Cycling UK Forum

Spent hours trying to locate clicking on bike. Totally overhauled rear wheel hub, pedals (see seperate post!), crank bolts and replaced bottom bracket. I think I have ascertained now that it is the bottom bracket being not tight enough in the frame. There was slight but noticable movement when flexing the cranks in the bottom bracket itself against the frame. I tightened it up as much as I dare and it seems for the moment to be sorted. The BB thread feels fine inserting the bracket. I guess it was self losening from not being tight enough to start, which is why it returned. I guess my question is do you think the BB thread is dodgy or could this slight (but annoyingly noticable) movement simply be due to it not being tight enough and natural for the circumstances?

Now that you have checked the likely things what about the unlikely? Zip pulls can cause a regular click as can the end of a shoe lace.All sorts of unlikely sources exist and should be seriously considered.

These clicks and creaks and cracks and other sundry noises can be a real stressful pain in the........well.......everywhere.

We've all suffered.

I had one last summer/autumn which I finally traced to a bad joint in the front Mavic Open Pro rim. I think that the rhythm/timing of the creak made it easy to identify with wheel revolutions, but it sent me scatty............

If you've just built your bike up, especially around a new frame, it's not uncommon for the BB to need checking and re-tightening from time to time for a while - the same with making sure that the cranks are keeping tightened on. It's the same when you've fitted a new BB, and it's probably the same with a new ready-built bike.

I sympathise.

JohnW wrote:These clicks and creaks and cracks and other sundry noises can be a real stressful pain in the........well.......everywhere.

We've all suffered..

I finally took the time to identify my very own creaking yesterday . 250 miles of creaking last week, 300-400 miles of creaking in the previous 2-3 weeks

Turned out to be the left hand pedal (Shimano touring spd). Bearings were fine, bearing races hardly worn (After 3 years use!), a seal had partially failed and perhaps a single microscopic piece of dirt had crept in, Cleaned it outm regreased and the bike is finally silent

Lucky you! I've just fitted my new retro-tourer with a Sturmey Archer 8 speed hub which is as silent as the grave under load, in all 8 gears, but stop pedalling and it sound like a bag of plumbers' tools

simonineaston wrote:Lucky you! I've just fitted my new retro-tourer with a Sturmey Archer 8 speed hub which is as silent as the grave under load, in all 8 gears, but stop pedalling and it sound like a bag of plumbers' tools

I take it that it is the pawl mechanisms? Maybe a bit more special grease inside might help?

cheers

Brucey wrote:

simonineaston wrote:Lucky you! I've just fitted my new retro-tourer with a Sturmey Archer 8 speed hub which is as silent as the grave under load, in all 8 gears, but stop pedalling and it sound like a bag of plumbers' tools

I take it that it is the pawl mechanisms? Maybe a bit more special grease inside might help?

cheers

Took mine apart after two years and about 6000 miles. It had always had occasional hesitation on changes between gears 4 & 5 and I noticed some of the pawls were quite sticky, so gave it a dose of oil, as per the dipping procedure. Shifting/engagement got appreciably better, but it has also developed the loud clicking on freewheeling, but only in gears 5-8 fortunately.

EDIT: just realised "simonineaston" was talking about Sturmey Archer, whereas I am talking about Shimano Nexus

I'm presently experimenting with a semi-fluid grease inside my five-speed. It has an high base oil viscosity, and in addition it has solid lubricants and anti-scuffing additives. It is based around the grease spec for one of the most demanding bearing applications which is the bearings used in crushing mills. These have an incredibly hard life, and I'm not sure you can readily get other greases that give a higher load rating on (say) a four-ball test rig.

It also has a very non-linear viscosity curve, a bit like whipped cream I suppose. It isn't so thick that a pawl won't push it out of the way when it needs to, but it isn't so runny that it will not cling to surfaces. Initial results are pleasing; you can just hear the pawls, but they are not so loud as they are when there is just a spoonful of oil inside a similar hub.

cheers

I had a regular click click click on my nice new carbon road bike, was driving me nuts trying to work out what was causing it... Finally realized it was actually coming from my right knee! Too many years of climbing and walking up (and particularly down) big Scottish hills has done my knee no good at all. I don't think I noticed it on my older bike because of all of the clicks and creaks that seem to be normal for it...

Brucey wrote:I'm presently experimenting with a semi-fluid grease inside my five-speed. It has an high base oil viscosity, and in addition it has solid lubricants and anti-scuffing additives. It is based around the grease spec for one of the most demanding bearing applications which is the bearings used in crushing mills. These have an incredibly hard life, and I'm not sure you can readily get other greases that give a higher load rating on (say) a four-ball test rig.

It also has a very non-linear viscosity curve, a bit like whipped cream I suppose. It isn't so thick that a pawl won't push it out of the way when it needs to, but it isn't so runny that it will not cling to surfaces. Initial results are pleasing; you can just hear the pawls, but they are not so loud as they are when there is just a spoonful of oil inside a similar hub.

cheers

The oil I used was actually Halfords Bikehut Wet Synthetic Chain Lube, as I had some already and it is really stringy and tenacious like chain saw oil. I figured it would cling to the components well, but I have not taken another look inside to see what is going on, perhaps I should... I greased the main hub bearings with Morris K99 Water Resistant Grease, as keeping water out seems to be priority number one with these hubs.