Couple of maintenance questions.

[alanw89]

I've decided to start using my bike a bit more and want to try and sort a couple of things out.

First thing is a creeaking/cracking noise coming from the cranks I think, there octalink cranks and the ones i had before were the square tapered types. I looked up some stuff on the octalink kind and it seems like it might be a common thing but is there anyway to stop it. I was thinking of taking them off and greasing them up to see if that made a difference?

Second thing is my disc brakes, When i use the front one it seems inconsistent and jerky and makes a strange metallicy bubbling kind of noise. I tried doing some long hard stops to see if that helped but it didnt make any difference. I thought they might have needed bled but the bike is only about 6 months old and hasnt been used that much, now im starting to think the disc might be warped as it does rub at one point when the wheel is spinning. If so ill probably just put up with it unless theres an easy way to fix it.

Thanks for any help.

[P-Jay]

alanw89 said:

I've decided to start using my bike a bit more and want to try and sort a couple of things out.

First thing is a creeaking/cracking noise coming from the cranks I think, there octalink cranks and the ones i had before were the square tapered types. I looked up some stuff on the octalink kind and it seems like it might be a common thing but is there anyway to stop it. I was thinking of taking them off and greasing them up to see if that made a difference?

Second thing is my disc brakes, When i use the front one it seems inconsistent and jerky and makes a strange metallicy bubbling kind of noise. I tried doing some long hard stops to see if that helped but it didnt make any difference. I thought they might have needed bled but the bike is only about 6 months old and hasnt been used that much, now im starting to think the disc might be warped as it does rub at one point when the wheel is spinning. If so ill probably just put up with it unless theres an easy way to fix it.

Thanks for any help.

The creaking/cracking sounds like your bottom bracket, the large baring the Crank turns in. They can sometimes grumble for no good reason and when they're very new. You can check if it's working right by wiggling the top of the crank arm back and forth towards the frame, any movement and ether the BB is mullered or something’s not tight.

Decent entry level and above, rotors are really hard to warp. A lot of the time it the wheel that's a little loose. If it's the more hardcore bolt-through type it's probably the baring, if it's a quick release it might just be loose.

Other than that the Calliper may not be centred. The easiest way the adjust this is to

Loosen of the bolts that hold the calliper onto it mounting bracket a little so it can move freely.

Lift the front of the bike and spin the front wheel as fast as you can.

Jam on the front brake HARD, whilst holding the brake on, tighten the bolts again and it'll be centred.

However if you've been running it like that for a while the pads will be unevenly worn so when you replace them you'll need to centre it again.

Or it might be the pads have worn to the point where the spring that holds the pads off the rotor when you're not braking is hitting the rotor. Makes a squealing noise that sounds like the brake's about to explode, it'll knacker your rotor pretty quickly.

[gbbird]

The creaking could be the crank arms themselves coming a little loose. This has happened on both of my Octalink and square tapered cranks lately. Tightening the bolts on each crank arm as much as possible should hopefully solve the problem. If it persists then perhaps a new crankset might be in order.

g

[jerwatt]

I had creaking in the bottom bracket with a second hand bike I bought off ebay, square tapered as well. Turned out one of the taper bits was practically rounded so needed a new bottom bracket.

[alanw89]

I took the cranks off and greased everything up a bit and think its helped with the creaking.

I tightened up my front wheel and the brake still feels a bit funny but not as bad as it was but now my back brake is rubbish for some reason, i think ill just put up with it for now as its not really that important but thanks for the help.