Bad creaky FSA Gossamer crankset

My new bike came with an FSA Gossamer all in one hollow thingie crank-set
I have only done a couple of hundred miles on it and there is an awful creak coming from this area. I know if it is the bb crank and not a loose bolt etc. Anyone experienced this with this set before or know what tool I need to fix the problem myself?

Cheers

I know that hinata has been having tons of problems with his Gossamer cranks.

MDCCtester explained somewhere on here how FSA cranks are really overpriced at retail, this is so people feel they are getting a good deal when they buy a bike with a SRAM or Shimano groupset and FSA cranks, whereas actually the cranks are sold very cheaply in bulk to bike manufacturers.

Best bet is to destroy them and get your bike shop to replace them under warranty a couple of times, at which point they may let you get a real crankset at the equivalent price.

FSA would be my last choice of finishing kit; you can tell how shit it is by the frequency with which it turns up as OEM kit on budget bikes, their business model seems to be huge discounts to OEMs and suggested retail pricing at twice what it's worth to make the OTP builds look good.

It might just need adjusting of course.

^possibly what he said

Yes before I started ranting about how cheap I thought they were I figured I would give them the benefit of the doubt. I'm not sure I like all this carbon techie stuff. Give me some steel any day. I cant take them back as I ordered the bike from miles away and I really can't be arsed. What tool do I require to overhaul them myself?

I believe it will just be a 10mm allen key

http://www.fullspeedahead.com/techdoc/18/CRANKSETS-ROAD

I also have an FSA Gossamer crank set, and I fixed an extremely annoying creaking noise that I thought it was making recently- by changing the seatpost.

Is the noise 100% coming from the crankset?

Also- thought these were alloy, not carbon?

Yes 100% because when the bike is propped up against a wall with me not on it, spinning the cranks backwards with my hands makes the noise

So with no real load on them? That suggests that the bearings are FUBAR'd

Or it needs adjusting.

My Planet X came with a FSA Gossamer crankset. Chainrings flexed like buggery and it gave up the ghost at about 1000 miles. I'll pony up the extra for Shimano kit the next time.

Or it needs adjusting.

Lol. I'm hoping so.
It started the other day and it has got progressively worse over the week

Personally I'd strip it down, regrease everything and put it back together again. Given we have had some wet weather recently and, knowing you Mike, you've been thrashing it on your daily commute, it might just be a bit dry.

Btw, you haven't hit a Lambo with it, have you?

Not yet, almost hit a Mercedes this morning though but you are right I have been absolutely thrashing it. It really is a lot of fun having a road bike :)
Seems to have fixed my back problem, not completely but it is a lot better.

Will strip them down tomorrow, it looks like I need a special tool though.

Wasnt getting too far in the way of servicing it myself with a set of allen keys :I
Took it to my local BLB and they said it was a classic warranty job on this crank set but as I didnt buy it form them they would have to charge me. Only £10 as I am always in there, fair enough.
It requires a bearing extractor and a headset press. He reckons they dont grease the bearings enough in the factory and not enough care is put into assembling them.
I expect I will need to buy these tools going forward though but for now, they can sort it out

I need a special tool.

scoble?

The problem with mine was that a batch of bearings did not get greased correctly when produced, bike shops ought to be aware of this and the shop you bought your bike from should replace these free of charge.

Halfrauds did mine and it's been fine since.

edit

But just read this

Yes before I started ranting about how cheap I thought they were I figured I would give them the benefit of the doubt. I'm not sure I like all this carbon techie stuff. Give me some steel any day. I cant take them back as I ordered the bike from miles away and I really can't be arsed. What tool do I require to overhaul them myself?

The problem with mine was that a batch of bearings did not get greased correctly when produced, bike shops ought to be aware of this and the shop you bought your bike from should replace these free of charge.

Halfrauds did mine and it's been fine since.

edit

But just read this

This is exactly what the guy in shop said. They do not grease the bearings enough. Cost cutting at the factory. It is grease FFS!

Supposedly it was just a bad batch, as many of the BB30s have been trouble free (supposedly) we were just the unlucky ones. Get the shop you bought it from to cover costs of returning it to them for the work, or to have the work done at an LBS. I don't think that woyuld be an unreasonable request, and they should be able to pass the costs back to their supplier.

I reckon you should go back to steel cranks mike... No aluminium alloys can withstand your raw power.

I'm servicing my new (!) carbon ultratorque cranks today-hardly done any miles but they've obv. been used with a carbon frame without drainage for any water that seeps in then left sitting as the bearings are ruined even though the arms are pristine.

This required buying rather expensive and non-standard campag bearings and a bearing puller, about £38 total, but I've now got ultratorque on 2 bikes so a good investment and looks piss easy when you've got the tools for the job. If you want to borrow the bearing puller let me know... (that is if the bearings are mounted on the crank spindle and you need to pull them from the outside diameter)

Those FSA cranks are pretty poor. If you can upgrade them to Shimano/SRAM next time they break. Cranksets are not that much if you shop around.

Yes 100% because when the bike is propped up against a wall with me not on it, spinning the cranks backwards with my hands makes the noise

I had this exact same thing with my Focus Cayo - same cranks and all. I took them out, cleaned them and put them back on and it went away... About 500km later and they are still fine!

The shop did a grand job and now they are better than new, they also tightened up my headset for me free of charge and indexed my gears. I love local bike shops and the service you get from them.

They just needed stripping down and regreasing, lets hope they last through winter now