Latest BB creaking -- it was the headset.
 

My commuter was a wreck and abandoned after the plague and shift to work-from-home, so I gave it a pannier rack, a new cassette, chain -- and to address the incessant BB creaking (Cannondale CAADX aluminum with BB30), I first tried the rear wheel, cleaning BB faces, greasing QR, etc. That didn't work. Then I removed and reinstalled the pedals with some Teflon tape. That didn't work. Then I removed the crank, got it all cleaned up and reinstalled it with grease on the axle, bearings and pinch bolts. Nope, still had creaking, so I removed the crank and knocked out the 6806 bearings, which spun like a charm and felt great -- so I wasn't going to toss them. I pressed them back in with some Loctite 609, but they didn't get long to dry because I had to go pick up dinner at the food cart. I was kind of sabotaging my work, and indeed, the creaking didn't go away. Meanwhile, shifting was not perfect even with new chain and cassette, so I changed the inner cable, which improved things. Threw on some bar tape and then decided to revise the headset a bit and raise the stem, so I dropped the fork cleaned the bearing cartridges and greased those and added a thin HS spacer to the existing line-up because I don't think I was getting good compression on the retaining cap -- not enough space between the top of the last spacer and steerer. I adjusted the HS, hit the road, and the bottom bracket creaking had disappeared. The bike is super quiet, even with a Thompson Elite post.

The deal is that I could pedal out of the saddle or put my foot on the crank holding the saddle and bars and produce a nice creaking -- but that was also side-loading the front wheel/forks/HS and probably causing the HS to creak -- but it was an unmistakable BB creak. Again, I think that BB creaking can be a lot of things besides the BB.

-- Jay Beattie.

Latest BB creaking -- it was the headset.
 

On 9/20/2020 7:43 PM, jbeattie wrote:
My commuter was a wreck and abandoned after the plague and shift to work-from-home, so I gave it a pannier rack, a new cassette, chain -- and to address the incessant BB creaking (Cannondale CAADX aluminum with BB30), I first tried the rear wheel, cleaning BB faces, greasing QR, etc. That didn't work. Then I removed and reinstalled the pedals with some Teflon tape. That didn't work. Then I removed the crank, got it all cleaned up and reinstalled it with grease on the axle, bearings and pinch bolts. Nope, still had creaking, so I removed the crank and knocked out the 6806 bearings, which spun like a charm and felt great -- so I wasn't going to toss them. I pressed them back in with some Loctite 609, but they didn't get long to dry because I had to go pick up dinner at the food cart. I was kind of sabotaging my work, and indeed, the creaking didn't go away. Meanwhile, shifting was not perfect even with new chain and cassette, so I changed the inner cable, which improved things.
Threw on some bar tape and then decided to revise the headset a bit and raise the stem, so I dropped the fork cleaned the bearing cartridges and greased those and added a thin HS spacer to the existing line-up because I don't think I was getting good compression on the retaining cap -- not enough space between the top of the last spacer and steerer. I adjusted the HS, hit the road, and the bottom bracket creaking had disappeared. The bike is super quiet, even with a Thompson Elite post.

The deal is that I could pedal out of the saddle or put my foot on the crank holding the saddle and bars and produce a nice creaking -- but that was also side-loading the front wheel/forks/HS and probably causing the HS to creak -- but it was an unmistakable BB creak. Again, I think that BB creaking can be a lot of things besides the BB.

-- Jay Beattie.


+1

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

Latest BB creaking -- it was the headset.
 

On 9/20/2020 8:43 PM, jbeattie wrote:

