Creak Or Click? Six Ways To Fix Your Noisy Bike

Is your bike making a creak or click but you're not sure where it's coming from? Jon takes a look at six things that could be causing your noisy bike and what you can do to sort it.

Jon takes a look at the different areas that can be causing your bike to creak or click. Firstly, it's important to inspect your frame and components, especially if you've had a fall off the bike. It's also a good idea to check the stem and handlebars, chainring bolts and pedals, seat post and saddle and the bottom bracket.

Where is the strangest place you have had a creak on your bike?

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[robotics]

Most of the creaks come from the crankset area (BB, pedals, chainring bolts) and the seatpost area. Always start inquiring there.

[daniel]

Tried it all but turned out it was my knees

[fostergines]

After watching multiple videos, taking my bike to three local bike shops, i was at that point where i wanted to replace my frame because of that annoying creak. but before that, i replaced my BB and pedal (by the way, the creaking sound only appeared when going uphill and when speeding up, when the cranks are stressed). the frame is the oldest part of my bike and i thought this was the culprit. checked the whole frame, no cracks...i was about to give up (again), and thought, maybe i should grease the skewer, as this video advised...greased it lightly, placed it back on, immediately went uphill, i almost cried lol. no more creak. Thanks a lot GCN Tech. Bike frame on shopping cart, removed!

[thespanishinquisition]

I once had a haunted bike. Really, there is no other explaination.

[vekman]

Thank you so much. I ride hills every day. 1500 vertical feet in 15 miles is my daily goal for a decent workout. Anyway, I have had an annoying creak for almost 6 months and simply could not find it. Tried pedal cleaning / tightening, tried crank cleaning / tightening, tried replacing the bottom bracket (which needed replacing anyway!), but still no luck. Thank you so much for "3:37: Chain ring bolts." I never would have thought of that without watching your video. But when I cleaned, greased, and tightened the small chainring bolts that did the trick. No more annoying creak!!

Honestly, it never even occurred to me that the small chain ring was bolted to the larger one. Just something I never noticed and gave any thought.

So you may want to point out to folks that if the creaking is only occurring when the chain is on the small chain ring in the front, then that is clearly an indicator that loose chain ring bolts are the culprit!

Thanks again!

[doctorj]

The worse is when you take it ot the shop they charge you for something and when you go out the damn thing is still clicking and ticking.

[richnerd]

Jon, you must be reading our minds because today I literally was going to pose a question for the GCN Tech Clinic about my creaking seat post. Really good and informative video!

[arivainio]

A little story on the subject:

I Tried to find out the origin of creaking noise on my Olmo with Campagnolo parts (UT cranks). After several rides I was pretty sure it was the crankset. So obvious: when putting pressure on pedals the sound came very visible and when riding easy no creaks...

I geased the pedal threads, checked the cleat connection points, chainring bolts, I even opened the cranks and put new grease everywhere. Took also care of the seatpost area. I even tried to get the creaking sound when standing on the pedals with all my weight (while not driving), looking a possible clues on crack(s) in the frame. Nothing. I was already thinking, and kinda getting oriented, that I have to take out the bb cups...

Then on one ride, I started to twist the handlebar up and down direction for some reason. Awful creaking sound, even when not pedaling. Then it came to my mind: I turned the bar to lift the STI-shifters a little bit higher few weeks earlier and ofcourse loosened the bolts which were hand tightened (very tight) and now I used torque wrench and proper torque!

I took the bar off of the stem and greased the tightening bolts, also the steering tube tightening bolts and the top cap bolt. I greased the handlebar from the stem's connection point and did the same job to stem too.

Result: Completely silent! No creaks! No more annoying sound effects. Just some normal drivetrain noise. Educational: Don't think right away the obvious one is the quilty one...

[craigp]

I’ve been cycling since ‘87; worked in shops and by far the most common creak candidates are quick release levers that are not tight, saddle that needs to be tightened properly, loose pedals and by far the most common was cogs not torqued to hub; that one always seems like a crank or B.B. issue! I have very limited experience with press fit but they seem to be likely culprits

[ChrisBishop]

I've been chasing a creak/click around my bike for the past year. Usually sounds like it's coming from the front end of the bike. Over the past year I've stripped the bottom bracket, headset, hubs, cranks, pedals, cassette, seatpost. You name it, I tried it. Finally discovered the cause the other day - saddle rails where they enter the nose of the saddle. Incredibly annoying but it's great to have a silent bike again! And really shows how sounds can travel around the frame and sound like they're coming from somewhere totally different.

[trailmex]

I would add, and this sounds stupid, but for BB and seatpost creaks...check that your rear QR is REALLY tight, especially if it is thru-axle. I thought my WhlsMfg. ceramic BB had given up, or that I cracked a seat-tube, based on the creak I was getting. Checked all the usual suspects, BB, crank arms, pedal spindles, ring bolts, etc. Turns out the stupid QR could have been tighter and was resonating noise down the carbon chainstays. GREAT series, GCN guys!

