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I've bought a new road bike with disk brakes from Canyon (Endurace AL Disc 8.0) and have it now for a month.

Since the beginning it makes a loud cracking/creaking noise. It sounds metallic, almost like the noise you get when placing a bike upside down, spinning a wheel and bringing it to a full stop instantly with the disk brakes. I sounds like it is coming from the front wheel, although I'm not so sure of that.

The noise only appears, when i cycle uphill at a rather steep gradient and especially when I stand up on the bike. The noise is consistently triggered when the right foot is at its lowest point. I can also eliminate the noise by sitting down in my saddle and applying a more constant force to the pedals.

Unfortunately it's quite hard to tell where the noise is coming from since I have to be climbing a hill in order to hear it.

What could be making that noise and how do I fix it?

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  • Can you add the exact model of bike? Different bottom bracket variations are more or less prone to creaks and noises, and knowing the exact model will enable others to comment and answer much more specifically.
    – Andrew Henle
    Commented Mar 1, 2019 at 11:03
  • My bet is on the pedals - remove them, grease the threads and then refit.
    – Andy P
    Commented Mar 1, 2019 at 12:03
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    My first guess is that you're starting to get old, and that's your bones! After that, it could be a pedal, bottom bracket, wheel flexing/spoke noise, et al. But my second best guess is that the frame is flexing and throwing the caliper slightly off.
    – Daniel R Hicks
    Commented Mar 1, 2019 at 13:16
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    This is normal for a new bike isn't it? It's just natural loosening of everything - good bike shops should offer you a free mini service to get everything tightened back up once you've broken it in after a month or so.
    – Mr_Thyroid
    Commented Mar 1, 2019 at 23:38
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    @Criggie Canyon sell bikes direct, over the internet. I'm not sure you can buy them in shops.
    – David Richerby
    Commented Mar 4, 2019 at 10:45

8 Answers 8

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Strangely, I have a Canyon and suffered the same creaking / clicking which developed after a couple of years of ownership. It would appear when putting power down on ie. Hills. In every examination - the noise appeared to come from the front - the chainset - and only under harder effort on hills.

Firstly, you need to look at and consider the obvious.

  • pedals - smooth with no play?
  • bottom bracket - is it worn?
  • crank fastening bolt(s) - is the top hat on tightly? and the non drive side fastening bolts (for Shimano) tight?

Then consider the not so obvious. And consider noise to be caused by the tiniest amount of movement between the cranks where the main force is being applied - all the way back to and through the rear axle.

So starting at the front end with the cranks...

  • chainring bolts. Make sure they are tight and have a decent amount of thread on them. 3rd party alloy chainring bolts often minimalise the amount of thread.

  • quick release levers. Are they on tight enough? Lightweight 3rd party skewers can be a little flimsy on the clamp and tiny movements on the axle can cause noise. Try using a Shimano one for instance - and see if the noise subsides.

  • cassette. Is it wobbling on the the freehub? If it is - check the lockring. If the lockring is tight - then your freehub might be worn.

  • rear derrailleur - is the rear mech fastened tightly to the frame?

  • rear derrailleur hanger - has this loosened over time? (this happened to be my issue!) The tiny allen key fastenings bolting the replaceable hanger to the frame can come loose. As was the case in my problem. Amazingly, the tiny movements from the rear mech hanger - caused the noises at the front of my bike. It took me many months to work this out - and in this time I stripped down the chainset at least twice and needlessly replaced the bottom bracket.

Best of luck in your hunt.

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    Since the bike is new worn parts might not be a reason for the noise. But also since it is new rechecking the correct tightening of any screw is a good idea. This is normally done at the shop where you take your bike back for a check-up after the first couple of hundred km. With a direct seller like Canyon you'll have to do it either for yourself if you have the skills or pay for the service at a LBS.
    – Carel
    Commented Mar 1, 2019 at 11:10
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You are riding uphill. Frame is bending when applying power to pedals. That's normal. My first guess would be that your disc brake pads are rubbing against disc when applying force to pedals. Frame and calipers move, disc stays still. Try to widen distance between pads on your bike or try to slightly touch your brakes at that power to see if there is a change of sound. If nothing happens move on searching for another problem.

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Firstly, if the noise is in synch with crank rotation it's being caused by the crank or something associated with it.

