Servicing rear hub.

[Kell]

Well I oiled almost everything I could think of and now I'm convinced it's NOT pedal related.

When I stand up, it goes, but when I sit down it comes back.

Tried oiling the seat rails, but that's not cured it.

I have SPDs and if I unclip the left pedal, and pedal only with the right pedal, it creaks, (and vice versa).

So I'm now pretty sure it's seatpost/saddle related somehow.

Interestingly, it pissed down on my commute this morning, and the squeak went...

 

[12boy]

Assuming the BB is tight and inserted with grease, the crank arm bolts are tight, the seat post is snug there are only 2 things that come to mind. I had to tighten down fairly tightly on my suspension block bolt, after greasing it, to get that squeak to go. The downward force of pedaling makes it compress far more than road bumps. I have actually found getting this to be quiet the most challenging part of normal maintenance, far more finicky than swapping wheels, tires handle bars etc. If you have a leather saddle, a la Brooks, for example, they can also creak/squeak when riding under effort, climbing a hill,for example. If you do have a leather saddle you can grease the nut and contact points in the nose. There are whole threads on this topic. And, you can put a regular saddle on there as a test. I have learned to live with saddle creak and if I know it isn't something serious like failing BB or pedals,I don't mind so much. Both my Brooks and Velo Orange (Cardiff) saddles are damned squeakers.

 

[Kell]

Mine's the normal Brompton saddle - though I've not tried greasing where the rails go into the nose.

It's not there all the time, only if I pedal hard (i.e. uphill or accelerating).

When I was stopped at some lights today I tried pressing down on one of the pedals and could reproduce the creaking.

I wondered if it's this twisting force being applied that's creating the current noises. And therefore if it could be the rear swingarm being twisted. Which might explain why I cant reproduce the noises by standing on both pedals and jumping up and down.