My commuter (CAADX) had a terrible snap and creak that I was so certain was BB related that I popped out the BB30 bearings and squeezed in a new pair with Loctite bushing retainer. The creaking and snapping -- practically as loud as breaking bamboo -- continued, worsened and migrated to the front of the bike and was really bad riding out of the saddle. So, I dropped the fork, greased the exterior of the cartridge bearings, the steerer, stem, handle bars and the compression nut in the steerer. BTW, the steerer was full of water, which was kind of amazing since it had been a long time since I'd ridden in the rain. The front fender was apparently blocking the bottom drain hole. Anyway, problem solved, but I didn't know which fix worked.

My Norco gravel bike was having similar creaking, so I decided to experiment with just putting fiber paste on the steerer (CF) and re-seating the compression nut with some fiber paste -- although I did put some grease on the lower headset bearings because they are open ball-retainer bearings, and what the heck. Problem solved again. My conclusion is that either the stem-steerer interface or the compression nut can make a lot of noise. The CAADX has an aluminum steerer that I had assembled originally with grease, and I'm really thinking the culprit was the compression plug in both bikes.

-- Jay Beattie.