Creaking crank

feelgoodlost

Hello there,

I'm a bit of a noob with all things road bikes. I've been riding a Cannondale Synapse. The bike was bought new and I've been riding it for around 3-4 months. I've noticed a bit of a problem with the crank, in that it just seems to creak really badly when it's been dry for a few days. I've tightened all the bolts/screws etc. as much as I can but it still seems to persist. Only when it rains heavily for a day or two, does it seem to go away.

Like I say, I'm a bit of a noob and don't really know the best way to fix it, apart from taking the whole thing apart.

Surely with the bike being relatively new, I shouldn't be experiencing these problems? It's pretty difficult to prove to the shop when it only happens in certain circumstances. I've had the bike in and out of the shop that many times now that I'm pretty sick of being without my bike for 3-4 days at a time.

Any help/opinions would be most welcome!

Cheers

Wirral_paul

The creak can come from many places in that area - bottom bracket cup, crank to BB, chainring bolt, pedal, pedal cleat.

So many options that when it happens, i tend to just strip the whole lot down and then check, clean and lube everything upon reassembly and hope for the best. Tends to work and a lot faster than trying to locate a mystery creak. If that fails then its time to start looking at worn parts - bearings or cleats are the obvious ones.

However, noting where in the crank rotation the creak happens can help narrow it down a little.

surfgod

Had a similar problem tracking down a creaking noise with a friends pinarello MOST bottom bracket several years ago. The bike had a carbon crank, so it was wrongly assumed this was the source of the problem..The owner of the bike purchased an alloy crankset, all to no avail...It was still creaking like mad upon installation of the alloy crankset... :oops:


When I finally stripped the bottom bracket down, I discovered the source of the noise was a tiny piece of dirt trapped between the bottom bracket axle and the oversize cartrige bearing during installation.

Hope this helps.....SD...

feelgoodlost

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll look into stripping the whole thing down I think. It's got to be better than trying to diagnose each area one at a time!

nevica

I had the same problem. What I did was remove my pedals and I greased the screw threads of the pedals with copper ease. Voila, no more creaking. It could also be your bottom bracket though as well or any other moving part in your crank!! good luck!

topdude

Don't touch anything until you have removed, cleaned, and lubed, the pedals and seatpost / saddle.
I know it sounds unlikely but everything sounds like it's the BB, start with the simple things.

feelgoodlost

topdude wrote:

Don't touch anything until you have removed, cleaned, and lubed, the pedals and seatpost / saddle.
I know it sounds unlikely but everything sounds like it's the BB, start with the simple things.

I know it's not my seatpost because the creaking tends to be worse when I'm out the saddle and putting more pressure on the BB and pedals. I'll definitely start with the pedals though. I know that I definitely didn't lube those when I put them on. Although, the problem was there before I replaced them too.

topdude

I know it's not my seatpost because the creaking tends to be worse when I'm out the saddle and putting more pressure on the BB and pedals

It's not about being on or off the saddle, the frame flexes more when standing and the seatpost moves inside the frame. Do it now and if it does not solve the noise you can say "told you so"

lpretro1

Try also remove handlebar clamp bolts, clean, grease and refit to correct torque

brit66

Had the same. Thought it was a worn our BB.

However, I simply took apart the BB and thoroughly cleaned the old grease and tiny specks of dirt and grit out - problem solved.