"bottom backet creek" caused by an over-tightened...

[Catagory6]

rear skewer?

i've been plagued by the dreaded bottom bracket creek for quite a while now. i've removed, cleaned and re-greased the BB and cranks, to no avail.
i came to the conclusion that a 12 year old carbon fiber frame, like an old house, just creeks.
while out on a ride today something came over me.
i thought to try to re-position the rear skewer, to see if that would have any effect? that maybe it isn't the BB area at all.
i noticed how tightly i had originally clamped down on the quick release, and took it a bit easier with the lever, when re-positioning.

well, seems to be problem solved. maybe it was a combination of repositioning, and clamping force?
creek-free bicycle

[andreas]

It can also be that the tightening force affects play in your hub/bearings, altough for me that has only happened the other way around, i.e. creaking that lessens when the skewer is tightened has been an indication of a rear hub preload that needs tightening.

[flying]

I can confirm that if a thread together type pf BB (wheels mfg) is over tight it does creak
I found this thru trial & error to be true

Miss the older style BB's but do see it returning as BSA threaded on various frames now

[AJS914]

I've had some creaky skewers. A tiny drop of oil can help a lot.

[Catagory6]

I've had some creaky skewers. A tiny drop of oil can help a lot.

where do you oil the skewers?
these are salsas from 2002

[alcatraz]

A friend had a creaky freehub body. It took ages to find it too.

The design is quite stupid with two sealed bearings in the middle of the freehub. It means it doesn't have any proper bracing sideways. To fix it we just had to knock the freehub into place every time we mount the wheel.

Tightening the skewers ridiculous tight worked at first but later it stopped working and we had to start knocking on the axle to compress the hub internals and seat them tighter. Then it remained quiet. (Taking it apart, cleaning, regreasing didn't fix it. Bearings were spinning smoothly.)

Anyway, after a year or two with occasional creaking, the rider replaced his wheels and now he doesn't have the issue anymore.

They were dtswiss straightpull hubs for a bontrager aura5 wheelset.

[Sprider]

I had a terrible creak which I thought was BB, turned out to be the DT star ratchet in my Powertap GS hub. Cleaned and regreased it and it was good for 6 months or so.


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[Bigger Gear]

I've had some creaky skewers. A tiny drop of oil can help a lot.

where do you oil the skewers?
these are salsas from 2002

I always put a thin film of grease along the skewer, and also grease the threads. Then I make sure the clamping areas of the skewer and frame and clean and dry.

[kode54]

i use White Lightning dry lube on my skewers...wherever there is contact with the moving lever.

[mattr]

It was probably just the moving that did it, rather than the loosening.
Quite a common problem. Badly located or badly lubricated skewers (especially external cam) are a pain for random creaking.

Also, check your gear hanger. That could be slightly mispositioned/loose bolts/dry joint/dirty joint. Especially if playing with a rear skewer fixed it.

[Cemicar]

Nobody has mentioned it so far, but have you ever checked the derailleur hanger yet? It's one of creek-prone places indeed.

[mattr]

I did. 14 minutes before you.....

[NiFTY]

Antisieze on dropouts. Was about to replace my bb and greased dropouts and blessed silence resulted.