Annoying squeak
 

Diagnosing creaks and squeaks remotely via text may be a fool's errand, still thought I'd seek out some wisdom. Setup is ~2011 Super Record 11 (white label) cranks and derailleurs, Chorus cassette and chain.

I have developed an annoying squeak in my drivetrain. I believe I've localized it to either the BB/crankset or RD pulley wheels since it only occurs under power and doing a thorough cassette/chain cleaning and re-lube fails to cure it. It seems more pronounced in the {small ring—larger cogs} combos but still present in others.

Unfortunately, I can't localize the sound with the bike on the stand since it apparently requires more force than I can deliver by hand.

My plan is to first remove the chain and lube the jockey wheels, and if that doesn't eliminate the sound then remove the cranks and re-lube the BB cups. I built it up in November and thought I was pretty careful applying grease in the cups at the time, but perhaps I should have been more generous.

If you pals have other potential suggestions for investigation I'd like to hear 'em since I don't have a torque wrench that goes to 40+ Nm, which means that crankset removal will then require a trip to the LBS.

Thanks

Your headline made me fear your CD Player was stuck playing Justin Bieber songs. I'm glad it's not THAT serious. :-)

what pedals?

have you ridden the bike putting down significant power with just rubber soled street shoes (sneakers) to see if the squeak is still there. pedal/cleat interfaces are infamous squeakers.

This is a very good idea. I would also check the rear skewer and make sure it is clean and tight.

If those don't get anywhere, pulleys would be a good place to start for squeaks

does the squeak happen the same place in the pedal stroke? shoe/crank arm rub? Cleat wear? I usually think of a 'squeak' would involve a metal/non-metal contact...

Speedplay Zero pedals, freshly lubed spindles and relatively recently lubed cleats. I haven't tried riding sans cleats, will put that on the list though my shoe/pedals combo has moved across several bikes without this noise so I'm doubtful that's the cause. Probably a good idea to re-apply some grease to the spindle threads anyway.

Memory says no, and I'm sure there's no crank arm rub.

I had a Colnago CX-0 act up like that, turned out to be the seatpost needed greasing.

2nd on the insufficiently-tight rear QR.

I've gotten rid of a similar squeak/creak by tightening the pedal into the crankarm with the proper/full amount of torque.

Do you ever get the squeak while riding off the saddle? That eliminates the saddle and post right there.

Pedal-to-cleat and cleat-to-shoe are both common sources of squeak or creak.

I would say that stem and bar are less common to be a source of noise than on older bikes.

Some noises get diagnosed by swapping parts like wheels, pedals, shoes or saddle+post, which is simpler when you have more than one bike and pair of shoes.

My first thought was cleats too.

Tighten/swap the seatpost. Crap, dddd just beat me to that recommendation!

Squeaks and creaks travel sometimes. Very annoying...

Or turn the radio up to 11. You won't hear the squeak. :)

Hello - I experienced a similar squeak not too long ago when applying force to the pedals. No force, no squeak. I suspected the PF30 BB, so I reinstalled, regreased, cleaned and lubed everything. After all that, I still hear the squeak. As a last resort, I swapped wheels. Squeak was gone. Turns out the freehub bearings were shot. I replaced the bearings and am now squeak free.

For the third time, seatpost. Take it out, wipe it clean, thin coat of whatever your setup requires and put it all back together.

I had this once and had to sell the bike.

No, seriously, it was the skewers.

I thought pedals, but nope. Then I thought BB, but nope. I took it to the shop and had two of the wrenches ride it around on carpet and they thought it was bb too, but nope It was the skewers.

Take out, grease them up a bit both on the length of the rod and the ends and see if that helps any.

On my CAAD10 when I got out of the saddle the squeak went away. After fooling around with the seatpost a bunch, I finally figured out it was the Selle Italia saddle. I could actually lube the spots where the rails enter the plastic, and for a day the sound went away.

Swap out the entire rear wheel, if you can. That will eliminate the cassette, hub, and skewer in on shot, or isolate it to those three components.

That should at least help to narrow it down quickly.

A ‘squeak’? I’m guessing chain dry or pulleys, lotsa grease inside those. Doubt it’s the BB.