southerndownhill.com - Forum

hi all, i have a pair of saint cranks on my demo 8 that creak when i pedal hard, its not the bb cos its new it seems to be coming from the non drive crank arm, any ideas on how the shut it the f**k up its really irritating!!

cheers  ;D

my saints did the same.to stop it i took the pedals off and greased behind the wash and pedal threads that seemed to stop the creak

gd idea never thought of that ill give it a shot, any more ideass?

Check your chainring bolts are tight,  and put a dab of copper slip on the pedal threads, dont use grease on the threads because that will aid them in coming loose when you dont want them to.  Also put a bit on the splines on the axle.  If that doesnt solve it then it may be your pedal bearings

this happens all the time, especially with isis/tapered cranks. on my xc bike it happens occasionally, i just take the cranks of and take the bb out. clean everything up and get rid of all the dirt then reassemble with grease in appropriate areas and they are silent

the exactly the same is happening with my hones (with pedal inserts), replaced the bb and they're still creaking.  :-\

Ive got the same problem, seems like alot of people do. im going to try what 'niggle' said and see if that solves it. ill keep you's upated to see if it works.
Kurt.

remove cranks and the pinchbolts from the non-driveside arm, degrease the crankarm axle, pinch bolts and the splines inside the non-driveside arm

re-assemble, and use a smear of blue loctite on the crankarm axle splines, and also on the 2 pinch bolts on the non-driveside arm, then do the cranks up as normal and leave to set overnight

normally cures the problem

like others said, grease your pedal axles before installing pedals, and make sure the chainring bolts are snug

What gears does it creak in?

i'd imagine as his CRANKS are creaking it would be in ANY gear, wouldnt you?

Well I thought my cranks were creaking but then my rear cog snapped in two....

ive done everything calla_the_one mentioned and nothing, they still creak, stopped for about 15 cranks then started again. i think its summin ill have to put up with! they look about 97 years old so probs shagged. cheers for the help though guys  ;)

not to sound funny but hav you had them installed properly?

it may well be a wear and tear issue but if you had the bottom bracket shell faced and the bolts done up to torque it may help thing or at least be worth a go.

In the multiple cases I've seen (most had already had splines and pedal axles greased) it's the pedal thread inserts or the bb shell not being faced.

As Yatesy (my sx) pointed out, he had the same issue on both a set of Saints and his old Hones as well.  Dab of grease behind the pedal washers sorted it out in both cases.

My Hones came on a complete new bike (triple setup without pedal inserts) which creaked like a bugger.  Incidentally, I also thought it was just the left arm making the noise.  Greased everything, torqued everything, still creaked.  When I stripped the whole chainset out of the frame, I found the bb shell wasn't faced and the paint was quite thick.  Removed the paint (only quickly with a blade and file), reassembled and it was fine!  The crankset has since gone into a different frame that is also faced and remains noise free.

Try the inserts first, then bb shell if it doesn't solve it and let us no how you get on as it's a common problem and success stories will be most useful to people in future

Smithy

ah i forgot the pedal inserts! and yes the bb shell had been faced and everything correctly installed.  ;)

EDIT: greased up the pedal inserts and out a dob of grease on the axle and its worked a treat!! theres still a wee bit of creaking but only when u cranks proper hard, cheers for the help guys  :D