Pedal creak

[Kookas]

I'm constantly having to grease my pedals and cleats to stop them from creaking, should I just replace them? Pedals are two months old, cleats about six. But something's gone wrong somewhere.

 

[solidthegreat]

Should not have to touch pedals that often and certainly when new. I'm thinking that one of the pedals is not seating right, either slight cross thread or a bend somewhere. Is it only on one side.
Just out of interest what grease are you using on the pedal bearings and do you ride in water a lot or maybe even use a power washer to clean the bike. Sorry it's a lot just trying to eliminate possibilities.

 

[Kookas]

Should not have to touch pedals that often and certainly when new. I'm thinking that one of the pedals is not seating right, either slight cross thread or a bend somewhere. Is it only on one side.
Just out of interest what grease are you using on the pedal bearings and do you ride in water a lot or maybe even use a power washer to clean the bike. Sorry it's a lot just trying to eliminate possibilities.

It's Teflon grease, and I do do a fair bit of riding in the wet as it's my commuter. Plus, the bike used to get parked out for a few hours every weekday, whatever the weather (we now have a pretty good shelter at college, so all that is no longer).

 

[Kookas]

One thing that's weird, actually, is that I just went out for a test ride, and all my bike problems just 'faded away'. I've had an out of the saddle click for the past week - I couldn't replicate it on my test ride. And for a few revolutions, what I think was the pedal creak turned to a rougher, more clicky noise, then disappeared altogether and now I can't get it to creak either. Has my bike stopped trolling me?

 

[solidthegreat]

Perhaps there has been a little water getting in. Try stripping them down and regreasing te bearings fully. Then smear a very little onto the screw thread of the pedal itself and put them onto the crank arms. Just make sure they go on perfectly straight and tighten them reasonably tight but nothing crazy.
Failing that I think that the thread may have been damaged and the movement is the creaking noise.
Good luck

 

[solidthegreat]

Maybe the bottom bracket, how old is it?

 

[Kookas]

Whole bike is only 3 months old, and in that time has done about 600 miles. I went for another test ride after getting an idea, and I think it only creaks on one side of the left pedal (they're double-sided Shimano M520s) which explains why the noise went on the test ride before this one. It doesn't creak if I pedal unclipped on the left either, even if I put some power in.

The click noise still wasn't there though, and I'm so relieved for that. At least I know where the creak is coming from.

The thing is, the creak is temporarily cured with a bit of grease on the plate that hooks onto the cleat, which makes me question if it could really be more involved than that. But I've never seen pedals come with grease on that particular bit of metal, so it's odd that it needs the grease at all.

 

[Gravity Aided]

Are your cleats secured tightly to the shoe?

 

[Kookas]

Are your cleats secured tightly to the shoe?

Yeah. I've tried taking them apart and greasing them with lithium grease too, which didn't solve it. It was a guy at the LBS who fixed it by putting some grease under the plate. Said his SPD pedals creaked as well.

 

[Brommyboy]

What BB spindle do you have? If square taper, then likely that the end in the crank has rusted a bit. Remove the crank (you need a puller for this) the clean the spindle end and crank hole with a dry rag. To remove rust, use oil then wipe dry. Do not grease!!!! Refit and tighten, but be careful not to over-tighten as the crank will then split, cracking at one corner first. I use a 6" spanner for tightening so as not to over do it.