[juanbeegas]

I've recently started hearing creaking from my bike whenever I stand and pedal.
I've narrowed it down to somewhere near my BB on the drive side, but I just can't figure out where it's coming from. I've tightened the pivots and whatever else I found that was a little loose, but it's still there. Could it possibly be my crank arms(Shimano SLX dual ring version), or my pedals(Deity Decoy)?
The only pivot I couldn't seem to tighten was the one circled in blue, in the pic below -

The Allen key keeps spinning and it doesn't seem to get any tighter. Could that be the culprit? Does it mean something is worn out there?
I've been on HTs for most of my riding life and this is only the second FS bike I've ever owned. Not too sure on how things work, but I'm slowly learning.

 

[BadDNA]

The head's not stripped out I assume, does the bolt go through to the other side, is there a nut on the opposite side that spins when you turn the bolt? If that's the case you will need to hold the other side still while you tighten it. If that bolt threads directly into the frame then you've got a problem, the threads on one or the other are stripped. It might be able to be fixed in that case, perhaps a helicoil.

 

[climbingbubba]

my shimano cranks have always creaked. do you have a bashgaurd on it? if so it could be the chainring bolts are lose or just creaking. this happens with the plastic bash gaurds.

could also be the BB. sometimes they just creak. especially shimano ones.

 

[w00dy]

That could be anything on the bike from your description. Have a more experienced friend look at it. This is exactly the type of thing that can't be diagnosed over the internet.

 

[pedro_sandchez]

what kind of cranks do you have?
As was mentioned above, shimano outboard bottom brackets have a habit of being dry of grease and creaking like there is no tomorrow. Mine have been creaking for a couple months when I discovered that they the bearings are actually user servicable (even though they say on them not to disassemble). Remove the dust cover, then remove the piece of rubber covering the bearing race. Clean with penetrating oil and repack with all purpose grease.
I did mine last night and creaking is gone and I couldn't believe how much drag was actually coming from this. I'd suggest checking it out.

 

[juanbeegas]

It was the BB. I've since stripped out the cranks, checked everything was tight and still had the creaking. Then I took everything(the cranks) out again and checked the BB. I cleaned them out and re-greased, and everything was fine again. Thanks guys.

 

[Al-F]

This always sounds crazy but so many times the creaking noise can come from the seatpost. Its worth a try to just pull the seatpost, clean it and the seat tube in the frame and re-grease. If the creaking stops, problem solved, if not, you're only out a little assembly lube and less than 5 minutes of your time.