On the last couple of bike rides using my bike trainer, I have become aware of an annoying creaking sound.  The sound was intermittent and appeared to be coming from somewhere towards the back of the bike.

For some illogical reason, I get really annoyed by creaks.  Once I hear a creak, I can never ignore it.  It can get so bad, that I lose focus on other things, like the workout I am doing or the TV program I am watching.  I have to track down the creak and fix it.

So before I did my bike ride this morning, I spent a few minutes troubleshooting.  My initial suspect was my seat post or saddle.  It is surprising how moving around on the saddle can cause a creak.  I  grabbed the saddle, tried to move it around and make it creak.  I heard nothing. 

My next area of suspicion was right at the back of the bike, where my bike was mounted onto the trainer.  I therefore grabbed the chain stay and seat stays of the bike and tried moving those.  Almost immediately, I heard the creak.  It came from the rear dropouts.  This told me that the creak was probably being caused by a slightly loose  skewer.  The trainer was probably moving very slightly in the dropouts and movement causes creaks.  So I released the skewer and re-tightened it.  Now when I grabbed the stays and moved them, I didn’t hear a single creak.

I also didn’t hear any creaking during my subsequent bike workout.  Riding was back to normal, and all it took was a little adjustment to my skewer.