Don't ignore creaks and squeaks.

[KneesUp]

Creaks are your bike telling you something - and that something might be important.

The steering on my bike has been making a noise for a few weeks. I thought I'd traced it to the gear cable moving slightly in the changer (bar end shifters) as I turned, and thought no more of it.

Then this morning on a thankfully short ride to my daughter's school taking the thing we'd both forgotten, I noticed that when the handle bars were straight, the front wheel wasn't, and vice-versa. More worrying that wasn't the case when I set off. The creak was because the stem had come loose. I would not have liked to discover this at high speed. I don't know why it didn't occur to me to check everything was tight when I tried to trace the noise (incorrectly) in the first place.

Public information broadcast ends

 

[Piemaster]

Creaks are your bike body telling you something - and that something might be important.

Once you get to a certain age, you start to expect it!

 

[mustang1]

The stem came loose many years ago on my Raleigh chopper. The front wheel came loose, and if I was a pink panther cartoon, I would watch it drift away from my bike as I rolled past it, before a crash.

I didn't learn my lesson because only a few years ago the handlebar of my road bike snapped as I was merrily cycling along.

However neither time did I notice any....squeeks.