Long story short in case it may help someone - lose chainring bolts may also cause creaking.
I joined the AXS creaking club recently.
Madone SLR with Force AXS. The bike has recently been at the LBS for servicing, it’s 2 years old, about 9000 km. I started hearing this maddening creaking noise when applying power, louder on small chain ring than on big but always present. Smooth pedaling was pretty quiet though.
I troubleshooted all possibilities, finally figured out what it was - one of the chainring bolts was loose. Tried to tighten it to no avail, turns out the thread is stripped! I took the bike to another mechanic and he looked at it, said he’s not seeing similar issues often. He also pointed out that the large chainring teeth look pretty worn and it has to be replaced anyway.
After 9000 km that seems a bit odd. Now I know I did NOT mess with chainring bolts so could it be the original LBS who stripped the thread?!? Also the wear on the chainring is way more you’d expect at this mileage, maybe I’m overthinking but how likely is a conspiracy theory that someone swapped my chainring for an old one?
I recently sorted out a similar creak. Oddly enough, the solution was liberally greasing the end caps of my rear wheel (Roval).
I came across this suggestion on the Weight Weenies website. I didn’t expect it to work because my wheels are relatively new and both end caps had thin layers of grease already, but I was pleasantly surprised.
If anyone else has an AXS drivetrain and Roval wheels, it might be worth cleaning and greasing the end caps of your rear wheel if nothing else resolves the creak.
Funny - I had a similar issue on my Open Wi.De recently. A creak when pedaling under power. I checked the torque of everything and couldn’t find the issue. On a hunch I lubed the spacers/endcaps on my wheels and the inside of the frame where they contact and the creak went away.
one of my bikes is a factory build scott addict rc 20 with a full force axs group set and i never experienced the creaking until i swapped out the chain but it went away after 40-50 miles. i have another bike that i built earlier this year with a mix of force/rival axs components and it was also doing the creaking right off the bat but the noise also went away after 50 miles. i ripped apart both, cleaned the sh*t out of the crankset, checked the BB, made sure everything was torqued correctly, waxed the chain or lubed the chain, re indexed the gearing to make sure there was no chain rub in the small chainring, plus all the things everyone is talking about in this thread but it was still doing it under some pedaling power tension. again, this only happened to me when i put on a new chain and it took some time to break it in? it’s a mystery to me but i’m glad (?) i’m not the only one this is happening to.
when i put the old chain back on the creaking stopped fyi.
CONFIRMED: It’s the chain. My creaking as described by all above started when my chain was replaced after the original chain was worn. I tired everything from cleaning the BB and cranks, tightening pedals , cleats, everything. Today I cleaned the chain and re-lubricated and literally ALL creaking went away. I think there was a bad batch of chains which many of us now have. If you still have creaks, do a simple clean and lubricate and see if that works for you, it did for me.
What a useful forum. I was suffering from an indecipherable creak in my drivetrain at high torque. After regreasing and retorquing pedals and AXS Red crankshaft bolt, creak was still there. Next I turned to the bottom bracket (Kogel Ceramic ITA30 on my Pinarello Dogma F12). Convinced myself the drive side bearing was rough, so cleaned and regreased it. Creak diminished for about 200 km, then reappeared. G’dang. So, I sprang for a new bottom bracket. $300 later with a new BB installed, the creak was still there - again, only at high pedaling torque. I was starting to doubt the frame or the crank itself (the AXS Red is all one piece, so no chainring bolts). Then I found this old Trainer Road thread. Per multiple suggestions from the thread, I simply loosened and retorqued the rear disc brake wheel spindle and the creak was gone! How simple.
I have the EXACT same symptoms as those described by @Daniel_Hernandez in the original post, including the exact same sound (thanks for the vid). I did all the same stuff and it didn’t help - replaced the BB, lubed the chain, cleaned the chainring, checked pedals, cassette, front and rear deraileurs… (I think there are a bunch of posts here addressing similar but not identical symptoms…) Appeared when I swapped my worn chain for a new one. I think the issue is the chain sticking in the cogs on the small ring. The sound seems to come from the chain pulling away from the cogs. The chain visibly vibrates as it pulls away in time with the sound. (No vibration or sound on the big ring.) I believe it only appears when I apply power because the power causes the chain to wedge tighter into the cogs. Possible that there is wear on the inner ring from cycling too long with my worn old chain. (I don’t get why wear on the cogs would cause the sticking: seems like wear on the cogs would make them release the chain more easily. But in a weight weenies forum, people seem to think it’s the wear that is causing the sticking. Chain/chainring noise with new SRAM Red AXS 12s chain - Weight Weenies) This would also explain the sound diminishing over time as the new chain wears in, as Daniel describes. I think SRAM should take a look at their manufacturing - feels like BS that I have to replace the chainring set ($$$) because I rode a couple thousand miles on a worn chain. I get chain wear, but the chain rings should be more durable. Of course, maybe they like it this way…
