Clicking noise cured!

[AndyB1]

This may help others.
About a month ago my bike developed a clicking noise. It seemed to happen on the downstroke of the RH crank. Nothing rough on the pedals, quiet at cruise but a clicking noise whenever I increased power.

I checked the shimano pedals. They were pretty old (20 years?) and the RH one had some play so I thought that must be the problem and fitted some newer pedals.
No improvement.

Seat tight. Same noise standing up or sitting down,

So I stripped out the BB. It had done 3500 miles but the bike is often ridden on wet roads and there was a little rust on the outside face of one bearing. The BB felt smooth enough with no play and I managed to remove one end seal and pushed some grease into the bearings……and then discovered a couple of the bolts holding the single chainwheel to the crank were loose (Rohloff gearing). And the noise went away. But only for a few days.

Today I finally sorted it out. I have a bag on my rear rack with bungees at the top which tighten using a plastic drawstring. This plastic drawstring was hanging down and could swing and hit the alloy rack, and would do so on every RH power stroke……

I hope this helps someone else if they get an annoying clicking noise.

[Cowsham]

This may help others.

I hope this helps someone else if they get an annoying clicking noise.

Not likely but it shows an annoying click can come from the most unlikely of places so keep an open mind while on the hunt for it.

One I had, on my morning commute, when I'd forgot I'd put a spare pair of specs in my cycle jacket arm pocket and the legs were clicking every revolution of the chain wheel -- I'd stopped twice to try to find it before finding them when I gripped my arm pocket. Every stop eating into my puncture fix time so I wasn't too thorough when looking. Another is a shoe lace hitting the down tube.

[Brucey]

........This may help others.....

loose chainring bolts are never good news, so it is very good that you found and rectified those.

[richardfm]

My brother-in-law had an annoying creak ever pedal stroke.
He knew his bottom bracket was living on borrowed time so changed it, expecting that to cure the creak. It didn't, turned out his carbon seat post was cracked.

[francovendee]

My weirdest one was a shoelace end hitting the crank. It came and went but finally noticed it only happened when wearing a certain pair of shoes. I tucked the ends inside the shoe and noise went away.

[toontra]

I had a clunk on the l/h pedal downstroke when in smallest gears on the cog and the inner chainring, most noticeable when powering up steep hills. It drove me nuts! I changed the bottom bracket, pedals, cleats, etc all to no avail.

Recently I moved to electric shifting so replaced both derailleurs. Same bottom bracket, same cassette, same chainrings & crankset, same wheels, same pedals, same shoes, etc. The clunking has stopped! Go figure.

[Brucey]

I had a clunk on the l/h pedal downstroke when in smallest gears on the cog and the inner chainring, most noticeable when powering up steep hills. It drove me nuts! I changed the bottom bracket, pedals, cleats, etc all to no avail.

Recently I moved to electric shifting so replaced both derailleurs. Same bottom bracket, same cassette, same chainrings & crankset, same wheels, same pedals, same shoes, etc. The clunking has stopped! Go figure.

could it have been a slightly stiff link in the chain?

[richardfm]

My weirdest one was a shoelace end hitting the crank. It came and went but finally noticed it only happened when wearing a certain pair of shoes. I tucked the ends inside the shoe and noise went away.

That's not weird. I'm sure many of us have had that happen.

[toontra]

I had a clunk on the l/h pedal downstroke when in smallest gears on the cog and the inner chainring, most noticeable when powering up steep hills. It drove me nuts! I changed the bottom bracket, pedals, cleats, etc all to no avail.

Recently I moved to electric shifting so replaced both derailleurs. Same bottom bracket, same cassette, same chainrings & crankset, same wheels, same pedals, same shoes, etc. The clunking has stopped! Go figure.

could it have been a slightly stiff link in the chain?

The clunk persisted through a couple of new chain changes. I'd also ruled out a stiff link as the clunk was synced to every pedal rotation rather than chain rotation. By deduction it must have been related to derailleurs as they were the only part of the drivetrain replaced, but exactly what is still a mystery. Mighty relieved now though - nothing worse than clunking your way up steep hills

[Brucey]

could it perhaps have been the FD making contact with a chainring under load?

[toontra]

could it perhaps have been the FD making contact with a chainring under load?

That could well have been the issue thinking back. It only happened on the inner chainring and the inner cassette rings (progressively louder towards the very inner) and under considerable load (400w+).