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A shop owner in Dayton told me to stop chasing creaks with the bike in the stand, and he was dead right
Back when I was coming up at a shop off 3rd Street, I had a customer's bike making this creak on every pedal stroke. I had it in the stand, yanking on the cranks, checking chainring bolts, greasing the BB threads, the works. Probably spent 90 minutes on it. The owner walks by and says, "Take it off the stand and ride it around the block first, then tell me where it's coming from."
I felt kind of dumb but I did it. Turned out it was the saddle rails. Not the bottom bracket at all. The stand was putting weight on the frame in a way that killed the noise and masked it.
Now I ride every creaky bike before I touch a single bolt. Saves me so much time. Anyone else got a shortcut like that they picked up from an old timer?
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the_brooke19d ago
My dad did the same thing with our dishwasher, swore it was the motor and messed with it for two hours before my mom pointed out the whole machine was leaning cause one foot was loose. Same deal, the thing only rattled when it was actually running full of dishes, not when he had it pulled out testing it dry. Once you notice that pattern you start seeing it everywhere, the thing only acts up under real conditions.
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