[atfsgeoff]

Had a weird creak coming from somewhere near the bottom/rear of the bike that took me several rides to properly diagnose, it only creaked after a few miles into a ride and only when putting a lot of effort into a pedal downstroke. Stopped and held the front brake, loading up the frame with stress by pushing hard down on a pedal while staying stationary. I could tell that the frame was flexing just a tiny little bit. I went over the frame with a fine toothed comb, checked crankset, pedals, bottom bracket, bottle cages, derailleurs, stem, headset, everything I could think of. But it turns out it was none of those things.

It was a loose rear thru-axle. Tightened that up a bit and the creaking is completely gone.

[randolphpatterson]

I didn't intend to come here to watch, I was looking for something else altogether, but oh well... I had a great time watching, and besides, I'm a subscriber, anyway. I'm a lifelong cyclist, but I've had to make all my rides short & easy lately due to a badly-torn calf. Just what I wanted when I finally retired. You covered pretty much all the places where a noise can occur. I have a tip for anyone whose bike has skewered hubs, and come to think of it, this tip can help for nutted axles, too: They may already know that, when locking the skewer (while installing the wheel), the skewer acts as a vice, and this clamping pressure can and will compress the hub assembly, and it's standard practice to use trial & error to find the right bearing adjustment prior to installation. You normally end up leaving just a little play in the bearings, prior to installing the wheel to the bike. Typically, a hub that feels right when you can simply twirl the axle in your fingers will end up with play or with too much tension when the wheel's installed onto the frame (or fork) & is being submitted to the clamping pressure of the skewer. As a brief aside, if the axle is nutted, then tightening the nuts upon installation will stretch the axle, & this usually leaves the bearings too loose in the race/cone bearing gap. In fact, either style can be "off" in either direction, it's a crapshoot, I tell ya. If it's only slightly too tight, it's nearly impossible to feel that or otherwise detect anything, because hand-rotating the wheel in the frame doesn't often reveal any obvious symptoms. If the hub is loose, it's easy enough to detect that, by rocking the rim from side to side. You'll definitely notice, though, if it's so tight that it rumbles or hops about when rotated. But if it's only a tad tight, it can still feel like it's fine after installing it onto the bike. The universe is out to kill you. What I do, is I use some washers in place of the dropouts. Then, I can fully clamp down the skewer(or the nuts, depending), as if when installing the wheel to the frame/fork. This allows me to still be able to twiddle the axle in my fingers with full skewer pressure, and that will then reveal if the bearings will need further adjustment. I then only need to do the standard trial & error procedure until the bearings are rolling about as smoothly as possible when "clamped", and can then simply remove the washers & install the wheel on the bike. It's best to start with the bearings a bit loose, then gradually ''sneak up to'' the right setting. I hope this helps some of your viewers. My wish is for everybody to have a safe, fun ride (or a kick-ass race) on a great bike. Thumbs up for the video. Rubber side down!

[dskordo]

Thanks. Very helpful. I checked everything, and in the end it was the chainring bolts. Very annoying tick tick under power.

[davepratt]

On my Gurus, the rear axel mount lug is bonded to the chain stay and bolted to the seat stay. This allowed them to customize the length of the stays and seat tube without having a whole bunch of lugs. One of the bolts had worked loose and started to creak and induce what felt like wheel flex when out of the saddle.

I had my knee braces develop a clicking noise. Now I spray them with silicon spray to quiet them. You know you are old when you creak more than the bike does.

[connorplow]

This was very helpful. Both of my skewers were dry and needed lubricating, that was the source of my front and rear squeak!

[kirylm]

Thanks for this video as it has just reminded me that I had a annoying clicking noise to track down. It seemed to be coming from the drive train but with carbon frame's acoustics you never really know for sure. Interestingly, this noise would seem to go away after giving the bike a good wash but only to come back after a first puddle.
So I started the inspection front to back and, what a surprise, it was actually in the last part I checked -- rear hub of my vision metrons, ratchet mechanism to be more specific. Cleaned, re-lubed and re-greased it all. Lets see how long is it going to last...

[panzerveps]

I spent about a year trying to locate a clicking noise, which disappeared after having a flat on my front tire.
It was the valve stem vibrating on the rim. After that, I always use the valve stem nut on aluminium wheels.

[mikemeyer]

Thank you for the video. Led me straight to the trouble. A lube and tightening of the seat post components set me right!

[mauser]

Giant FCR creak, source? The water bottle cage screws of the Carbon Arundel cage. The frame flexing caused the cage mounting bolt locations to change slightly and it creaked every time i climbed. The fix was to place thin rubber washers between the cage abd frame.