Cracking, snapping, crunching cranks/transmission. Any ideas?

[PedalCat]

Dawes Discovery, 6 yrs old. Done approx 7000 miles. The pedals have seemingly always made (minor) snapping and cracking noises, but recently it has been worse. The crunching and cracking can now be felt through the seatpost and saddle. There isn't really any play in the bottom bracket, the gears work well enough, but it almost feels like the frame has lost a bit of its strength.
I will be taking it to my LBS soon but just wondered if any knowledgeable types might like to speculate.

 

[gbb]

There are so many possible reasons PedalCat.
Barring the obvious things like the BB etc, just upturn the bike and look carefully at the welds around your BB..or anywhere else on the bike for that matter.
I had a bike that crackled when i got out of the saddle, TBF, i didnt sense any feeling of weakness in the frame, but once i turned it over, i saw a whopping hairline crack in the weld between the BB and the downtube.
Scrap (well actually warranty job).

 

[Jimmy Doug]

There are so many possible reasons PedalCat.
Barring the obvious things like the BB etc, just upturn the bike and look carefully at the welds around your BB..or anywhere else on the bike for that matter.
I had a bike that crackled when i got out of the saddle, TBF, i didnt sense any feeling of weakness in the frame, but once i turned it over, i saw a whopping hairline crack in the weld between the BB and the downtube.
Scrap (well actually warranty job).

Yikes! You're making me worried. I've had these cracks 'n' snaps recently - but it's rare. Was it a constant noise?

 

[gbb]

Yikes! You're making me worried. I've had these cracks 'n' snaps recently - but it's rare. Was it a constant noise?

TBF, i think its rare for this to happen.
It was Nia Nirone circa 2005 maybe(pre C2C) , and i was always of the opinion it suffered from flex in the BB if i got out the saddle and gave it some.
Then occasionally i heard or felt a light crack sound, this went on for probably a month or so until i found this by pure chance really...

LBS said they'd never seen one like it, i tended to believe them. I do like to get out the saddle on hills, the bike's swinging, so am i, it must put a lot of stress through a frame.

On another bike, i had a horrible cracking from my then newish C2C Via Nirone with full carbon forks when i went over a bump. It seemed to be at the front. Took it to my LBS, he quicky identified it as a top cap/steerer bung that wanted nipping up, just a bit of play in the forks. Once done, it never came back.

 

[PedalCat]

Thanks gbb. I'll examine my bike and take it from there.

 

[Jimmy Doug]

Thanks gbb. I'll examine my bike and take it from there.

I'll do the same.