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?

3 comments

3 Comments

jakeb251mo 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_thomas1mo ago

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

piperwhite1mo agoMost Upvoted

That rubber washer on the cage bolt is the real culprit half the time. It dries out and starts squeaking against the frame. The sound gets sent right down the carbon like a tuning fork. I always put a tiny bit of grease on those washers now during a build. Saves so much headache later.