Creaking sound when hot out – any ideas?

[KLizotte]

Hi all, I have developed a creak (or cracking) sound when I go up a steep hill or when I start out from a stopped position. The sound seems to occur once for each revolution in the big ring and only when I am applying force with my right foot. Once I get going at a level cadence the sound disappears. Oddly enough, it only happens when it is 70 degrees or above so I didn’t hear it at all this winter but did hear it last fall so I thinking the heat is causing something to expand. The LBS mechanics think I’m nuts when I tell them it is temperature dependent and they couldn’t find the cause last year.

I’m guessing it’s something to do with the bottom bracket but the sound isn’t 100% reliable (yet) so I think I’m gonna wait to drop off the bike at the LBS in early June when I go away on vacation since I won’t be able to ride it then.

Anyone have any idea what the cause could be? Am I doing more damage by riding it for the next month?

For the record, I ride an aluminum Canondale Synapse with 105 components and SPD pedals. It’s got about 7,700 miles on it and is kept indoors and got a tune up last fall. Other than cleaning and lubing the chain, I don’t do any other maintenance.

Thank you!

Topic

[cyclingfool]

This article by the venerable Sheldon Brown should give you some ideas of things to check.

[Harry Meatmotor]

@KLizotte 84087 wrote:

Am I doing more damage by riding it for the next month?

Probably not. If its something really bad, it won’t be temperature dependent, imho. Also, there’s two creaks that the venerated SB doesn’t attribute to pedaling force creaks that I’ve found on more than one occasion:

loose/dry QR skewers (clean then apply a light amount of grease to the dropouts, then add a couple drops of light oil to the cam of the QR and make sure the QRs are nice and tight)

loose rear derailleur hanger (this one drove me nuts on a customer’s bike once – I was absolutely positive a creak was coming from the pedal spindle/pedal insert in the drive side crank arm – even swapped cranks & pedals and the creak went away… for a week. noticed the shifting wasn’t staying in adjustment between the customer’s visits and finally noticed the rDer hanger bolts were a little bit loose – tightened up, no more creak for good.)

[ShawnoftheDread]

Any chance it’s the shoe or cleat and not the bike?

[n18]

I checked Cannodale’s bikes archives for 2013 Road Bikes, and I assume that your bike is “Synapse Carbon 5 105”. According to the specs it has crank type “FSA GOSSAMER Pro, BB30, 50/34”. I searched YouTube for BB30 Replacement, and the first video shows the same problem that you have, and even the same bike. Here is the link to the first video just in case:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoUNL8FDweQ

If you search Amazon for “BB30“, you will find several tools(~$11-$35), including those in the video, and the bearing replacement kit(~$40).

From what I know, if dirt get into the mechanism, some of the bearing might go over tiny pieces of rocks, gets squeezed, then propelled instantly after moving over the tiny rock until it hits other bearings or the housing for the bearing, and that’s when you hear the clicking sound. If you keep riding, you make the bearing worse, but that’s not important if you replace it. If a shop tells you they will just clean it and put it back together, then it might still make sound as the bearing may have created groves in the metal to escape the dirt, so it’s better to replace it. Some shops may suggest replacing the crank as well($300+), but that is not necessary.

[KLizotte]

Thanks everyone.

Sheldon Brown’s write-up of potential causes scared the bejesus out of me so I took it to Spokes on Quaker Lane after work. The mechanic initially discovered that the back wheel was slightly out of true and some other things needed to be tightened (didn’t say what). The creak was still there when I took it out for a test ride. The sound was most prominent when I stood up in a high gear and pushed hard on the right side.

He then lubed the BB’s bearings and voila! the noise went away. It is now super quiet. Yeah!!! A very easy fix.

The mechanic couldn’t explain the temperature variation other than to attribute it to expansion in the heat. That shall forever be a mystery though I have discovered that I have to slightly loosen the Garmin and light brackets on my handlebars in the summer due to metal expansion).

[KLizotte]

Ah shoot, I wish I had seen n18’s message before I went to the shop. Yup, same noise on my bike but I couldn’t get it to make the noise so easily though; needed to be under load.

The noise is gone now but I kind of wish I had told them to replace the bearings but then again, he said they only looked dry once opened up. Will keep my fingers crossed that they only needed some oil and I don’t have a dodgy bearing but at least I’ll recognize the sound if it happens again.

