Creaky: Follow-Up

The lower-end creak that I wrote about a while back on my road bike got worse last week. I did just over 41 miles on Saturday and a bit over 35 on Sunday of last weekend. Both days, after 15-20 miles the creak returned and got progressively louder.

I've been chasing this one for a while. First I thought it was the cleat/shoe interface. Tightened it. No dice. Replaced one of the T-nuts that was bad. No dice. Tried my back-up shoes and found the creak still there. OK, so process of elimination. Check the chainring bolts. All tight. Not that. Maybe the pedal? Nope. It's tight, too. And the creak primarily happens when I'm out of the saddle, so that eliminates a whole host of possibilities there.

With all of these items checked, this leaves one suspect - the crankset/bottom bracket. And modern technology has left me in the dust on this one.

Here, I digress. Through a friend I'd gotten connected to a different shop than the guys I've traditionally gone to. They did my component swap when I upgraded to Ultegra on the Giant OCR. Then when I picked up my Giant Defy Advanced, they swapped the components over to it. This Winter, I had them put fresh grease in my Shimano 105 hubs. They did the work quickly and cost-effectively, but I kept finding little things either left undone or done not-quite-right. Most were minor (not tightening the front brake mount down tight), but it seemed like something always wasn't correct.

So, this time, I returned to Great Lakes Cycling (in their super cool new location!). Owner Oscar Bustos has always been a good guy to deal with and head mechanic Steve Sauter built me some SWEET wheels for both my road and mountain bikes. A quick inspection reveals too much play in the bottom bracket and a more complete disassembly shows that not only did the previous shop sell me the wrong bottom bracket, they installed key parts incorrectly. Awesome.

Now, this does give me a cool opportunity. I love the Chris King brand, but haven't had an excuse to own any. And it turns out the Chris King now offers a press-fit bottom bracket to fit my bike! A little more expensive than the Shimano, but c'mon; it's hand-machined, 100% made in America, and bombproof. Done like dinner -- one is now en-route from Portland, Oregon. I'm hopeful to get it back soon, maybe even in time for a weekend ride. But we'll see.

Either way, this will repair a longstanding, highly annoying problem. I am pleased. And even happier with a cool component upgrade! A review will be forthcoming.

Road Bike 3.0

My trusty Giant OCR 3 is about to undergo some MAJOR changes. I'm pretty excited as this will be like getting a new bike - without spending $2,500 or more! I'm calling this Road Bike 3.0 as it's really the second major overhaul. After maxing out the stock wheels, which we evidently not created for a 200-pound gorilla, I had Steve Sauter at Great Lakes Cycle & Fitness build me up a new, stronger set. Shimano 105 hubs, with DT Swiss spokes, and Mavic rims gave me a light, stiff set of hoops. Huge difference and they've remained arrow-straight ever since.

Since getting this bike I've had one main complaint - the triple crankset. I never use the granny gear, and asking the front derailleur to cover that range makes for some pretty piss poor shifting. Not the that stock rear Shimano Sora derailleur is exactly a high-performance component.So, I guess generally the shifting sucks on this thing.

Enter my buddy Josh, who's upgrading his Trek Madone 5.2 with a full gruppo of SRAM Red. If you haven't seen this stuff, it's pretty incredible. Beautifully made, ultra light, and super-strong. The rear cassette is ONE MACHINED PIECE! Yes, you read that correctly.

So, Josh offers me a great deal on his current components - all Shimano Ultegra. Sweet! A component upgrade that eliminates the triple, gets me far better levers, and way more. On Saturday we meet up at Aberdeen Bike & Outdoor (great shop -- check it out if you haven't been there). As we chat with the service manager about my swap and how I'd like it done, Josh mentions he doesn't want his bars and stem either. The service manager turns to me and says, "So basically we're keeping the frame, fork, wheels and seat/seatpost...". Uh, yeah, actually that's about right.

In a couple of weeks, I'll have a righteous ride - with custom wheels and a full Shimano Ultegra gruppo. Needless to say this have me VERY motivated for the upcoming cycling season!

-Sean-