Noisy chain mystery

3wheeler

Curious to find out if anyone has experienced this: chain is Shimano 10 speed (not stretched), with Shimano cassette and rear mech and was a bit noisy, making a kind of ticking/clicking noise while pedalling but not obviously fouling on anything. The noise seemed to come from it running over the pulley wheels. Moving it slowly by hand it just didn't seemed to be meshing perfectly. Put a new KMC chain and now all smooth and quiet.

Very mysterious to me. Will keep that chain as a (2nd) spare. Normally use KMC chains but this was a special deal with the cassette and I've never read anything about shimano chains being noisy.

Chunkers1980

Are you sure it was mech routed correctly? Dynasis chains need to be facing the correct way too.

I've heard of creaking cassettes - like my m980 - creaked in the biggest sprockets under high load.

Andymaxy

Happens on both of my road bikes when they were brand new. One is a bottom range Claris, the other one is top of the line dura ace. In both cases, the chain doesn't seem to sit perfectly on the chainraing/cassettes. This happens only the first couple hundreds to maybe a thousand miles, it's gone after a while. Deraileaurs are perfectly adjusted. I don't think it indicates a problem, the new stuff just need a break in

02gf74

Not sure I agree about new stuff needing breaking in.

Never had this with new components on any bike ever.

Without seeing the issue, kind hard to diagnose.

swod1

Does sound like the chain was rubbing on the metal bit of the inner part of the derailleur cage and when you've fitted the new kmc chain you've routed the chain the correct way and so the problem disappeared.

but yes could be anything without seeing the bike in person to diagnose the problem.

3wheeler

swod1 wrote:

Does sound like the chain was rubbing on the metal bit of the inner part of the derailleur cage and when you've fitted the new kmc chain you've routed the chain the correct way and so the problem disappeared.

but yes could be anything without seeing the bike in person to diagnose the problem.

Chain wasn't contacting anything - that would have been the obvious reason.
I'm not concerned about what it was since the new chain solved it, and TBF would be unlikely to buy shimano chains in the future but more of curious about whether anyone else had experienced the same.

JBA

As mentioned previously, Shimano 10-speed chains are directional and should be installed with the marking facing outwards.
Maybe you had the chain on the wrong way round?