When I get up out of the saddle, I get a serious creaking noise coming from the bottom bracket/crank area as might right foot goes through the 3 to 6 o’clock position. I grabbed both crank arms and it seemed like there was about 1-2mm of play…is this a slightly loose bottom bracket making this noise? Everything is silent when sitting in the saddle and just spinning.
Spot
Are you sure it’s not your cleats? Try wearing different shoes (or just sneakers) and see if it still makes the noise.
Creaking in that area tends to be your cleats and/or pedal from my experience. Lube the pedal and put some on your cleat as well.
Yep, tried that…should have mentioned it in the first post. I just bought some new cleats, and when it started, I swapped them out for my old ones…same sound.
Spot
If you have play in your crank arms I think it’s safe to assume that there’s either a problem with your BB or your crank arm bolts. Tighten 'em both up to the spec’d torque.
I have this problem, too. I removed the bottom bracket, cleaned the area, put teflon tape on the threads, greased everything, reinstalled and still had the same sound.
However I had no play in the crank arms. This is not normal. What kind of crank and bottom bracket? If the bottom bracket is relatively cheap and separate, or if you have old one and old cranks lying around, try putting those on if they are compatible with this frame.
I agree with Spot, but put a thin coat of grease on the pedal threads.
Checked the crank arm bolts (jeeze, I forgot to mention everything I tried)…everything nice and tight. Must be the BB…how hard is that to tighten? I assume you have to pull the cranks off?
Spot
Its not a Cervelo is it?
Why, yes it is, with an FSA crank and BB.
Spot
I’d go all-out and pull the cranks arms off and remove the BB (how long has it been since you’ve done this?). Grease it up and put it back in. You’ll need a crank puller (unless the bolts are self-extracting) and BB tool.
A lot of times noises sound like they are coming from the BB area, but aren’t. These things are tough to track down, so don’t exclude possibilities.
Just messing around…I remembered from Macon. I would also vote for the bottom bracket if you eliminated the cranks and pedals. I have a similar problem on the Litespeed but don’t have my BB tools here with me. Plan on tearing it apart when I get back to NY in a couple weeks.
Maybe your chain ring is turned up too loud?
Michael
dammit, I forgot all about the volume on that thing!! Actually, its a different Cervelo…my R2.5 chorus road bike, not the P2K.
Why, yes it is, with an FSA crank and BB.
Spot
If you have the same bolts that came with the crank (the alloy ones) it is possible that the bolts are stripped. I had the same problem recently on a new set of FSA cranks. A squeak/click on the drive side (at 6/12) that mimicked cleat squeak but it was actually the cranks bolts. There was no play in the crank arms. I replaced them with self-extracting steel ones and good to go.
You can test it by stepping on the pedal (regular shoes) while the crank arm on the drive side is at 6 or by inspecting the cranks bolts. Taping wasn’t the answer in my case.
Look pedals, maybe? If so, try spraying them, and the cleats, with Armorall. This works well for my creakies.
I had this front wheel that would creak like crazy if I did not crank down on the quick release.
Speedplay Zeros…
This happened to me. There’s some posts about this four or five months ago. Dan’s got a piece on Slowtwitch about rattles and noises on the cranks.
I tightened everything, the ring bolts, everything, crank arms: it didn’t fix the creaking. So what I did was, I just took the pedal arms off, and got down to the bottom bracket and, although the bearings looked lubed to be, I just put more lube on them, and then put the pedal arms back on, and put them on very tight, and I didn’t have a problem after that. I have no idea whether it was because it wasn’t lubed enough or whether the arms weren’t on tight enough. I really put some umph in tightening those pedal arms, though.
It’s hard to track down noises on aluminum bikes, the source is rarely where you think you hear it coming from.
I had a Specialized CX aluminum cross bike that made this sound if the rear wheel skewer wasn’t tight enough. Try REALLY tightening the rear skewer.
I also have a Cannondale CAAD6 that makes a noise when I pedal. I think it’s turning out to be a problems with my seat/seatpost. The transfer of weight on the seat as I pedal perhaps? Check to make sure your seat post is greased if it’s not carbon, and check that the seatpost clamp is tight. Check the seat clamp mechanism as well.
I’ve heard water bottle cages can cause some creaking as well, make sure the screws are greased and tight.