Should my 2 month old bottom bracket look like this?

I have recently been having this strange creaking/clicking noise with my Masi and it has been driving me crazy. At first I thought it was a crack in the frame but I can't find one anywhere so my next guess was that it is somewhere in my drivetrain. So I took apart my entire crank, chainring bolts and all, and removed the BB to regrease and reseal. As I took out the less than 2 month old BB I noticed a slight bit of water in the BB area of the frame (not sure how that got there). I wiped it off and inspected the BB before placing it back in when I noticed 2 things.

1. It is not a TruVativ BB like the bike is supposed to come with (a bit odd but this can happen with new bikes)

2. The BB looks a couple of years old with some severe rusting/bubbling on it (even if there was a lot of water not sure how it could get this bad in less than 2 months)

I am going to contact Masi and the LBS I purchased the bike from and see if I can get to the "bottom" of this.

Unfortunately I did not solve my noise issue. Next I need to check out my rear hub and dropout area followed by adding some oil to all of the nipples. "Fingers Crossed."

Views: 468

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by joe on July 21, 2009 at 7:27am
werid.
Permalink Reply by RodimusPrime on July 21, 2009 at 7:40am
if its the factory bracket its possible it wasn't greased enough . or at all
Permalink Reply by Ryan L on July 21, 2009 at 7:53am
I can't remember exactly how much grease was on the bracket I think it wasn't much, so it is possible that the cleaner area had the grease on it. Still though, I have only ridden in the rain once with this bike and wiped it off soon after. Not sure how this much rust/corrosion can build up from one single ride in the rain. I also have my seat post and seat tube greased up pretty good so not sure where the moisture got in. Maybe the braise holes at the rear of the chain stays but the holes are incredibly small so I can't imagine that much water got in. The rust is all around the entire bracket so this is quite perplexing.
Permalink Reply by Weir's beard on July 21, 2009 at 10:13am
As I took out the less than 2 month old BB I noticed a slight bit of water in the BB area of the frame (not sure how that got there).

Water easily gets into the bottom bracket area of the frame via the little hole on the bottom of the bottom bracket shell which most companies put there to aid in the welding process. Water isn't the problem, that's to be expected. Looks like there is too much oxidation for the age of the bracket though which goes to the grease issue mentioned above.
Permalink Reply by Ryan L on July 21, 2009 at 11:24am
Weir's beard said:
Water easily gets into the bottom bracket area of the frame via the little hole on the bottom of the bottom bracket shell which most companies put there to aid in the welding process. Water isn't the problem, that's to be expected. Looks like there is too much oxidation for the age of the bracket though which goes to the grease issue mentioned above.
The air escape holes they use for brazing are in the rear of my chain stays not in my BB shell but still I guess a bit of water could get in.

I just spent a couple of hours going nutz on the bike. I used light oil in all of the nipple holes on both front and rear tires, oiled some of the spots where the spokes cross over each other, took off my chain-tugs, took off the handlebars and greased the bolts and bar clamp (all this after having disassembled the entire drivetrain a few days ago) and still the very loud and annoying noises remained. Then I got on it and leaned up against a railing and did everything I could to add force to different parts of the bike trying to replicate the noises. I'll be damed, as I twisted my hips from side to side the saddle started making this annoying creaking noise. So I took apart the entire seat post assembly, cleaned everything off, greased all the parts especially the rails of the saddle, and tightened it up pretty good. Well spank me and punch me in the face, the creaking noise is now gone. At some point on a recent ride I had readjusted the seat height and must not have tightened the saddle clamp enough which slowly came loose enough to start making the noise.

Even though the creaking noise is now gone, the click from my BB is still there (at least I think it is my BB). I might have to break down and get another bottom bracket which will only set me back a few bucks but I am going to wait till I hear back from Masi and the LBS to see if I can get reimbursed for the part, being only 2 months old and such. Pain in the ass :(
Permalink Reply by Chucko on July 21, 2009 at 5:04pm
I have a fixed conversion that had a BB I put in it look exactly like that after a year. If the water has been in the frame from the day you got it it's likely it could look like that. Mine was coming in through the brazing holes. Metals do weird things when they're together. Sometimes putting steel next to aluminum (the cups) or even different steels together can make oxidization happen faster than would be expected. As long as there's no play in the axle, and the BB still spins, I wouldn't worry that much about it- except maybe to turn the bike over once and a while and see if any water comes out the seat tube.

