CREAK DETECTIVE! How to Resolve Your Noisy, Squeaky, Creaky, Bike!

so the other day it was raining in L.A you know you got to clean your bike really often when it's raining I went out and and suddenly there was a noise noises drive me nuts usually it's solved by a couple earbuds and turn the volume up I can't handle the clicking in the bike everyone's dealt with this so I thought I'd make a video to explain how I diagnose and and saw the clicks and the creaks and the squawks and whatever the stupid noises on your bicycle I'm gonna be your your detective if you enjoy the sort of how-to content Please Subscribe let me know this has this I never smoked a pipe but I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be a hole in the in the prop pipe wait I got an idea ah this is a pipe for for cyclists do you guys knew it whistled I didn't know I whistled oh I forgot the magnifying glass I do have an Amazon affiliate link if anyone needs the Sherlock Holmes detective kit the most important thing to remember as Creek detective is it's not the bottom bracket it always sounds like it's the bottom bracket everyone thinks it's the bottom bracket the bottom bracket will Echo throughout the bicycle and throughout the whole universe you'll go to the bike shop it's not the bottom bracket it's it's the it's the the rear wheel it's the front wheel it's the pedals it's the headset in all my years of of creeks and and rattles and and all the noises one time one time it was in fact the bottom bracket all right step one as I smoke my crack pipe as Creek detective step one is think about it just think about it think what have you changed lately on your bike did you did you take the wheels off to put in your car did you recently uh travel somewhere or switch pedals or put new cleats on it's probably something obvious it's probably the thing if you just took your front wheel off to clean the bike maybe maybe that front through Axle just needs a quarter turn and you'll be back to normal there are people out there who took their bottom bracket apart only to find that it was the CO2 cartridge banging against their seat post in the saddlebag so if you check your pedals and you you checked your your through axle quick release whatever if you went through the obvious uh recent changes and the creek persists it's time to go to step two you test it what I mean is testing it is when you're when you're riding think about the possible noises so first if you can do this safely if the noise goes away when you're riding no hand that means it's something in the probably means it's the headset or the stem bolts something like that so if you're not if you're not touching those contact points then you can eliminate that possibility pedal with with one leg pedal each leg by itself and see if it only creaks on one side then that means it's your pedal on that side or maybe it's your cleats over there try coasting if it still makes a sound when you're coasting that means it's nothing to do with the drivetrain maybe it only happens when you're standing up then it's definitely in the in the stem bolts or the headset category if it only happens when you're seated you check the the seat bolt clamp all this little this little region don't sleep on the derailleur hanger screw when you go through that sometimes your bottle cage bolts will rattle open a little bit at the end of step two uh have a look at the bottom bracket and then slap yourself because remember it's not the bottom bracket just do a lap of the bike just have a look at the whole bike front to back and and check each of the screw I'm not saying over tighten all the screws just check if they're torqued to spec you don't want to over tighten them that's how you break carbon but just give a look and see if there's something that just needs a little bit of love a little quarter turn uh solves a lot of noises step three clean it Lube it give the whole bike a wash clean the chain get all the gunk out of your pulleys get the chewing gum out of your disc brakes check if your disc brakes are bent and warped sometimes that'll happen less so with the 12 speed and the 11 speed and that's a very distinctive noise you should get to know the the disc brake clicky noise and that's one that will happen when you're not pedaling whatever you do do not open and clean your bottom bracket we're not there yet it's still not the bottom bracket if cleaning doesn't solve it now we're in step four maintenance this is where you might have to open your wallet go to competitivecyclist.com get yourself a chain Checker every every cyclist should have a chain Checker what will happen here this is kind of an aside but if you put too many miles on your bike your chain will stretch and what happens if your chain stretches too far now you've worn out your chain and it'll destroy your cassette if you replace your chain often enough you replace it when it gets to 0.75 and when it's not like off the chain Checker chart if you replace it often enough theoretically your cassette could last forever I've had cassettes last for four or five years A lot of times a new chain a new cassette won't just quiet everything down now this is a scary one I don't like to bring this up a really loud noise a really scary sounding noise sometimes that could be cracked carbon I've had uh it's a long time ago I've had a cracked frame and it was one like my bike was loud for a long time and I couldn't figure out what it was and I was checking all the things and then under the the bottom bracket shell there was a little noise in there that uh that that that was the actual problem sometimes your bike will tell you uh when it's cracked but pray for it that that might that might be your issue and that has happened more frequently than the bottom bracket ah finally now that I've smoked more crack the bottom bracket what you'll find is you'll open it up you'll take the thing out and there's nothing in there and there's no moving whatever and it probably wasn't the bottom bracket to begin with the one time it was the bottom bracket what I did was I I opened it up I took everything out I cleaned it I put the the thick grease on there and then just a couple little layers of plumber's tape so just this this little thin layer of plastic on there will keep your drain from whatever plumbers do I don't know I'm not a plumber the plumber needs his bottom bracket fixed call me but you'll put this over the threads that just gives a little bit more so it's you know a creek is just something moving that's not supposed to so you give a little bit of shim a little bit of remove some of the space in there a tiny bit of plastic little grip and that might take care of it then what happens is you'll put the bottom bracket back in and the noise will still persist because you messed up the first four steps somewhere it was never the bottom bracket to begin with now if that happens you go back to Step One or you do the thing that you probably did four steps ago which is you just take it to the bike shop just just leave it at the professionals I have found when you go to the bike shop don't tell them my bottom bracket is making a noise replace it because they'll just give you new bottom bracket and do what you told them to you tell them I have a noise I don't know what it is please solve it be specific and make sure they know the job is to eliminate the sound and not replace something that doesn't need replacing I'm sure that I missed something leave a comment what's the weird Creak that you had to sleuth that required your crack pipe and your and your Sherlock Holmes at I'm interested please [Music]

Channel: Phil Gaimon

Views: 66,801

Keywords: endurance sports, tourism, travel, bike, bike riding, strava, KOM, phil gaimon, cycling, climbing, pro cycling, worst retirement ever, strava KOM, mavic, castelli, gaimon, everesting

Id: guF3Vn3VlYw

Length: 6min 55sec (415 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 06 2023