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That moment I figured out bottom bracket creaks are almost always the chainring bolts
Spent last Saturday tearing my whole drivetrain apart on a 2019 Trek Emonda... checked the BB, regreased it, even swapped pedals. After like 2 hours I remembered a guy at the shop in Portland told me to torque the chainring bolts to 14 Nm instead of just snug. Tightened them all and the creak vanished... has anyone else had that same false trail with bottom brackets?
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hannahw301mo ago
@drew965 Yeah apparently there IS an actual spec. I used to just snug them down with a hex key and call it good. But now I won't touch a bike without a torque wrench on those bolts. Had the exact same thing happen where I chased a phantom BB creak for weeks on my old cross bike. Finally torqued chainring bolts to spec and boom, gone. Feels stupid how simple the fix was.
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kim.xena1mo ago
Yep, chased that phantom creak for weeks too. Torque wrench fixed it instantly.
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