If the creaking gets worse when the force on the cranks is higher, either through going uphill or standing up (which produces a higher peak force for the same average power), that points to the bottom bracket. I though this would be due to press fit BB bearings, but when I looked up your bike specs i see it has a BSA threaded BB. Check that is tight and the bearing run smooth.

Pedals are another possibility. Check bearings run smooth, cleats tight etc. If you have a friend who would be willing to swap pedals temporarily you can rule these on or out.

Also check to see if the chain is hitting the front derailleur cage, when you apply more force the frame may flex enough for this to happen.

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    Firstly, if the noise is in synch with crank rotation it's being caused by the crank or something associated with it. Before this, I used to think that too, but now I'd say that's a bit too strong of a statement. It's probably caused by the crank or something associated with it. Hard pedaling puts significant twisting forces on the bottom bracket, and the asymmetric forces will be transmitted to the wheels as a sideways force.
    – Andrew Henle
    Commented Mar 1, 2019 at 17:41
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    @AndrewHenle I don’t disagree, but BB area is definitely the place to start
    – Argenti Apparatus
    Commented Mar 1, 2019 at 17:47
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    @AndrewHenle I'd say, it's a) crank screws and b) front wheel axle where you should start, both roughly equally important. Crank screws are important because a loose crank quickly takes damage, and front wheel axle because it's an obvious security concern.
    – cmaster - reinstate monica
    Commented Mar 1, 2019 at 23:07
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If it sounds like the sound is coming from your front wheel, it may be coming from your front wheel.

You could have a problem such as a cracked rim on the front wheel that only makes noise when a specific, not-usually-encountered force is applied, and that force is only applied when you're in a certain position.

Look for cracks in the rim around the spokes, and, assuming a normal rim-brake wheel, on the brake tracks, especially where the sidewall of the rim/brake track joins with the rest of the rim. Cracks aren't likely on a front wheel - unless you have one with a manufacturing defect. Which is possible.

(I had an almost identical problem - creaks from the front wheel at specific points in my pedal stroke when pushing harder. I never could figure it out until one of the front wheel spokes pulled completely through the rim where the rim had cracked. That caused the noise to stop. But that wheel had literally tens of thousands of miles on it.)

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    In this case, it's a disc-braked bike (Endurance AL Disc 8.0), though your tips about rim-braked wheels will hopefully be useful to somebody else in the future.
    – David Richerby
    Commented Mar 1, 2019 at 17:53
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    Detemining direction of noises while riding is hard. Pedal/BB/seat clamp are all in a direct line with the rider. One idea would be to get rider's head very low over the bars while riding and try to hear where the sound is coming from. Also, frames can be excellent at moving sounds around confusing the source even more.
    – Criggie ♦
    Commented Mar 1, 2019 at 23:41
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A farfetched possibility, but -- check the integrity of your frame. I know it's new; check it anyhow.

I had a similar situation, creaking from somewhere low on the bike when I applied max force to the pedals. I thought it was my bottom-bracket bearing or perhaps my crank. It turned out to be a crack in the frame near the bottom bracket; eventually, it got bad enough to be visible, and to let the chainring wobble visibly as I pedaled.

RIP, Shogun 1500; you gave me 30 good years of service.

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Seems like the problem solved itself...

I checked the if the crank was loose in any way (which it didn't seem to be) and newly screwed in the right pedal. I checked if the noise was still there and, unfortunately it was.

The day after, however, the noise disappeared. It is now the second day and I haven't heard the noise since. I'm not sure if it really was the pedal but at least I got what I wanted. Thanks for all the answers!

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  • This would be consistent with spoke noise.
    – Daniel R Hicks
    Commented Mar 4, 2019 at 23:36
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I had the same problem. I ended up putting washers at each inner side of the rear wheel skewer and making them really tight because there was movement when going uphill and applying pressure to the rear wheel. Problem fixed!

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I would start with the QR skewers and dropouts as it's the easiest to fix. I personally had this problem whenever I apply huge force on the pedal (e.g. standing up pedaling) and thought it was the BB but it turned out to be paint flaking off the dropout. Greasing them helped quietened the bike.

Also check your chain ring and make sure those bolts are torqued down nicely (depending on your manufacturer's torque specs but usually it's ~5-10nm for aluminium/aluminum bolts).

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