[cham]

Had some creaking in my Santa Cruz Blur. Have rebuit all pivots When installing the bottom bracket would you reccomend using locktite or grease. Have read / heard pros and cons pertaining to each. Your thoughts / suggestions would be greatly apprectiated. Thank you in advance. Scott

Also.. if someone could guide me to the area on this site where I can learn how to upload a picture so it would post when I am using the message boards it would be appreciated.

 

[supercorsa]

either grease or anti-sieze, you don't want loctite.

 

[beeristasty]

What about teflon tape?

 

[Speedub.Nate]

I'm a fan of teflon tape on the bottom bracket cartridge (or cup) threads, and anti-sieze on the BB shell threads.

First crop your photo because we don't want to see your garage door, if you know what I mean.

Resize your photo to an acceptable width -- 400 to 800 is a good range depending on what you're posting.

After resizing, experiment with sharpening to get the edges back.

Save it in .jpg format and find a compression that doesn't make your spokes jaggie, but gets the photo under 200k in size. Anywhere from 50% to 80% (or 5 to 8) works for me depending on what software I'm using.

Use the | Upload Photos | selection underneath the banner ad up above.

Follow the instructions for uploading, and copy the image location.

I prefer to use htmo IMG tags like so:

to add the photo to the post.

Most common mistakes are misspelling IMG SRC (Image Source), forgetting the quotation marks on either end of the address, and forgetting the https://.

 

[ignazjr]

I'm a fan of teflon tape on the bottom bracket cartridge (or cup) threads, and anti-sieze on the BB shell threads.

I'd opt for liberal amounts of grease on the bb threads, although I've used teflon tape in the past with some success. About the only time I use it, though, is if the bb cups thread in and feel kind of "loose." I had that problem once - couldn't get rid of a bb creak, no matter what. Turns out, the threads just weren't perfect in the frame (annodized frame) so I used teflon tape to snug it up. Worked like a charm. I was working for Schwinn at the time and I ran it by an engineer. He mentioned that it was a pretty common problem with annodized frames.

On the other hand, I've removed bottom brackets from bikes in which teflon tape was used unneccesarily. Not fun. Bottom brackets so tight I had to rely on non-normal means for removal. Unless you're into the bb tool in the vise/using the frame as leverage method or using a 4' pipe on the end of a wrench, I'd stick with grease first.

 

[Speedub.Nate]

I've removed bottom brackets from bikes in which teflon tape was used unneccesarily. Not fun. Bottom brackets so tight I had to rely on non-normal means for removal. Unless you're into the bb tool in the vise/using the frame as leverage method or using a 4' pipe on the end of a wrench, I'd stick with grease first.

No, it's really not like that. I've use teflon tape + anti-sieze on a lot of BB installatons, and let me make it perfectly clear that removal has never, ever been a problem, even though the bottom brackets are installed to their full 50 ft-lbs of recommended torque.

 

[Homebrew]

Honestly, you can use whatever you want. They all work equally well. I think what's more important is proper torque. Check the installation instructions on your bb.

However, I doubt that's the source of your creak. The pipe spindles on splined bb don't creak nearly as much as old square taper. Check the shock pivots (especially the rear), seatpost, pedals, etc.

 

[ignazjr]

No, it's really not like that. I've use teflon tape + anti-sieze on a lot of BB installatons, and let me make it perfectly clear that removal has never, ever been a problem, even though the bottom brackets are installed to their full 50 ft-lbs of recommended torque.

Probably because you're using anti-seize along with it. I could see where that would help. I'm only reporting on my experience of what I've found once I get the bb out. That's part of the reason that I use tape in limited circumstances. Some of the most confouded bb removals I've experienced have had teflon tape involved (and no evidence of extra lube or anti seize).

 

[dukeblaster]

NEVER CEASE... get that i had the same problem and it kicked it in the butt. i use the stuff all the time at work (mechanical engineering) its good stuff. basically you can tighten the nut much tighter then you normally could with it bare. The forces generated by tightening the nut will keep it from wiggling around (making the noise go away) and will keep your bracket tight. Also that stuff will allow you to remove your bottom bracket much easier if you havta replace it. go buy it at your hardware store, its like a gray sparkley past or sometimes coppery color. teflon tape makes a mess and is hard to remove later.

 

[dukeblaster]

oh by the way if its not the part of the BB that attaches to your frame don't use never cease on the pedal attactment. don't use anything on that. if the noise is coming from your crank arm/bb joint my advice is to clean that joint as much as possible. Use a harsh solvent such as gasoline or some other fuel to dissolve anything like oil that has gotten on there. The square type spindles that attach your crank arm should not be lubed with anything. i unfortunately made that mistake and its a pain in the butt to fix. however if its the bb/frame joint put never cease on that and it'll fix it.

 

[jrm]

Teflon tape...

Had some creaking in my Santa Cruz Blur. Have rebuit all pivots When installing the bottom bracket would you reccomend using locktite or grease. Have read / heard pros and cons pertaining to each. Your thoughts / suggestions would be greatly apprectiated. Thank you in advance. Scott

Also.. if someone could guide me to the area on this site where I can learn how to upload a picture so it would post when I am using the message boards it would be appreciated.

Is the way to go. I had the same thing happen using a american classic BB in my blur. But in the end it only provided a temperary fix to the situation. it turned out that the BB was at fault and once changed BB's the creak was gone...

 

[Speedub.Nate]

Probably because you're using anti-seize along with it. I could see where that would help. I'm only reporting on my experience of what I've found once I get the bb out. That's part of the reason that I use tape in limited circumstances. Some of the most confouded bb removals I've experienced have had teflon tape involved (and no evidence of extra lube or anti seize).

Not trying to turn this in a tit-for-tat kind of thing, but I only began using the anti-sieze in combination with the teflon tape maybe two years ago. Prior to that, and this is going back a ways, I was using teflon tape exclusively as an alternative to grease. I'm not claiming to have been the first to do this, either -- but I can't recall where I picked up the technique (Sloan's bicycle maintenance book, possibly?). Teflon is, after all, a lubricant.

Now, if you want to talk about difficulty of getting the threads cleaned up after cup or cartridge removal, I'll agree with you there. The teflon tape basically disintegrates and needs to be scraped out with a dental pick.

But in any case, I think we all agree that what's important is that there is some type of lubricant on the threads, even if it's plain old grease, and that it's installed with proper torque.

 

[Speedub.Nate]

The square type spindles that attach your crank arm should not be lubed with anything. i unfortunately made that mistake

Oh, com'mon, let's not take this thread in that direction. :-(

 

[ignazjr]

Now, if you want to talk about difficulty of getting the threads cleaned up after cup or cartridge removal, I'll agree with you there. The teflon tape basically disintegrates and needs to be scraped out with a dental pick.

But in any case, I think we all agree that what's important is that there is some type of lubricant on the threads, even if it's plain old grease, and that it's installed with proper torque.

Exactly. If it's lubed and in there tight, the bb should remain creak free.