Clicking Noise from my crankset

Tighten the crank bolts first...

MRhine5 said:

I'm riding a Cannondale F300 that's about 3 years old. Great bike, never had any problems with it. Then, about a week ago, I started noticing a clicking noise coming from my crankset when i'm climbing, or in a high gear on flat ground. Basically, any time there's a strain on it. Anyone heard of this or experienced it before? Thanks.

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I've had clicking, squeaking and noises somewhere in between on my crappy splined Shimano LX crankset. Being 3yrs old, I'd asssume your bike has some kind of splined crank/BB combo. My clicks and squeaks came from the splined interface, tightening the crank bolts helped but didn't eliminate them. Replacing BB didn't eliminate clicks either. Along with shorter BB life, this is another "advantage" of splined cranks.

sweetdaddy said:

I've had clicking, squeaking and noises somewhere in between on my crappy splined Shimano LX crankset. Being 3yrs old, I'd asssume your bike has some kind of splined crank/BB combo. My clicks and squeaks came from the splined interface, tightening the crank bolts helped but didn't eliminate them. Replacing BB didn't eliminate clicks either. Along with shorter BB life, this is another "advantage" of splined cranks.

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Thanks. Not quite what i wanted to hear, but I appreciate the reply. I'll try tightening them up tonight.

MRhine5 said:

Thanks. Not quite what i wanted to hear, but I appreciate the reply. I'll try tightening them up tonight.

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Also, while you are down there, make sure your chainring bolts are tight.

Is it a shimano crank? The LX and XT models have a separate spider and crankarm which are held together by a lockring. This was the source of the noise on my bike. I solved the problem by removing the lock ring, taking the spider and crank apart, cleaning greasing and tightening up real tight (on a scale of 1 to tight, I would say "tight +2")

I had this problem on my bike.. turned out the BB was unscrewing itself :X

EDIT: just wanted to mention.. mine started out as a very quiet click noise on the downward stroke on the left. IT continualy got worse to the point where I was afraid to pedal hard at all on the bike. At that point it did it on the downward stroke on both sides and very loudly.