Hooray! Fixed the rattle!

[cycleruk]

I've had this rattle on one of my bikes now for a few weeks (months?).
Intermittent noise so been hard to trace. Thought it was mudguard but no. Pump rattling against frame. No.
Cycle lock (chain) in saddle pack? All no.
Anyway today it was worse than ever so determined to find it. Listening and definitely from some where near BB area. A bit of inspiration -> Possible loose cassette. Yes, could just move the big sprocket fractionally. Thank goodness for that as I was getting a bit worried thinking it might be the frame.
The locking ring was tight but easily undone without the need for the chainwhip. It even had a few clicks when undoing it.
So stripped, cleaned and re-fitted, making sure that the lock ring is tight.
The spacers are plastic so I wondered if these had shrunk (under compression) to cause the cassette to slacken?

[Brucey]

yup, plastic spacers are prone to 'relaxing' and causing exactly the symptoms you describe. Back in the day, I spent many happy hours in front of a lathe making aluminium spacers to replace the plastic ones in my shimano cassettes, but these days you can more easily buy cassettes that come with aluminium spacers from the word go.

cheers

[fastpedaller]

but these days you can more easily buy cassettes that come with aluminium spacers from the word go.

cheers

That's something I'm not aware of.... which make?

[Brucey]

shimano ultegra/XT for example. I'm sure there are others.

cheers

[Valbrona]

But 'Hooray!' doesn't give much indication what your thread is about.

[reohn2]

Always good when you stop an irritation,a bit like covering a budgie cage with a towel

[karlt]

I had a rattle I couldn't track down; it turned out that whilst the previous (SRAM) 8-speed cassette had fixed my Mavic Aksium hub without a spacer, the new (Shimano) one didn't, despite being the same size in theory. Needed a spacer.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Do it UP Tight................ER

Engine drain bolts don't drop off unless they never saw a spanner.

Look at the cassette body for indents by the cogs

How do you know the bike is an Apollo in the dark ....................you can steal the pedals with your fingers

[cycleruk]

Hi,
Do it UP Tight................ER
Not that tight that you may damage the teeth when undoing the cassette.
This is the second one in 20 years.

Engine drain bolts don't drop off unless they never saw a spanner.
Mine dropped off when it hit a sleeper

Look at the cassette body for indents by the cogs
Not sure what you mean. Do you mean the freehub splines?

P.S. I still needed a spanner to undo the cassette. What I didn't need was a chain whip as I just hand held the sprockets.