Spent 3 hours on a creak that was just a loose bottle cage bolt

Customer brought in a carbon road bike with a mystery bottom bracket creak. I pulled the crankset, checked the BB, regreased everything. The noise was coming from a front bottle cage bolt that had worked its way almost all the way out (you know, the kind with the little rubber washer). Ever have a simple fix hide behind hours of disassembly?

2 comments

2 Comments

jakeb251d ago

Honestly saw a video where a mechanic spent a full day chasing a creak on a gravel bike. They replaced the whole bottom bracket and chainring bolts. Turned out to be a tiny crack in the saddle rail that only made noise under pedaling force. It's wild how sound travels through a frame. Makes you check the easy stuff twice now.

skyler_thomas1d ago

Read about a guy who greased his seatpost and fixed a similar mystery creak.