Cycling Equipment · Public discussion

Incessant creaking in BB?

Started by Jack · · Last activity · 3 posts · 387 views

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Cycling Equipment
Published
9 May 2006
Last activity
9 May 2006
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Jack
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  1. Hello.

    Crashed a few weeks ago and slightly bent my big chainring so it
    slightly grazed the chainstay every rotation - because the bike is a
    bit of a mishmash (old school custom steel cyclocrosser with
    stronglight crankset), the clearance was only a couple of mm pre-crash.
    Anyway, took it apart and just moved the whole BB right ie. gave the
    ring a little more space to turn. Everything was fine until a few days
    ago where the BB started creaking, especially under pressure on going
    up hills and in high-tension gear ratios. VERY annoying.

    Did I overtighten/undertighten the BB cups? Or is it something to do
    with the cranks? Anyhelp would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks,

    Jack.

  2. Per Jack:

    Quoted message said:

    Everything was fine until a few days
    ago where the BB started creaking, especially under pressure on going
    up hills and in high-tension gear ratios. VERY annoying.

    Did I overtighten/undertighten the BB cups? Or is it something to do
    with the cranks?

    Flip the bike over and look very closely at the BB for cracks.

    I went through the same thing - finally stripped out the BB threads completely
    on the drive side. Attributed it to faulty threads (which they were...) but
    when I sent the BB module to some tech guys at the bike's maker, they found a
    crack.

    OTOH, I've been through three replacement modules so far. All have what *I*
    would consider faulty threads - but the maker's tech people say they're "good
    enough"... and the fushluggener things *still* keep creaking. I'm finding that
    the drive side cup needs re-tightening after every ride. Then it's quiet for a
    few miles, but seems to back out again. OTOH, maybe the threads are failing
    bit-by-bit. I'll know in a few days.
    --
    PeteCresswell

  3. Jack said:

    Hello.

    Crashed a few weeks ago and slightly bent my big chainring so it
    slightly grazed the chainstay every rotation - because the bike is a
    bit of a mishmash (old school custom steel cyclocrosser with
    stronglight crankset), the clearance was only a couple of mm pre-crash.
    Anyway, took it apart and just moved the whole BB right ie. gave the
    ring a little more space to turn. Everything was fine until a few days
    ago where the BB started creaking, especially under pressure on going
    up hills and in high-tension gear ratios. VERY annoying.

    Did I overtighten/undertighten the BB cups? Or is it something to do
    with the cranks? Anyhelp would be greatly appreciated.

    The BB is probably undertightened, if you're lucky. It's also
    possible to get this creak if the crank's not tight on the spindle,
    though that's almost always a silent failure.

    Suggested fix: Use a large crescent wrench (gripping the ring near
    the bend) to gently move the big ring back close to where it started,
    then remove the spacer that you installed, and retighten the BB to the
    right torque. Grease the threads when you put it back in.

    If the sprocket was bent enough that you'd have a significant chance
    that it would break when you bent it back into position, then it would
    almost certainly be too bent to ride. Since it's not, the bend is
    probably going to be easy to rectify. (This is not to say that it
    absolutely, positively won't break, but I doubt that it will. That's
    just my opinion, based on a wild-assed guess since I can't see the
    damage from here, of course.)

    --
    Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
    Some gardening required to reply via email.
    Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

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