Creaking Bike

dizarch

My Giant Defy has developed an incredibly irritating creak when I put forward pressure on the pedals especially going uphill. It's fine when freewheeling or when pulling/scraping the pedals backwards. it sounds like it is coming from either the pedals, the bottom bracket or possibly the seat stem but this is the least likely source.

Any ideas, it's well lubed?

qube

Loose cranks are a good place to start.

Make sure they are tightened to spec.

thegreatdivide

Is the rear skewer in place properly and tight as can be? My bike developed a creaking that got steadily worse when going uphill, or riding out the saddle with the bike rocking from side to side - turned out I’d forgotten to properly tighten the rear skewer after changing the cassette.

Padeye

As above check cranks and skewer, also check your pedals are tightened properly.

I have a 2013 defy composite, and had the kind of creaking you described. None of the above checks eliminated it. It turned out to be one or two loose spokes in the rear wheel. If you have the stock Giant wheels on your bike, might be worth checking. I checked all the spokes by 'pinging' them, and tightened up the dead sounding ones.

That was about 2,000 miles ago, haven't had a problem since.

Bozman

I had a similar noise this year, I was getting a creak when the crank was under load and the problem lay either with the headset or steerer bung, both were cleaned and reinstalled and the noise disappeared.
I'd previously stripped the crank, BB, swapped the pedals, checked the skewers, swapped the wheels and then someone suggested the head tube area......bingo.

thegreatdivide

Forgot about the headtube/set area. Had a similar noise a few years back - turned out I'd washed the grease away on the drop-in headset. Re greased and hey presto - creak gone.

dizarch

Thanks everybody, I'll have a go at it tonight

dizarch

And the winner is.......

thegreatdivide wrote:

Forgot about the headtube/set area. Had a similar noise a few years back - turned out I'd washed the grease away on the drop-in headset. Re greased and hey presto - creak gone.

Which was the first thing I tried because it seemed like the easiest:-)

Thanks folks, only my knees creaking now.

timmys7

I have had the same problem on my colnago, turned out it was the cleats, someone on here said to put furniture polish on the cleats, it's worked a treat!!

sloppyschleckonds

How much do you whey?

letap73

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

How much do you whey?

How do you relate protein intake to a creaking bike?

peat

My regular clicking/creaking fix is to undo the pedals, clean the threads and apply a small dab of copper-slip. 9/10 times that is the source of the noise.

Capt.Ramjet

My defy had an annoying creak on applying power to the pedals. After a long process I figured out it was the rear mech hanger. A couple of drops of lube between the frame and the hanger fixed the noise.

stueyboy

My defy aero seatpost is usually the culprit for this sort of creak. The clamp fitted to the post is rubbish and loosens off over time