My commuter was a wreck and abandoned after the plague and shift to work-from-home, so I gave it a pannier rack, a new cassette, chain -- and to address the incessant BB creaking (Cannondale CAADX aluminum with BB30), I first tried the rear wheel, cleaning BB faces, greasing QR, etc. That didn't work. Then I removed and reinstalled the pedals with some Teflon tape. That didn't work. Then I removed the crank, got it all cleaned up and reinstalled it with grease on the axle, bearings and pinch bolts. Nope, still had creaking, so I removed the crank and knocked out the 6806 bearings, which spun like a charm and felt great -- so I wasn't going to toss them. I pressed them back in with some Loctite 609, but they didn't get long to dry because I had to go pick up dinner at the food cart. I was kind of sabotaging my work, and indeed, the creaking didn't go away. Meanwhile, shifting was not perfect even with new chain and cassette, so I changed the inner cable, which improved things. Threw on some bar tape and then decided to revise the headset a bit and raise the stem, so I dropped the fork cleaned the bearing cartridges and greased those and added a thin HS spacer to the existing line-up because I don't think I was getting good compression on the retaining cap -- not enough space between the top of the last spacer and steerer. I adjusted the HS, hit the road, and the bottom bracket creaking had disappeared. The bike is super quiet, even with a Thompson Elite post.

The deal is that I could pedal out of the saddle or put my foot on the crank holding the saddle and bars and produce a nice creaking -- but that was also side-loading the front wheel/forks/HS and probably causing the HS to creak -- but it was an unmistakable BB creak. Again, I think that BB creaking can be a lot of things besides the BB.


Agreed. I remember a time my "bottom bracket creak" was found to come
from my saddle.


--
- Frank Krygowski

Latest BB creaking -- it was the headset.
 

On Sunday, September 20, 2020 at 5:43:07 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote:
My commuter was a wreck and abandoned after the plague and shift to work-from-home, so I gave it a pannier rack, a new cassette, chain -- and to address the incessant BB creaking (Cannondale CAADX aluminum with BB30), I first tried the rear wheel, cleaning BB faces, greasing QR, etc. That didn't work. Then I removed and reinstalled the pedals with some Teflon tape. That didn't work. Then I removed the crank, got it all cleaned up and reinstalled it with grease on the axle, bearings and pinch bolts. Nope, still had creaking, so I removed the crank and knocked out the 6806 bearings, which spun like a charm and felt great -- so I wasn't going to toss them. I pressed them back in with some Loctite 609, but they didn't get long to dry because I had to go pick up dinner at the food cart. I was kind of sabotaging my work, and indeed, the creaking didn't go away. Meanwhile, shifting was not perfect even with new chain and cassette, so I changed the inner cable, which improved things. Threw on some bar tape and then decided to revise the headset a bit and raise the stem, so I dropped the fork cleaned the bearing cartridges and greased those and added a thin HS spacer to the existing line-up because I don't think I was getting good compression on the retaining cap -- not enough space between the top of the last spacer and steerer. I adjusted the HS, hit the road, and the bottom bracket creaking had disappeared.. The bike is super quiet, even with a Thompson Elite post.

The deal is that I could pedal out of the saddle or put my foot on the crank holding the saddle and bars and produce a nice creaking -- but that was also side-loading the front wheel/forks/HS and probably causing the HS to creak -- but it was an unmistakable BB creak. Again, I think that BB creaking can be a lot of things besides the BB.

-- Jay Beattie.
In one spot in the crank revolution on the Madone when pedaling hard it will "CLICK". I would think that if it were the BB that it would click all of the time at that spot. With your posting I might try cleaning and tightening the headset again.

Latest BB creaking -- it was the headset.
 

On Monday, September 21, 2020 at 7:59:53 AM UTC-7, Tom Kunich wrote:
On Sunday, September 20, 2020 at 5:43:07 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote:
My commuter was a wreck and abandoned after the plague and shift to work-from-home, so I gave it a pannier rack, a new cassette, chain -- and to address the incessant BB creaking (Cannondale CAADX aluminum with BB30), I first tried the rear wheel, cleaning BB faces, greasing QR, etc. That didn't work. Then I removed and reinstalled the pedals with some Teflon tape. That didn't work. Then I removed the crank, got it all cleaned up and reinstalled it with grease on the axle, bearings and pinch bolts. Nope, still had creaking, so I removed the crank and knocked out the 6806 bearings, which spun like a charm and felt great -- so I wasn't going to toss them. I pressed them back in with some Loctite 609, but they didn't get long to dry because I had to go pick up dinner at the food cart. I was kind of sabotaging my work, and indeed, the creaking didn't go away. Meanwhile, shifting was not perfect even with new chain and cassette, so I changed the inner cable, which improved things. Threw on some bar tape and then decided to revise the headset a bit and raise the stem, so I dropped the fork cleaned the bearing cartridges and greased those and added a thin HS spacer to the existing line-up because I don't think I was getting good compression on the retaining cap -- not enough space between the top of the last spacer and steerer. I adjusted the HS, hit the road, and the bottom bracket creaking had disappeared. The bike is super quiet, even with a Thompson Elite post.

