Cycling UK Forum

We've all had these from everything and anything but I learnt something about them fairly recently.
1. Stress the bike components and see if you can reproduce them. Catch the frame and bend the wheels in both directions. Same with saddle etc. It'll give you a strong clue. Stress the pedal cranks etc.
2. There's tight and really tight.
There are videos on line about thru axles and the importance of cleaning them etc., in an attempt to silence. Tighten them properly and they're silent. My experience. The chaps on line who get success have unknowns to themselves made them tighter.
Last couple of days one of my bikes, not a thru axle one developing a click click. Stressed frame, parts etc., NADA. Cluster didn't appears loose but I'd nothing else to try. Tightened the ring which seemed pretty tight already.
Totally silent.

And if all else fails, spray everything with WD40 - or talcum powder - whichever is nearer... worked for me

Indeed!

There's a seemingly infinite number of ways your bike can fox you with these things. Last year, I spent many months trying to locate a knocking coming from somewhere on my bike with every pedal rotation, usually on uphill or flat rides. By the time I finally solved it, I'd already disassembled the cranks (tiwice), lubed the hollowtech bottom bracket, inspected the frame for cracks, tightened/lubed a pedal spindle/bearing, tightened the seapost clamp, tightened/lubed the headset etc. etc.

I eventually discovered it was the suspension forks making a clanking noise when they were 'topping out,' which usually happened after each forceful pedal stroke. These are reasonably posh mountain bike forks, and the solution was to have an 'upper' service, which deals with the hydraulic damping circuit - not something yet within my skill-set, so this left me £95 out of pocket. On the positive side, this knocking was my warning that the forks were in dire need of a service, and when I got them back the performance was completely transformed.

How about when the tyres were fully inflated no noise but as they got softer a ticking started.

My chain started creating and groaning yesterday after a weekend but being used, brompton commuter. No noise last week only yesterday. Got home and gt85 then oil. Nothing this morning. It's often a case of something too loose or too tight when it shouldn't be! Engineering flowchart applies except with gt85 and tightening/loosening bolts.

Disclaimer, I'm not being 100% serious but you can often get lucky with quick gt85 and lube.

The most annoying thing on a tour was a creak from the back of the bike. I couldn't identify it. Left it in a bikeshop in Carlisle for an hour or so. They thought they'd fixed it. They hadn't. Went on to where we were staying and meeting friends in midmorning to continue our tour. I tried EVERYTHING. Eventually I found it. The rear skewer which was on a Rohloff hub was too tight. There was a plastic part in the assembly and I think it was that that was making the noise. It never creaked again.
On another tour I found the creak was from all my front spokes being a bit loose. I tightened them (I'm good at wheels). End of problem.

it may well have been sheldon Brown that said , in looking for noises, is it happening one every revolution of the wheels? on every revolution of the pedals? or every revolution of the chain?
that usually helps narrow things down

It's been a perennial topic for as long as I can remember - 1950s.

I must have posted before about a typically perceptive Helms cartoon.

The scene is the cross section of an apartment block and in the upper storey, a rider is using a home trainer AKA rollers. (For those unfamiliar with this rather old fashioned kit, riding it causes a really loud roar.)
A chap in the flat below is banging his ceiling with a broom handle and the rider is saying to his better half something like

I'm getting that banging in my bottom bracket again

Moral: keep an open mind with noises. mig's advice is also good

mig wrote: ↑14 Feb 2023, 9:59am it may well have been sheldon Brown that said , in looking for noises, is it happening one every revolution of the wheels? on every revolution of the pedals? or every revolution of the chain?
that usually helps narrow things down

It is but it can still be several things, e.g. with every revolution of the pedals. Last summer I had a serious creak due in fact to a broken cassette hub body. When this was fixed, two similarly timed creaks in succession were due to pedal crank bolts not being sufficiently tightened and finally insufficient tightening of the thru axle itself. After this trio, bike has been totally silent.

The last noise I chased was a clicking sound a bit like dropping a dried pea into the plastic cap off an aerosol can. It was completely erratic, with no rhythm, and not in sync with anything. It wouldn't occur at all on short rides, but on long rides it would start right from the beginning, then stop before the end.

I'm willing to bet nobody will guess the cause.

axel_knutt wrote: ↑14 Feb 2023, 10:14pm The last noise I chased was a clicking sound a bit like dropping a dried pea into the plastic cap off an aerosol can. It was completely erratic, with no rhythm, and not in sync with anything. It wouldn't occur at all on short rides, but on long rides it would start right from the beginning, then stop before the end.

I'm willing to bet nobody will guess the cause.

Not the bike at all, but something you only take on long rides? Not one of those drinks supplements that come in tablet form? Something like this, rattling about.
https://www.wiggle.co.uk/science-in-spo ... ts-20-tabs
Or Tic-Tacs.

An annoying creak on pedalling uphill was sorted by oiling/greasing the bridge on the rear mudguard . . .

pwa wrote: ↑14 Feb 2023, 10:20pm

axel_knutt wrote: ↑14 Feb 2023, 10:14pm The last noise I chased was a clicking sound a bit like dropping a dried pea into the plastic cap off an aerosol can. It was completely erratic, with no rhythm, and not in sync with anything. It wouldn't occur at all on short rides, but on long rides it would start right from the beginning, then stop before the end.

I'm willing to bet nobody will guess the cause.

Not the bike at all, but something you only take on long rides? Not one of those drinks supplements that come in tablet form? Something like this, rattling about.
https://www.wiggle.co.uk/science-in-spo ... ts-20-tabs
Or Tic-Tacs.

You were on the right track, it was the water lapping against the inside of the caps on my new water bottles. I only use one bottle, upright on the seat tube for shorter rides, but on long rides there are three, and the two that are tilted on the down tube will make a noise until the last bottle gets switched to the seat tube.

Just cured an annoying click coming from the saddle rails / bracket.

Seemed to be coming from the bb pedals or seat post as it happened at the same point on the crank rotation and oddly sometimes when I took all weight off the saddle but I must have been just brushing the edges of it with my legs.

The first thing I did was
tighten the seat post -- same --
changed the pedals -- same --
Tightened the micro adjust 2 bolt saddle clamp -- quite a bit better but not completely gone.

Then I took the bracket that holds the saddle rails apart and found grit between the barrel nuts and the top clamp. Cleaned everything and refitted -- clicking gone.