re appearing clicking crank problem

itboffin

Your not alone I have the same problem on my 105 BB it's prob only done 2000 miles I just fail to believe it could be dead already, I suspect that these BB are just noisy.

Very annoying :evil:

asjc

ref . my previous post, Lo and behold- i was wrong-on my way to cambridge from london, called into a great shop-shoter rochford in potters bar and told the guy who runs it of my woes, he had a quick fiddle with a few bits, one of which was tightening up the rear wheel skewer and i rode off with no clicks and di the next 40 with no noise too, i was gonna strip it all down again, maybe your LBS could take a quick peek, its got to be worth the ask.
good luck.

Bhima

I finally got rid of a click that's been doing my head in now for weeks!

10 miles in to my silent ride today, a new click appears to compensate. Great.

jeff.hobby

Hi
I read your thread last evening and it all sounded very familiar. I have a fairly new Specialized Tarmac Expert which I was recently riding when hit a pothole whilst travelling down hill at about 30 mph. It sounded like I'd cracked the frame as it was such a loud noise. I checked it all over but could find no damage, however, the bike was now making a rather noticeable clicking noise. In the following few weeks, the noise has been getting louder and driving me mad. I've replaced the chain as it sounded similar to a noise I had on my mountain bike which turned out to be the chain and cassette but this time it didn't sort it. I tried a different wheel off my old road bike but still the noise existed.

I then took it to my local bike shop and asked a helpful chap if he could ride it up the road and let me know what he thought. He kindly did so and on his return said it could be the pedals but it certainly didn't sound good.

Well, I fitted the pedals and no one had mentioned greasing the threads so I went home and removed the pedals and applied some grease. No different. It's got to be the bottom bracket, I thought.

Today I purchased a bottom bracket tool and, when I got home from work set about stripping the bottom bracket to look for the cause of the noise, absolutely sure I was looking in the right place. But no luck, it all seemed to be fine. Put it all back together, coating the threads with the correct anti seize grease. Then for the big test. Set it up on the turbo and....still there!

By now I'm feeling really cheesed off. Spent £70 and no different.Thinking to myself that I should have just taken it to my local bike shop and asked them to sort it.

I sat there pedalling slowly listening to the most annoying noise ever! I held each of the tubes in turn to see if I could feel the noise. When I held the vertical tube running down from the seat to the bottom bracket, I gave it a squeeze. The note of the noise changed.

Now, I had thougth of the seat post before but it couldn't be that cos it was there whether I was sat on the seat or standing. I loosened the seatpost clamp and started to pull the seatpost out of the frame tube and heard the same noise, or at least very similar. I removed the seatpost altogether and tried pedalling, standing of course and......NO NOISE. It had gone. I cleaned off the stem as it had a sort of red grease on it. The instructions for the stem said "no grease" so I wiped it off clean and refitted the seatpost, carefully tightening it to the required torque. Once again I tried it.......STILL NO NOISE. Wow, sorted. The most annoying noise gone.

After revelling in my jubilation I started to get my head round what was actually happening to cause such a noise, I can only think that the seatpost which is a snug fit in the vertical tube and clamped at the top. As the pressure is put on the pedals, the frame tube flexes bending slightly, thus rubbing against the seat tube which is trying to resist deflection. It doesn't matter whether yo are sat on the seat or not, the same thing is still going on.

Now I appreciate this may not be what your noise is but it is food for thought. Don't rule it out till you've checked it.

Good luck

Anonymous

The noise I get is 100% deffo crom the BB area, it comes back every now and again and if I remove the left crank and put it back on it goes away for a short while and then returns.

softlad

willhub wrote:

The noise I get is 100% deffo crom the BB area, it comes back every now and again and if I remove the left crank and put it back on it goes away for a short while and then returns.

so logically, if you simply leave off the left crank arm, the noise will not come back..?

Bhima

Oi Will - A mate of mine has this exact problem (as well as other noises) and he's coming round mine tomorrow to borrow some degreaser so he can clean his bike. If we can work out what is causing the noise, it might offer some kind of insight into what's happening with your bike.

I'll let you know how we get on.

Anonymous

Yea cheers.

Dont let him put degreaser near his BB


Softlad, I dont like cycling with one leg, and I look like a plank whilst doing it aswel.

Mystique

I know it may sound daft, but try removing the left hand crank & doing the one-legged-pedal thing (30-40 miles should be enough ) . If the click goes, you know it's crank/ pedal related, if it still clicks, then it's gonna be BB/ frame.

Graham.

Anonymous

Mystique wrote:

I know it may sound daft, but try removing the left hand crank & doing the one-legged-pedal thing (30-40 miles should be enough ) . If the click goes, you know it's crank/ pedal related, if it still clicks, then it's gonna be BB/ frame.

Graham.

It's gone away for now, it was the left side crank.

Bhima

Took us ages to work it out - it sounded fine until he put some serious power down.

Is it the same with you?

If so, try cleaning the bolts on the chainrings/cranks as well as the holes that they go in thoroughly with degreaser and then (this is the important part) oil the bolts and the holes or grease them up!

The bike was silent after that and is still silent today after 134 miles since the "surgery".

Have you tried this?

I just did it on my stem/seatpost and the annoying creakings i've been getting have completely gone!

Anonymous

The noise was coming from the left side for sure, any power down to the right side resulted in no noise. No point me trying that on the bolts since the chainset is not even a month old so it's not that, it is the left side crank doing it, seems to be coming loose or something maybe, if I just keep tightening it the problem goes away for a short while.

Bhima

No harm in trying! Have you cleaned your bike recently?

We thought that if the bike was clean, it would sort the problem out, but it made it worse, hence us trying grease/oil to calm it down. If tightening it makes it go away temporarily, you know that the bolts have an effect on the noise, so it's worth a try in my opinion.

keef66

jeff.hobby

the red 'grease' you wiped off your seatpost was almost certainly carbon assembly compound. This helps stop a carbon post slipping down, and also stops it becoming irreparably stuck.

Anonymous

I had red grease on my cranks.

Anyways the damn clicking came back today, doing my head in.

So I did the usual drill, took chain off, took cranks off, sprayed pedals with lube, cleaned some dirt off, put it back on, tightened it up slightly (bearing preload), tightened the bolts up. Went on the bike.... clicking gone again.

So why is it coming back so easilly? This cannot be normal, well I know it is not, not after around 100 miles since last doing the exact same thing!

I never took the BB cups off due to the fact they are on tight and I'm not strong enough to get em off, I notice looking into the hole the crank axel goes into the bearing cups have like a little open bit in them, and that looks abit dirty but cant be them as doing what I said above solved it.

If it comes back again in the next week or so is their anyone in the york area that can have a look at it for me?

Thanks
Will.