
:The Creak
It came from nowhere. It started small, an innocuous *click, click, click*. The following week that click began to be a creak and in turn that creak began to sound like an earth shattering groan with each turn of the non drive side crank.
I could feel it though my shoe.
I’m not sure about you but I don’t want to hear anything other than the calming spin of the chain through the jockey wheels. So having a creak like this is, in short, fucking annoying.
So, after two weeks of hopeing it would go away, I pulled the cranks off, put in a spare bottom bracket, pulled off the chainrings and reassembled everything.
*CREEEEEEEEEEAK*
And there is was.
Another few rides pass and nothing changes, so I swap the pedal from my other bike.
And it’s even worse.
What the hell is this?
Off comes the pedal (and the one it replaced) and into the workshop. I pull off the end caps, only to be reminded these ATAC pedals are ‘non serviceable’. Nice. Plenty of grease regardless.
On they go again, plenty of grease on the spindles too.
Then the ride.
2 hours of almost quiet… except for a feint *click, click, click*.
Ok. Ride one leg. Look like a fool but the click goes away. Ride the other leg and still look like a fool. There it is.
But get out of the saddle (both feet on the pedals!) and away it goes. That’s counter intuitive as it should get louder.
I’m at wit’s end.
So I finish the ride, turn off all the various gadgets, stand and ponder. Then in an act of desperation I grab a handful of crank arm and push.
And there it is, I can even feel it.
It’s not the bloody pedals at all, it’s the arm/spindle interface (I thought I ‘sorted’ that??).
Ok, so they’ll come off now and receive the royal treatment.
We’ll see if that works…
PS: it did.
Tags:ATAC,bike,ride
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