The deal is that I could pedal out of the saddle or put my foot on the crank holding the saddle and bars and produce a nice creaking -- but that was also side-loading the front wheel/forks/HS and probably causing the HS to creak -- but it was an unmistakable BB creak. Again, I think that BB creaking can be a lot of things besides the BB.

-- Jay Beattie.
In one spot in the crank revolution on the Madone when pedaling hard it will "CLICK". I would think that if it were the BB that it would click all of the time at that spot. With your posting I might try cleaning and tightening the headset again.

You may in fact have a bearing issue, but it never hurts to clean and lube the headset. Like Frank said, seat posts are great resonators, too -- but if you're getting clicking out of the saddle, that's unlikely.

IME, the most common cause of clicking and creaking is the rear dropout/axle on a QR bike. The clicks I couldn't solve turned out to be broken metal frames.

-- Jay Beattie.

Latest BB creaking -- it was the headset.
 

On 9/21/2020 8:30 AM, jbeattie wrote:

On Monday, September 21, 2020 at 7:59:53 AM UTC-7, Tom Kunich wrote:

On Sunday, September 20, 2020 at 5:43:07 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote:

My commuter was a wreck and abandoned after the plague and shift to work-from-home, so I gave it a pannier rack, a new cassette, chain -- and to address the incessant BB creaking (Cannondale CAADX aluminum with BB30), I first tried the rear wheel, cleaning BB faces, greasing QR, etc. That didn't work. Then I removed and reinstalled the pedals with some Teflon tape. That didn't work. Then I removed the crank, got it all cleaned up and reinstalled it with grease on the axle, bearings and pinch bolts. Nope, still had creaking, so I removed the crank and knocked out the 6806 bearings, which spun like a charm and felt great -- so I wasn't going to toss them. I pressed them back in with some Loctite 609, but they didn't get long to dry because I had to go pick up dinner at the food cart. I was kind of sabotaging my work, and indeed, the creaking didn't go away. Meanwhile, shifting was not perfect even with new chain and cassette, so I changed the inner cable, which improved things. Threw on some bar tape and then decided to revise the headset a bit and raise the stem, so I dropped the fork cleaned the bearing cartridges and greased those and added a thin HS spacer to the existing line-up because I don't think I was getting good compression on the retaining cap -- not enough space between the top of the last spacer and steerer. I adjusted the HS, hit the road, and the bottom bracket creaking had disappeared. The bike is super quiet, even with a Thompson Elite post.

The deal is that I could pedal out of the saddle or put my foot on the crank holding the saddle and bars and produce a nice creaking -- but that was also side-loading the front wheel/forks/HS and probably causing the HS to creak -- but it was an unmistakable BB creak. Again, I think that BB creaking can be a lot of things besides the BB.

-- Jay Beattie.

In one spot in the crank revolution on the Madone when pedaling hard it will "CLICK". I would think that if it were the BB that it would click all of the time at that spot. With your posting I might try cleaning and tightening the headset again.


You may in fact have a bearing issue, but it never hurts to clean and lube the headset. Like Frank said, seat posts are great resonators, too -- but if you're getting clicking out of the saddle, that's unlikely.

IME, the most common cause of clicking and creaking is the rear dropout/axle on a QR bike. The clicks I couldn't solve turned out to be broken metal frames.

-- Jay Beattie.


Thanks for the object lesson.

BTW, how exactly does one treat the rear dropout/axle creak? Just
grease the dropout faces and/or locknut faces? Friend just told me
about a mystery creak he had.

Mark J.

Latest BB creaking -- it was the headset.
 