I’m learning, cough, cough, that I need to oil a lot more than the chain even though I don’t leave the bike out in the rain. Sigh.

Should have thought to check YouTube first.

Thanks again!!!!

[KLizotte]

@ShawnoftheDread 84128 wrote:

Any chance it’s the shoe or cleat and not the bike?

I did think of that and tried with non-clipless and two pairs of clipless shoes initially. I also oiled the cleats which I probably should make a habit of anyways.

[KLizotte]

@Harry Meatmotor 84123 wrote:

loose/dry QR skewers (clean then apply a light amount of grease to the dropouts, then add a couple drops of light oil to the cam of the QR and make sure the QRs are nice and tight)

Have added to my to do list for preventative maintenance. I have a newly found appreciation for how well cars work in terms of low maintenance.

[n18]

Don’t feel bad about not replacing the bearing. Maybe next time. I learned that there is no such thing as a “bad choice”. If you made one, then you can’t change the past, just deal with it, move on, and don’t think about it…

[peterw_diy]

I know dangerously little about this, but in the last few weeks there was a lively thread on bikeforums.net in which several people asserted that Cannondale didn’t use the right Loctite formula & technique when installing the BBs and this misinstallation leads to creaking.

[KLizotte]

@peterw_diy 84139 wrote:

I know dangerously little about this, but in the last few weeks there was a lively thread on bikeforums.net in which several people asserted that Cannondale didn’t use the right Loctite formula & technique when installing the BBs and this misinstallation leads to creaking.

I would not at all be surprised since this has been a long-running problem and the bike is only two years old this May. When I originally bought it I had to bring it back after a month and get the headset re-greased and the mechanics at FreshBikes said this was a common problem with Cannondales lately. Not quite the same issue you describe but does call into serious question quality control at the factory.

Will check out bikeforums.

Thanks!

[dkel]

Well, as much as I like my Cannondale (and I do!), it’s been off-and-on noisy since about a month after I got it. Strangely, the clicking and creaking seem at times temperature and/or distance sensitive. Weird. I’ve greased a bunch of bolts on it with varying degrees of effectiveness. Once I took out the seatpost and reinserted it (without adding any anti-seize) and that helped, miraculously. LBS has done various things to it, also with unpredictable effectiveness. Right now we’re at a point of détente: it doesn’t make much noise, and I’m not much bothered by it. (I’m also shopping for a new bike, but that’s not directly related to any of this.) (Really!)

[KLizotte]

Oiy, I’ve just learned a lot about BB30s and am not sure what to think of them except that they have a long history of being creaky which may or may not be fixed via a Loctite application.

Some informative sites on the BB30 creaking/manufacturing issues:

http://www.slowtwitch.com/Tech/Bottom_Bracket_Standards_2573.html

http://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycling/869550-what-exactly-bb30.html

http://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycling/924826-creaky-cannondales.html

http://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycling/913092-bb30-awful.html

http://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycling/916117-caad10-bottom-bracket-clicking.html

[mstone]

Remember that, like most things these days, canondale is just a nameplate trading on nostalgia. The company that made the brand by building bikes a couple hundred miles north of here is gone, the people who made the bikes are gone, and the company that bought the name now slaps it on the output of third party factories. Not a story unique to the bike industry.

[Harry Meatmotor]

@KLizotte 84147 wrote:

… which may or may not be fixed via a Loctite application.

I’d be very cautious using Loctite to solve the problem – just using any old thread locking compound isn’t exactly going to do what it’s supposed to do. Loctite has a whole boat load of different formulations for different applications (i.e. locking bolt threads is a different animal than securing an interference fit between a steel bearing and an aluminum BB shell). Also, there are some compounds that are specified for interference fit (or press fit) that require heat to remove – I’d definitely shy away from those. Also, most shops are only going to have one or two thread locking compounds on hand, Loctite Red & Blue, neither of which are actually supposed to be used for interference fit parts.

Do know that both crank/BB manufacturers and frame manufacturers tend to look at tech service bulletin/warrantee type noisy BB problems from the perspective of only trying to make the noise go away, serviceability be damned. So they’ll recommend to shops to just glue the f-ing stuff together… and when it comes time to replace the bearings, well, whaddya know, they’re stuck in the frame for good! Time for a new bike!

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