tightness of the seat bolt. I'll tighten that before heading home from work.
Can the bottom bracket or rear free-hub creak?

I like to keep my bikes in perfect working order, it's amazing how a sound can put me off completely.

oldwelshman

Ihad similar and had to tighten the bottom bracket cups.

Hudster

What sort of BB is it? If it's a square taper, then that should be dry and clean when installing the crank. If it's splined, then there should be some grease on it I believe.

Could be worth taking the cranks off and making it's all clean around there as a bit of dirt often causes a creek noise.

andylav

Another possible source is between the front wheel axle and the fork dropouts - can sound like it comes from the bottom bracket but obviously completely unrelated and remedied by a smear of grease on the inside of each fork leg.

Took weeks to figure that one out after stripping every aspect of the drivetrain, only for a club mate to casually suggest the front wheel as a source. Thought he was bonkers but tried it and he was right !

oldwelshman

andylav wrote:

Another possible source is between the front wheel axle and the fork dropouts - can sound like it comes from the bottom bracket but obviously completely unrelated and remedied by a smear of grease on the inside of each fork leg.

Took weeks to figure that one out after stripping every aspect of the drivetrain, only for a club mate to casually suggest the front wheel as a source. Thought he was bonkers but tried it and he was right !

I also had this I noticed the creak dissapeared when turning the handlebars whn fron bike was in stand. When riding I got a creek, It was the fron QR on the front wheel too tight.