However, the main reason I'm posting is that I had a clicking noise a couple of years back that wouldn't go away, which I finally traced to the pedals. Stupidly I replaced the BB, the cranks, and the pedals twice thinking they were the problem. I also took the bearings out of the wheels, lubed all the axle intersections, lubed every bolt on the bike, greased my seatpost, and even lubed the adjustment bolt on my Brooks saddle. I did eventually narrow the issue down to the pedals. I finally gave up replacing them when I bought a set of Deore XT spds and they started doing the same thing after about a month. I eventually figured it out though- it was the pedal threads that needed to be lubed (with grease, not oil). I took off the pedals, lubed the threads where they go into the crank, and have been click free since. I have also shared this with many people who've had the same thing happen. Seems to me that makers of cranks have gotten a tad bit sloppy in the threading of the pedal holes, and they're not as exact as they used to be. At any rate, thought it might help...
Permalink Reply by Jan on July 22, 2009 at 12:52am
I agree with Weir's beard. You didn't mention if you checked your pedals. The creaking and clicking could be coming from one of them.

Jan
Permalink Reply by rb on July 22, 2009 at 3:23am
I make it a practice to put white lithium grease on the pedal threads, whenever I hear a creaking noise. In my case, I think that it is due to the case that my bike is 35 yrs old that theare are issues...

i had some weird noises over the weekend, so I greased the pedal threads and made sure that my aged chain was clean and properly lubed-- this particular bike gets parked during commutes sometimes-- and the creaking/noises disappeared.
Permalink Reply by Lee Roy on July 22, 2009 at 3:59am
I would also check to make sure there is grease on the seatpost.
That can also contribute to noise that seems to be originating
from the bottom bracket.
Permalink Reply by mike w. on July 22, 2009 at 6:39am
i had a creak/tick sound that i suspected was a pedal, which i repacked (i always grease the pedal threads BTW.)

The noise persisted. Closer inspection showed that the driveside crank was cracking where the arm and spider arms meet. i might have known since i had already had a crankarm snap at that junction before. i am not a monsterly big rider and rarely grind big gears, and neither crank wad been crashed TTBOMK. Metal fatigue, micro stress cracks, or just plain bad machining can cause crank failure.

Just my 2 cents... your crankarm is probably fine.

Saddle creak can really drive you nuts, though...
Permalink Reply by vxla on July 22, 2009 at 6:45am
As an aside, you can get a small hole drilled in the bottom of your bottom bracket tube to help drain off any water. Your BB doesn't really look that bad (given that it's probably been in the bike for much longer than you've owned it). What matters is rust inside the sealed cartridge.
Permalink Reply by Ryan L on July 22, 2009 at 6:59am
Chucko said:
I had a clicking noise a couple of years back that wouldn't go away, which I finally traced to the pedals. Stupidly I replaced the BB, the cranks, and the pedals twice thinking they were the problem. I also took the bearings out of the wheels, lubed all the axle intersections, lubed every bolt on the bike, greased my seatpost, and even lubed the adjustment bolt on my Brooks saddle. I did eventually narrow the issue down to the pedals. I finally gave up replacing them when I bought a set of Deore XT spds and they started doing the same thing after about a month. I eventually figured it out though- it was the pedal threads that needed to be lubed (with grease, not oil). I took off the pedals, lubed the threads where they go into the crank, and have been click free since. I have also shared this with many people who've had the same thing happen. Seems to me that makers of cranks have gotten a tad bit sloppy in the threading of the pedal holes, and they're not as exact as they used to be. At any rate, thought it might help...

I greased up the pedal threads pretty good yesterday (which were dry) and it still makes the click/pop noise. I figured out that it happens whenever I apply sudden force to the pedal in either direction on either crank arm. If I pedal really fast it's not there but if I am going slow and then speed up it happens as the torque hits the crank arms. I have an old set of Shimano clipless pedals that I'll put on today and see if they make any difference. "Fingers Crossed" I do have to say that while going through the motions of trying to isolate the noises, the overhaul the bike has gone through in the last few days has made the ride even smoother and more enjoyable. Other than this damn random clicking noise, the bike is now dead silent and feels a bit more solid :)

On a side note: after riding around last night I decided that I had placed my seat post a bit to high and as I went to unscrew the clamp bolt it snapped in half dropping my seat to the frame. A pretty good example of what happens when you over torque a bolt. I had to ride 6 miles home with a seat post all the way down which was really odd at first but actually pretty damn fun. Since I had so much grease on the seat tube it just slid around from side to side which made the ride home really surreal. It reminded me of riding one of the bikes at Tour De Fat in The Pit. Good thing I have a front brake because I had no leverage to back pedal for slowing down without standing up which I tried not to do since the seat would move into an awkward position. I'm sure someone was like "what the @$%& is that dude doing riding like that? Is he trying to start a new trend? What an idiot!" lol

Luckily Uptown Bike Shop is right around the corner so I can get a new seat clamp bolt. The quest for a completely silent bike contiues.

RSS

Groups

© 2008-2016   The Chainlink Community, L.L.C.   Powered by

Disclaimer  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service