On Monday, September 21, 2020 at 9:35:16 AM UTC-7, Mark J. wrote:
On 9/21/2020 8:30 AM, jbeattie wrote:
On Monday, September 21, 2020 at 7:59:53 AM UTC-7, Tom Kunich wrote:
On Sunday, September 20, 2020 at 5:43:07 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote:
My commuter was a wreck and abandoned after the plague and shift to work-from-home, so I gave it a pannier rack, a new cassette, chain -- and to address the incessant BB creaking (Cannondale CAADX aluminum with BB30), I first tried the rear wheel, cleaning BB faces, greasing QR, etc. That didn't work. Then I removed and reinstalled the pedals with some Teflon tape. That didn't work. Then I removed the crank, got it all cleaned up and reinstalled it with grease on the axle, bearings and pinch bolts. Nope, still had creaking, so I removed the crank and knocked out the 6806 bearings, which spun like a charm and felt great -- so I wasn't going to toss them. I pressed them back in with some Loctite 609, but they didn't get long to dry because I had to go pick up dinner at the food cart. I was kind of sabotaging my work, and indeed, the creaking didn't go away. Meanwhile, shifting was not perfect even with new chain and cassette, so I changed the inner cable, which improved things. Threw on some bar tape and then decided to revise the headset a bit and raise the stem, so I dropped the fork cleaned the bearing cartridges and greased those and added a thin HS spacer to the existing line-up because I don't think I was getting good compression on the retaining cap -- not enough space between the top of the last spacer and steerer. I adjusted the HS, hit the road, and the bottom bracket creaking had disappeared. The bike is super quiet, even with a Thompson Elite post.

The deal is that I could pedal out of the saddle or put my foot on the crank holding the saddle and bars and produce a nice creaking -- but that was also side-loading the front wheel/forks/HS and probably causing the HS to creak -- but it was an unmistakable BB creak. Again, I think that BB creaking can be a lot of things besides the BB.

-- Jay Beattie.
In one spot in the crank revolution on the Madone when pedaling hard it will "CLICK". I would think that if it were the BB that it would click all of the time at that spot. With your posting I might try cleaning and tightening the headset again.

You may in fact have a bearing issue, but it never hurts to clean and lube the headset. Like Frank said, seat posts are great resonators, too -- but if you're getting clicking out of the saddle, that's unlikely.

IME, the most common cause of clicking and creaking is the rear dropout/axle on a QR bike. The clicks I couldn't solve turned out to be broken metal frames.

-- Jay Beattie.

Thanks for the object lesson.

BTW, how exactly does one treat the rear dropout/axle creak? Just
grease the dropout faces and/or locknut faces? Friend just told me
about a mystery creak he had.

Mark J.

Usually solved with straightening the wheel and tightening the QR. I've used a little grease, but I'm not so sure that is a joint you want to grease. I do grease the QR skewer and cam to the extent possible.

-- Jay Beattie.

Latest BB creaking -- it was the headset.
 

Op maandag 21 september 2020 om 02:43:07 UTC+2 schreef jbeattie:
My commuter was a wreck and abandoned after the plague and shift to work-from-home, so I gave it a pannier rack, a new cassette, chain -- and to address the incessant BB creaking (Cannondale CAADX aluminum with BB30), I first tried the rear wheel, cleaning BB faces, greasing QR, etc. That didn't work. Then I removed and reinstalled the pedals with some Teflon tape. That didn't work. Then I removed the crank, got it all cleaned up and reinstalled it with grease on the axle, bearings and pinch bolts. Nope, still had creaking, so I removed the crank and knocked out the 6806 bearings, which spun like a charm and felt great -- so I wasn't going to toss them. I pressed them back in with some Loctite 609, but they didn't get long to dry because I had to go pick up dinner at the food cart. I was kind of sabotaging my work, and indeed, the creaking didn't go away. Meanwhile, shifting was not perfect even with new chain and cassette, so I changed the inner cable, which improved things. Threw on some bar tape and then decided to revise the headset a bit and raise the stem, so I dropped the fork cleaned the bearing cartridges and greased those and added a thin HS spacer to the existing line-up because I don't think I was getting good compression on the retaining cap -- not enough space between the top of the last spacer and steerer. I adjusted the HS, hit the road, and the bottom bracket creaking had disappeared.. The bike is super quiet, even with a Thompson Elite post.

