I recently bought a new LOOK 695 SR. The bike has been incredible so far but i have just one gripe with it. The chain ring bolts are creaking even after freshly greasing and the chain ring bolts set to recommended torque settings. I did manage to shear off one bolt, i just think i need a stronger bolt set in there as i'm 89kgs and put a fair bit of torque through the cranks when climbing. The creaking is only noticeable when rocking left to right and out of the saddle. I have never had any issues with DA or SRAM cranks/chain rings doing this so i'm convinced its the bolts on the Zed 2 cranks. I can hear it come from that area and it's not the BB. The bolts are stupidly lightweight alloy, i'm sure a heavier gauge bolt would fix the problem.

If anyone could shed some light on a more durable stronger bolt option it would be most appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Not sure if there is one as the bolts on the 695 are longer than standard chainring bolts. The torquing specs on these bolts are really specific. Do you think the creaking is coming from the threads or because the bolts are rubbing against the chainrings themselves?

I don't think it's the threads as they are freshly greased. I think it's the bolts physically creaking from the lateral force of the torque on the chain rings. It's as if the chain rings are flexing. If i sit down and ride hard without rocking the bike side to side (as in climbing mode) it doesn't do it. I am using SRAM Red chain rings on the cranks so might try switching them over to the LOOK specific ones or a SRAM TT disc type ring which i also have on another bike.

I know FSA have a huge range of chain ring bolts and it might be worth trying to find out what size the LOOK bolts are and whether any of their range would work.

Creaks almost always sound like they're coming from the cranks but hardly ever do. If it only makes the sound when you're standing up, I'd check the headset/stem/shift levers. The quick releases are also a pretty common noise maker.

Had the exact same issue, changed the bolts to kcnc same lenth as the looks.
Wrapped them in ptfe plumbers tape, stopped them creaking and working loose on this sr frameset.
Steve

Cool, thanks for the info. Can you remember which model the KCNC bolts are, there is a decent range here http://www.torontocycles.com/Selling/Ch ... ranks.html

Did you you continue to use the female part of the Look bolt or did you swap out the whole male and female parts?

Thanks again.

I think the kcnc come as standard.... You do need to use the zed crank female bolts, these are required to work with the crankset.
steve
Ps.....I've just checked your link, it's not the campy ones you need.

Hi guys... I have had a 695 for 18months now. Great bike but a few creaks as well. The bearings have been repacked and the local disties are going to replace them. I don't ride that often. The bike has only done 3500km total in that time. After around 7 months I was climbing a steep incline and all of the chain ring bolts sheared. The bolts were replaced with steel male bolts (original LOOK were alloy) and lock-tited. Bike started creaking again and we noticed that 3 bolts were loose and one had fallen out.

How many KMs have you ridden on the replacement bolts? any other problems showing up?

Cheers

KJB

Has anyone provided feedback to Look? Not sure how common this problem is, but perhaps some design tweaking is in order, or has Look perhaps already done this and new units are better?

creaking noise from BB area when climbing 8%+ slopes with small ring - no noise when hard pedaling with big ring
anyone else having the same issue?

btw, riding rotor 50-34 q-rings

_________________
Ride safe!
Eduardo
2011 Look 695 SR

Hi,

I'd bet it's your rear quick release, climbing put 2-3x more torque on the rear wheel than flat riding (for any given torque at the crank)... Had this problem this year after switching to KCNC QRs, these creaks always sound like it's coming from the crank/BB

Jeremy

So Iget this right, no one has had an issue on the original LOOK/TA specialties rings? Just other brands

I would also check the freehub and cassette as they do make noise under load if there are issues

Sent from my HTC One XL using Tapatalk 2

_________________
N+1 It Never Stops