n
17

Spent 3 hours on a creaky bottom bracket that was just a loose chainring bolt

Had a customer bring in a road bike with a loud creak under load. I pulled the cranks, cleaned and greased the BB threads, checked the pedals, even re-torqued the seatpost. The noise kept coming back. Finally, after almost giving up, I went over every single chainring bolt with a 5mm hex. One was just a quarter turn loose. The whole job should have been a 15 minute check, not half my afternoon. Anyone else ever get totally fooled by a simple fix hiding behind a complex symptom?
3 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In
3 Comments
ramirez.blair
Man, does that ever hit close to home. Why is it always that one tiny bolt you don't check first? You go chasing the big, loud noise with the complicated fixes, and the real culprit is just sitting there laughing at you. I've lost whole afternoons the same way, and that feeling when you finally find it is pure relief mixed with a little bit of rage. Solidarity, it happens to the best of us.
6
mason847
mason8477d agoMost Upvoted
Tell you what, that rage part fades but the relief lasts forever.
6
andrewh43
andrewh437d ago
Ever notice how the simplest problems are always the hardest to find?
2