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Somewhere from the non-drive side of the drivetrain is coming loud squeak when I pedal hard.

The story is long. First I threaded the BB-ES25 incorrectly, and had to spend half an hour with a file to remove the 2 outermost threads (Conclusion: Never torque anything into aluminum with a wrench. Torque it by hand, then tighten by wrench.)

Then I installed my octalink crankarms, but lost the washer between the non-drive side fixing bolt and the crank arm.

After a couple of weeks, the BB lockring came loose, getting stuck against the crankarm and forcing me to carry the bike home.

After tightening it a lot*, another week passed and my non-drive side crankarm fell off. I tightened it a lot after that.

Recently I purchased a torque wrench and re-tightened everything. The BB lcokring to 70Nm and the crankarm fixing bolts to 50Nm.

There is still squeaking, and I guess it is not coming from the left pedal. What could be wrong now?

Conclusion:

After fixing the torque values, a week passed and now the creaking is just a memory.

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  • Are you sure its the bottom bracket area? Since bikes are a bunch of hollow metal tubes, they're pretty good at transmitting sounds around, so it could be something not in the BB area (such as a loose headset), or could be coming from the drive side. Does the noise happen if you put the bike on a stand and pedal it without your weight?
    – Batman
    Commented Jan 23, 2014 at 14:00
  • @Batman, the sound comes quite distinctly from the BB area, only under significant load. Maybe it could be the left pedal, but it's only 2 months old, and hasn't been tempered with. Also the headset was professionally installed. Also doing a track stand at a traffic light and stepping hard on the pedal (no bike movement, brakes squeezed) the problem manifests. I put a film of grease on the frame thread before installing the BB.
    – Vorac
    Commented Jan 23, 2014 at 14:26
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    @TylerJandreau, how else will I learn all this cool stuff?
    – Vorac
    Commented Jan 23, 2014 at 15:49
  • possible duplicate of Creaking bottom bracket
    – jimchristie ♦
    Commented Jan 27, 2014 at 2:40

1 Answer 1

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Never just tighten one side if a bracket if it isn't tight enough yet. Always do this:

  1. Untighten the lockring which is not fixed to the bracket (mostly left side).
  2. Tighten the bracket inside the frame very, very tight, while the lockring sits at its place very loosely.
  3. Tighten the lockring again.

It sounds like you may have tightened the lockring, while the bracket wasn't tight enough in the frame yet.

Also, let someone hold the bicycle. In this way, you can push your tool tightly in the lockring while using force on the tool.

And mind that the pedals on the cranck need grease, the crancks on the bracket needs grease, and the bracket inside the frame also need grease. Any of these parts can start to squek if no grease is used.

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