koala logs

My BB went squeaky not long after I started doing lots of intervals pedaling out of the saddle with some mild, 1 minute sprints.

I can tighten it myself, I got the right tools and done it before but no time to do it for the moment. There is no play but squeaks when pedaling even when seated. The earliest time I'll be able to fix it is the next weekend, I might do 2 to 3 hours total riding until the next weekend. I tend to pedal standing as I live in a hilly city.

Should I be worried and try to avoid riding until I fixed it?

TakingMyTime

I guess the first question is going to be.... what model bottom bracket?

SpedFast

Like TMT said, it will depend on the bottom bracket. If it's cup and cone, make sure you have some good grease handy when you get the time to dig into it, don't just tighten up the bearings. If it's newer with press fit or sealed bearings but you're not feeling any play, then the squeaking probably isn't from the bearings, but the fit of the bearing in the housing. Once again, grease is your friend. And to answer your question, no, a few hours probably won't make much difference. Caveat-probably. One thing for sure, how you ride is not going to impact the bottom bracket is everything is working correctly. Taking a ride into the ocean will impact your bottom bracket. Good luck

cxwrench

The only answer is 'who knows?' Or sometime between now and when it fails.

rumrunn6

until you hear crunching sounds

rumrunn6

yes

koala logs

It's a sealed square taper Shimano sealed cartridge that sells between $7 to $15 online. I've used it for 3 years without any issues until I started training my technique out of the saddle.

I greased the threads on the BB and BB shell when I installed it but may not have tightened it with enough torque. I wasn't using a torque wrench but I remember not using a "cheat tube" to increase the leverage of the wrench to tighten it. 50 N-m right?

It looks like this one, can't remember if it's the same model:

Koyote

You can probably ride it a long time, unless you're riding next to me -- then the answer is "four seconds."

koala logs

You'll remove my BB in four seconds? I don't see how that is possible.

Crankycrank

I'd say it would be jumping to conclusions to assume the bearings need lube or are shot. Could just need greasing the threads and tightened properly but no way to know for sure if it's even coming from the BB. Most Shimano cartridge BB's will last 20k++ miles. Best to remove the BB, feel for play or roughness when turning and if OK grease the threads, torque properly and test it out.

Polaris OBark

If the bottom bracket is squeaking because it is binding, it will trash the bearings, and you will need to replace it. Take the chain off and see if it spins freely. If it is too tight, it will bind and not spin freely. If it is too loose, it will have play in it, so tighten it until you get rid of the play, check for binding, and maybe even back off 1/4 turn.

The crank also needs to be tightened properly. Too tight and you will deform the spindle. Too loose and you can do even worse damage. Both conditions could cause a squeaking noise. The consequences of ignoring this could get expensive. Most require about 40 Nxm, not 50. But check the specs of the manufacturer.

Buy or at least borrow a torque wrench. Learn how to perform basic maintenance. Checking the crank and bottom bracket and tightening everything shouldn't take more than 15 or 20 min.

oldbobcat

An improperly threaded bottom bracket doesn't squeak, it clicks or clunks. To test, grab the cranks and try to twist sideways at different orientations. The entire cartridge will wiggle in the shell. Squeaking is caused by metal rubbing metal, like a ball bearing that is no longer round, so it gets dragged along inside the race.

icemilkcoffee 

It might not be the BB. It could also be the pedals or the chain rings.
But in general you can ride a squeeky bike to the end of the time.

79pmooney

When I saw this thread earlier, my thought to how long that squeak could be ridden asks the question - till it starts affecting sanity, till the squeak ends on its own or till there is failure?

Another source - the fit between the crank and spindle square taper. I've had cranksets I never could silence that performed just fine and squeaked forever. I'm blessed/cursed with more tolerance than Koyote. Once tuned out, it's not even there. (Today I rode 50 miles on a freshly built wheel. Old Campy hub I picked up cheap. Bearing felt OK, freshly packed with clean grease. But with my weight, a slight noise every wheel revolution. Rats. But didn't affect my ride at all. I've ridden many thousands of miles on old Tipo hubs with scored cones; just packing in a lot of marine grease. Yes, all wrong. And some of the most maintenance free hubs I've owned.)

Bmach

Why not just skip one ride and fix it?

MudPie

Agree, the origin of the squeak could be from many places, masking as the bottom bracket. As I say, do the cheap things first, like tightening crank arm bolts, chainring bolts, if you have a second set of pedals thy them. Even check the bolts on seat and seat post, handlebars...Ideally, do only one thing at a time so you can identify the culprit.

koala logs

So I decided to work on it. I found:

- The non-drive side BB cup isn't torqued high enough as it was relatively easy to loosen.
- 3 of the 5 bolts on the chainring is loose it almost fell off and I'm not exaggerating!
- The BB cartridge bearing is still smooth like new. No binding, no play.

So I first put back the BB, loosened both cups, added grease, and torqued to spec (about 10 kg force at the end of the 50 cm handle). And then installed the crank and tightened all the nuts of the chain ring.