The deal is that I could pedal out of the saddle or put my foot on the crank holding the saddle and bars and produce a nice creaking -- but that was also side-loading the front wheel/forks/HS and probably causing the HS to creak -- but it was an unmistakable BB creak. Again, I think that BB creaking can be a lot of things besides the BB.

-- Jay Beattie.


Most people blame their BB of the creak. Most of the times it is unjustified. My first suspect is saddle and seatpost.

Lou

Latest BB creaking -- it was the headset.
 

On 21/09/2020 19.02, Lou Holtman wrote:

snip

Most people blame their BB of the creak. Most of the times it is
unjustified. My first suspect is saddle and seatpost.

It's because you hear it when you put the torque on, and associate with
the pedals/crank/BB area.

Ime, I no longer have a first suspect. On the stand and tighten
every...single...nut and bolt. *Then* start looking for the little sod
if it hasn't gone away. It saves so many dead ends. Ok, you don't get
the same smug satisfaction of identifying the perp, but if it's gone,
it's gone.

I have an intermittent one at the moment. I see a full bike disassembly
on the horizon :-(

Latest BB creaking -- it was the headset.
 

On 9/21/2020 11:35 AM, Mark J. wrote:
On 9/21/2020 8:30 AM, jbeattie wrote:
On Monday, September 21, 2020 at 7:59:53 AM UTC-7, Tom
Kunich wrote:
On Sunday, September 20, 2020 at 5:43:07 PM UTC-7,
jbeattie wrote:
My commuter was a wreck and abandoned after the plague
and shift to work-from-home, so I gave it a pannier
rack, a new cassette, chain -- and to address the
incessant BB creaking (Cannondale CAADX aluminum with
BB30), I first tried the rear wheel, cleaning BB faces,
greasing QR, etc. That didn't work. Then I removed and
reinstalled the pedals with some Teflon tape. That
didn't work. Then I removed the crank, got it all
cleaned up and reinstalled it with grease on the axle,
bearings and pinch bolts. Nope, still had creaking, so I
removed the crank and knocked out the 6806 bearings,
which spun like a charm and felt great -- so I wasn't
going to toss them. I pressed them back in with some
Loctite 609, but they didn't get long to dry because I
had to go pick up dinner at the food cart. I was kind of
sabotaging my work, and indeed, the creaking didn't go
away. Meanwhile, shifting was not perfect even with new
chain and cassette, so I changed the inner cable, which
improved things. Threw on some bar tape and then decided
to revise the headset a bit and raise the stem, so I
dropped the fork cleaned the bearing cartridges and
greased those and added a thin HS spacer to the existing
line-up because I don't think I was getting good
compression on the retaining cap -- not enough space
between the top of the last spacer and steerer. I
adjusted the HS, hit the road, and the bottom bracket
creaking had disappeared. The bike is super quiet, even
with a Thompson Elite post.

The deal is that I could pedal out of the saddle or put
my foot on the crank holding the saddle and bars and
produce a nice creaking -- but that was also
side-loading the front wheel/forks/HS and probably
causing the HS to creak -- but it was an unmistakable BB
creak. Again, I think that BB creaking can be a lot of
things besides the BB.

-- Jay Beattie.
In one spot in the crank revolution on the Madone when
pedaling hard it will "CLICK". I would think that if it
were the BB that it would click all of the time at that
spot. With your posting I might try cleaning and
tightening the headset again.

You may in fact have a bearing issue, but it never hurts
to clean and lube the headset. Like Frank said, seat posts
are great resonators, too -- but if you're getting
clicking out of the saddle, that's unlikely.

IME, the most common cause of clicking and creaking is the
rear dropout/axle on a QR bike. The clicks I couldn't
solve turned out to be broken metal frames.

-- Jay Beattie.

Thanks for the object lesson.

BTW, how exactly does one treat the rear dropout/axle
creak? Just grease the dropout faces and/or locknut faces?
Friend just told me about a mystery creak he had.

Mark J.

Lubricate the cam of your skewer. You can feel that
difference immediately.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971