Why does my bike creak when I pedal?

Creaks travel through a frame, so where you hear it is usually not where it is. Almost every creak is an interface — a joint between two parts — that has lost its grease, collected grit, or is not tight enough for the load going through it. That makes it a process of elimination, not a diagnosis by ear.

Safety

What you'll need

• Allen keys and a torque wrench
• Degreaser and rags
• Grease, and carbon assembly paste if you have carbon parts
• A pedal spanner (optional)

Step by step

1. Characterise the noise first.Does it happen once per pedal revolution, or once per wheel revolution? Only under load, or when freewheeling too? Only out of the saddle, or seated? Only when turning? Each answer removes a large group of possibilities.
2. Try it without pedalling.Coast, then push down on the pedals with the bike stationary against a wall, then rock the bike side to side. A creak that appears while coasting is not in the drivetrain at all.
3. Start with the pedals.Pedals are the most common creak on any bike and the easiest to fix. Remove both, clean the threads in the crank, grease them and refit — remembering the left pedal has a left-hand thread and tightens anticlockwise. Also check the pedal bearings for play.
4. Check the saddle and seatpost.Second most common. Remove the post entirely, clean it and the inside of the frame, grease it — or use carbon paste if either part is carbon — and refit to the correct torque. Do the same with the saddle rail clamp bolts.
5. Check the shoe and cleat interface if you use clipless pedals.A worn cleat or a loose cleat bolt makes a creak that sounds exactly like a bottom bracket. Tighten the bolts and try riding in ordinary shoes to eliminate it.
6. Check the chainring bolts.Remove them one at a time, grease the threads and the seats, and torque them evenly. Dry chainring bolts creak convincingly and are often missed.
7. Then look at the crank and bottom bracket.Grab a crank arm and pull it side to side: any play means the bearing or the fitting is loose. Removing, cleaning, greasing and correctly torquing the cranks fixes many bottom bracket creaks without replacing anything.
8. Check both wheels are properly clamped.Quick releases and thru axles both creak if grubby or under-tightened. Clean and lightly grease the skewer and the dropout faces.
9. Check the headset and stem last.With the front brake on, rock the bike forwards and back and feel for a knock at the headset. Check the stem bolts and the steerer clamp are at the correct torque. A creak here needs resolving before riding, because these parts steer the bike.
10. Do one thing at a time.Change one interface, then ride and listen. Dismantling five things at once means you never learn which one it was, and creaks recur.
11. Use a torque wrench on anything with a figure printed on it.Bike components are increasingly light and the printed torque is not advisory. On carbon this is critical: too tight crushes the fibres and produces a delayed failure, too loose lets the part slip and creak.

Tips

• Water on the frame will often silence a creak briefly, which is a useful way to confirm which interface is moving.
• A creak that appears in the wet and vanishes in the dry is almost always a seatpost or a bottom bracket.
• Rule out the easy things properly rather than quickly. Most people go straight to the bottom bracket and it is usually the pedals.

Common mistakes

• Tightening everything on the bike as hard as possible — It converts a creak into a crushed carbon post, a stripped alloy thread or a seized component. Correct torque with clean, greased threads solves creaks; extra force does not.
• Assuming the noise comes from where you hear it — A frame conducts sound extremely well and a bottom bracket area creak is frequently a saddle rail or a cleat. Locating a creak by ear alone sends people to expensive parts first.

If it doesn't work

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