A month or so back, my bike’s bottom bracket (BB) started creaking. With every pedal stroke, there’d be clicking, creaking and every now and again, I’d feel something a little bit rough. Off the bike, I could feel play in the cranks, but without a job, I was hesitant to do anything about it. So I stopped riding as much – which really really sucked. Now that I have a job, I thought I’d finally dig in and figure out what was wrong.

I figured out how to take the crank arms off the BB a few weeks back, so today I just needed the tool to take the bottom bracket out of the frame. A trip to the Trek store up the road and I had it…. First I had to take the crank arms off the BB, which I already knew how to do. Apparently, I also know how to flay a knuckle on the chainring, which, in case you haven’t experienced this, can cause copious bleeding and slight numbness in the affected finger. Because I am male, I simply clean it up and got back to work, at least until I realized that the BB tool I just bought wasn’t the right tool. Trip #2 to the Trek store and I had the right tool. This time, I took it all apart easily enough, and cleaned it all up. It was pretty dirty inside the frame. There was sand. In the BB itself, there was a little bit of grittiness to the left spindle, but I couldn’t be sure that was causing the play, creaking and clicking. A third trip to the Trek store to ask them about it, and they thought it was fine, but wanted the whole bike to be sure. Back home again and trip #4 to the shop and they had the frame. I watched while he reassembled it again, and w/o having ridden it yet, there isn’t any discernible play.

I’ll let you know after I ride later today if possible permanent injury to my finger was worth it.