Bicycles make all kinds of noises; the whizz of a smoothly oiled chain running its merry course, the clicks of the gear shifters, the reciprocating clacks of the chain engaging with a different cog, the the drone of the tires on tarmac, or the crunch on gravel.  They are all part of biking and are perfectly harmonious and in fact, pleasing to the ear.  What's dreadful is when you hear things that are not harmonious; things which are not right.  Even as a child, I'd be extremely distressed if the cheap pedals on my kids' bike used to make clicking noises, and that aspect of me has not changed in the least.  Of late, my rides have been accompanied by a god-awful creak, and it was wearing me down.  To hear an unwanted creak a couple of times on a short ride is one thing, but when I do my randonneuring rides, I don't plug into any music device; I prefer to listen to the sounds of nature, and the calming sounds of my bike. With this creak however, it meant having to listen to it hundreds and thousands of times, over and over and over, during the course of a long ride spanning several hours.

Identifying the source of a noise correctly can be quite challenging, given that there are several other things outdoors that are hard to cancel out, such as wind, vehicular noise etc. An indoor trainer is therefore one of the best bets, particularly if it's silent itself. My Turbo Muin II is ninja-quiet, so I mounted it and tried my first set of tests.

I was able to easily produce the creak on the trainer, and now, I needed to get the source. I suspected that the noise was from the fork/steerer/handlebar section, so I removed my hands and clutched my top-tube, and the noise went away! This made me feel that the problem was in the front. I inspected the fork and bearings and found that the bearings had actually suffered a lot of corrosion due to water ingress. I changed the bearings, confident that the problem had been fixed, but the creak was to be my companion on my next few rides too, driving me close to insanity. I took it to the LBS today, where their chief mechanic, a guy with over 35 years of experience being a crank, gave it a quick once-over, listened to my notes, and stated that the problem was not in the fork, but resonance related. By putting my hand on the top-tube, I'd unwittingly dampened the vibration, leading to the quelling of the noise. He tightened everything that needed tightening, greased the inside of the seat-post, but all to no avail. The stubborn creak refused to go away.  He told me to come back for a service on June 8 (they are fully booked till then!) and that the issue was only irritating and not dangerous. I returned home, a bit happier with the knowledge that it wasn't unsafe, but decided to take another stab at fixing it myself.

I wanted to test the resonance theory more, so this time, I took my hands off the handlebars, but kept spinning, without holding on to anything else. Sure enough, I continued to be able to hear the creak. This all but cleared the fork.  The options now were seat post, and cranks. I took my legs off the pedals and tried to shift my weight from side to side, without producing the creak. I tried moving my legs in a pedalling motion, without actually pedalling, and bingo! I heard the creaks again, so it exonerated the BB/crank. Since the saddle post itself had been removed, cleaned, and greased during the inspection, I concentrated on the seat post clamp itself, which hadn't been removed. Sure enough, there was gunk between the clamp and the post! I cleaned it and tightened it again and got on the trainer again, and started spinning. Ah, the silence was so sweet! Just the whizz of the chain and the muted gurgle of my ultra-silent trainer! If feelings could write themselves into words, I'd have been able to pen beautiful poetry! All is well again!

Here's the audio recording of the creak, if you are curious! https://soundcloud.com/prashanth-chengi/creak2