lsberrios1 

Good day guys,

Recently a friend of mine decided to buy my felt z85 from me since I no longer use it and he wants to start riding. We went for a test ride and we noticed something new. Under loads of power when going uphill it does a loud "click" sound on the crank, maybe bottom bracket, area per each revolution. it sounds like bending mettal somewhat but very quick. Sorry for the vague description but that is the closest I can describe it.

Any Ideas?? I dont want to sell my friend a crappy bike and I feel I am giving him a good price for it. The bike has been droped 4 times. 3 Times by my fiancee learning how to use the cleats and 1 time by him yesterday on the test ride due to the same reason, so you know it hasnt been hard.

Thanks in advance.

dalava

Is the chain skipping under load?

lsberrios1 

Doesnt seem to be. It rides fairly well and shifts pretty crisp. I do see the crank moving though (hope its not my imagination)

dalava

^ you mean you see the crank moving laterally, like in and out of the bottom bracket?

BTW, what kind of BB and crankset you have?

Impreza_aL

you've got the bb30 creak

lsberrios1 

I mean like the crank is pivoting on the bb. I have the FSA 68mm w/ forged Cr-Mo square taper 103mm spindle bottom bracket. The crank is the FSA Vero Compact 3pc, 50/34T.


I dont like it.... It is exactly a creak!

rumrunn6

change out the BB and see if it goes away

lsberrios1 

Should I fit the same BB? Is it a DIY thing or should I send it to the bike shop? How much?

thanks

mynameistaken

creaks can be very deceiving. I would take apart the head set and re-grease the upper and lower bearings. Especially where they contact the steer tube. I had the exact same problem and i thought it was coming from the bottom bracket or rear wheel. Turned out to be the headset.

JoelS

I've had a few riders with me that have had various creaks and ticks. Something like 2 out 3 turned out to be loose (or not tight enough) skewers.

lsberrios1 

Seems like it could be anything.. Might have to dismount re grease and mount everything together.

rumrunn6

for me the BB is a bike tech thing. it never hurts to have a good tech check your BB - it gets a lots stress and all my creaks were the BBs. I've had 3 changed over the years and always glad about it. I had one guy though "tighten" one up but that was a mistake cuz it was trash and it only got more trashed. went to another tech and he just swapped it out quick as can be! :-)

dalava

With the right tools and a stand, working on BB is definitely a DIY thing; but if you don't have the right tools, you should just take it to a LBS.

Before you embark on the BB overhaul or replacement, I would definitely trying to grease/tighten other things. Bike noise is very ellusive; seldom the noise cames from the actual problem area. Something about the bike tube transmitting the noise and our ability to pinpoint sound source conspire to make us chase down a wrong rat hole a lot of times. The areas I would look re-grease and tighten to the right torque would include saddle/seat clamp, seat post clamp, headset, stem, and skewers.

NWS Alpine

Most likely need to grease the seatpost or pedal threads. Also check the skewers. Unlikely to be that BB but not out of the question.

Poohblah

My experience corroborates this assessment. I recently had a problem similar to the OP's, but it turned out not to be the BB at all - my rear axle had snapped in half.

Pug

Try putting a little grease on the rear skewer first. Before going the BB route, you can also check the seat and seatpost maybe even water bottle cages. Can be the headset like others have mentioned as well. If you don't have a lot of miles on the BB might want to try and use loctite on it before replacing. There are a lot of useful posts here if you do a search on bottom bracket creak/sound etc.

Gharp23

bike noises are tricky little bastards. I swore my creak came from the BB and it was the rear wheel QR. L

elzy0000

I had the same issue with my Felt F5. Pulled apart the bottom bracket and re-greased. problem solved.

Doohickie

If you have an extra set of pedals, swap them out and see if it changes. Also, check around your seat. Seats can make noise themselves, plus if you have a saddle bag, contents can rock back and forth while pedaling, or zipper tabs can hit the seat post, or any of a number of other things to make noise. It ends up being a process of elimination.

Jobiensis

My BB30 does this without fail a week or so after wet riding. Just pull out the crank/spindle, clean, regrease, reassemble.

merlinextraligh

If its making a creaking noise with each pedal revolution, very good chance it's the crank, bb, or pedals.

And if you think you see the crank moving laterally, then it's likely the crank or the bb needs tightened.

Crank arms get loose on squared tapered bbs, and if you don't tighten them, you can eventually f up the cranks as they warble out.

So, pull the crank arms. Then see if the spindle is turning smoothly, and not loose side to side. Assuming that's ok, grease the ends of the spindle and reinstall the crank arms tightening them down snuggly.

merlinextraligh

You can typically isolate the headset from the equation by 1) does it happen only when you pedal out of the saddle, and 2) does it happen when you pedal no handed.

If pedaling standing exacerbates it, and no handed eliminates it, something in the front end ( headset, or front wheel skewer) is a likely culprit.

merlinextraligh

Odd things like that can cause noises. Once a revolution click can bee the crank arm hitting the end of the FD cable.

chrismorg

had the same symtoms that went away when i changed my bottom bracket

qqy

Those FSA BBs are junk and wear out quickly. That's most likely your problem. Swap it out for a Token 103 spindle unit. And regrease all the metal-on-metal contact areas. Also, check that all your chainring bolts are tight.