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My Middleburns creaked incessantly. I'd remove all bolts, clean and regrease everything, put it back together and it'd be quiet for 5 minutes then it'd start again. Not really a fan of that pre-load collar system either.
I switched to Shimano XT. Proprietary BCD is a bit of a pain but Shimano narrow wide chainrings are readily available from 30-34t, and reasonably priced. New(er) SLX look good too.
Middleburn shirley