wrightstuff

Yesterday I noticed a creaking noise for the first time from my bike whenever I was peading a bit harder than normal. The sound was almost certainly coming from the crankset. The frame is carbon and from about ~2009. It was last built up as a 1x with an FSA crankset using their Megaexo bottom bracket. The last build up of the frame was at least 5 years ago now (by the previous owner) and I have not done any routine maintenance on the crankset.

Is a creak like this almost certain to develop over time with no mind given to maintenance? What are the best tips and tricks to solve the issue at hand and to avoid this in the future?

Koyote

Creaks come from various sources, and are not unusual. Cranksets don't need "routine maintenance" aside from perhaps checking to make sure the bolts are properly torqued, which is the first thing you should check. If that doesn't solve it, you might need new bottom bracket bearings. Could be your pedal bearings, too, but I doubt that.

Le Mechanic

Always check the easy stuff first. It's not always the bottom bracket or cranks...

wrightstuff

Thank you! I have been planning on some more bike wrenching in the near future, and it seems like my first purchase or two will need to be some torque wrenches.

Good point! Thanks for the link - that was a very informative video. I will be sure to spend some more time diagnosing before diving into work around the bottom bracket.