my faith in ultegra bb has been restored

[02GF74]

I think I posted about the creak in my ultegra BB - probably done about 500 miles?

I mnaged to remove it, turn it over by hand and it was smoother than a smooth thing that had been hit with a smoothing brush.

So thought I refit it and give it one last chance.
I lube the spliney things and tightened up the arms - I did notice that one of the hex nuts was not as tight as the other - did them up until I could feel the cranks were on as far as they could go. Took it for a spin on Sunday and woo hoo - sorted.

I guess one of the cranks was ever so slightly loose, loose enough to make nasty clicking.

But it has restored my faith in Shimano components.

 

[fossyant]

Or the BB shell wasn't tight enough - same effect !

 

[GrahamG]

That's apparently quite common - I recently installed a Chorus triple and had creaking after about 50 miles but I remembered reading about the fact that crank arms generally need a second tightening (something to do with the soft Alu on a hard steel axle?), I was shocked at just how loose the bolts were compared to when I installed them.