Sadly, the noise is still there At least I didn't waste any time and effort. If I haven't reinstalled the BB, I would not have known the chain ring is about to fall off!

I could even trigger the noise when I'm off the bike by placing my feet against the drive side crank spindle (not the pedals nor the crank arm but the spindle, the center of the crank ring) while I'm holding the top tube with both hands. So now I strongly doubt it's the BB causing the noise! Last week I checked both saddle and saddle post. Mine is aluminum so I simply added grease and put them back together, tightened correct. It's not that either, nor the wheel.

I also found the squeak also comes with creaking and I can feel the creaking on the frame. I can even trigger very weak creaking just by tilting the bike to one side without applying any pressure with me off the bike! The sensation is strongest around the seat tube area.

I checked the bottom bracket area for cracks. There none or at least none that I can see.

I suspect the welded joints were the tubes come together, the tubes in contact maybe rubbing together under the welds. It only happened when I started training pedaling out of the saddle for long periods and slammed my saddle all the way forward. One of the joints may have been knocked loose and now rubbing together.

Here's the irony, whenever I'm pedaling out of the saddle the noise completely goes away!! I still doubt it's the seat post nor saddle as I can also trigger squeaking and creaking when I'm completely off the bike, trying to bend the frame with my feet and my arms.

rumrunn6

Crankycrank

Sounds like you did good by going through all the other potential issues, but I would ask if you greased the saddle rails and seatclamp parts where they contact each other. Although it squeaks when just flexing the frame off the bike it still could be an issue especially if you're using the saddle to hold on to while flexing the frame. I would double check the torque on your BB as it sounds like you may using too much torque as max should be about 7kgf but I may be getting My kgf/N-m/Ft-lbs numbers off.

TakingMyTime

I believe Shimano advises that you don't use grease on the NDS threads for that BB.

cxwrench

It's a cartridge bottom bracket so none of this is true. The bearing and the axle are in the cartridge, the bearing preload is what it is. It won't change by not tightening enough or over tightening. Not at all like a current Shimano HT crank/bb.

Iride01 

How do you know it's the BB? If it's a threaded cartridge BB then they aren't any big deal to remove and replace. Nor are they expensive. Then you'll know if the noise is in the BB or not. Though I've never had a noisy BB. It was always something else making the noise that sounded like it was coming from the BB.

koala logs

I'm holding on to the top tube only with both hands while trying to flex the frame. So it can't be the saddle. I've also checked the seatpost clamp and saddle. The seat post has grease and they're totally not the source.

BB torque spec is 38 to 42 N-m. Simply divide it by 9.81 to convert it to kg-m. I'm using a 0.5 meter handle for the wrench so multiply it by 2 as well and the answer should be about 9 kg feel at the tip of the handle.

The bike creaked/squeaked the same whether the BB is slightly loose or tight. It's not the pedals and cranks either. I also tried to flex the frame before installing the cranks and pedals and made exactly the same noise. Could be a crack somewhere in the frame but I just can't find any cracks anywhere. I did crash the bike over a year ago on the road while doing maybe 17 mph without any visible damage to the frame and rode the bike probably a few thousand miles since but the noise only came up two weeks ago.

koala logs

It's actually easy to flex the frame. Off the bike while on either left or right side of the bike, hold the saddle or top tube and push the down pedal forward, (your forward, not the bike's forward) to flex the frame laterally. The frame will visibly flex although I advice extreme caution when doing this, you might break the frame!

koala logs

Good news. I eliminated all the noise!

You won't believe the solution: I loosened the QR skewer of the rear wheel by 1/8th of a turn!

How I diagnosed the problem?

Yesterday, I also tried pushing down on the top tube with me off the bike and the action produced the same squeaks and creaks making me hugely worried the frame is actually cracked. Thinking it might still be the head set, I lifted the front wheel off the ground by pulling on the front of the top tube and then pushing down on the top tube close to the seat tube. I got the same squeaks and creaks which means it's not the headset nor the front wheel.

Thinking of the unlikely possibility it could be the rear wheel, I lifted the rear rear wheel off the ground by pulling at the tip of the rear rack and then pushing down on the top tube near the seat tube. No more squeaks and creaks! First I loosened the QR skewer of the rear wheel and pushed down on the top tube, again no squeaks and creaks. So I tightened the QR skewer again while I'm sitting on the top tube to fully seat rear wheel hub on the dropouts. I used the same QR tightness as before. Squeaks and creaks returned! So I loosened the QR skewer 1/8th of the turn and all the noise is gone!

I've dealt with loose and squeaking / creaking BB cups on the same bike before and the present noise issue sounded exactly like it and the noise seemed like it's coming from the BB shell so unsurprisingly, I thought it's the BB.

Still no time and effort wasted taking the crankset and BB off. The noise seemed like blessing in disguise even though it drove me mad, worrying it could be a crack in the frame. The NDS BB cup I found to be under torqued and 3 of 5 bolts on the chain ring is about to fall off!! I would not have known these problems if I hadn't taken the cranks and BB off because the loose items are not making any noise at all!! Thanks everyone for your participation and patience!