Riding resistance (Clicking)

[tiredofit]

Hello, I've been riding a Nomad MKII with external gear box for the past 4 months and at the 7000km mark. I've recently suffered a few punctures in my rear wheel and noticed that now I seem to have a problem when riding that I can feel minute clicking/resistance in the pedals along with an audible report. Is this because I did not get the chain in the correct spot on the sprocket? Is this a EX Box problem? Driving myself a bit nuts trying to figure this out on the road. I'm not adjusting anything, just fixing the punctures and putting the wheel back on.
From New Mexico, Dave

[JimK]

My first bet would be that it has nothing to do with the tire repairs, but anything is possible.

What is the frequency of the clicking? Once per revolution of the cranks, or once per revolution of the wheel... or maybe even once per revolution of the chain???

[tiredofit]

The clicking is about every 15 minutes on the pedal stroke, I have a sneaking suspicion it is due to my chain as I have taken it off and not put it back on the same teeth as I have read further into the forum - I have loosed up my chain and made sure everything is in order not to mention spinning the wheel a bit and repositioning the chain hoping this will sort it out. Another side note is that the pedals are now spinning when the bike moves - I had this problem earlier on in the ownership of the bike and it seemed to go away.

[JimK]

One click per 15 minutes! Wow! Maybe: one special chain link will line up with one special chainring tooth every 15 minutes?

Is it always the same foot pushing, e.g. always pushing down with your right foot?

Quite a peculiar symptom!

[tiredofit]

Duh - I'm obviously not making sense to myself even half the time. Sorry, I was making reference to the pedal position, in terms of a clock, perhaps I should be speaking in degrees. It clicks frequently while pedaling. I had another puncture yesterday and painted the chain and chainring and tried to move the links a few over with no success to fixing the problem. However my pedals moving while riding symptom has gone away. Could this be time for a new chain? Cables over tensioned? Bottom Bracket going? I can feel it with both feet while riding.

[julk]

Dave,
It sounds like something is worn/loose around the bottom bracket - worth checking pedal bearings, pedals into cranks, cranks onto bottom bracket, chainring bolts, bottom bracket for wear, eccentric coming loose

I had a similar sound/feel and eventually found a chainring bolt had come slightly loose, tightening it up made everything OK again!
Best of luck in the search.
Julian.

[sloe]

Or  maybe you just need a drop of oil in your pedal bearings.

[tiredofit]

So, I had another puncture today - what a mess, these Marathon XR's are certainly not living up to my other pairs of them. I sat at a gas station in the rain in New Mexico and changed it, found the hole and put the wheel back on - To  my surprise, clicking gone. Did notice that I'm in need of a truing of my rear wheel so adjusted it slightly and it works until I get to Farmington. The fact that it just disappears raises some questions to me - I'm aware of the feeling when Pedal Bearings are going, but not when Bottom Bracket - I tightened it up nicely the other day and it won't move whatsoever, and the chain has been lubed, a bit too much in my mind in sheer panic - I'll clean it off tomorrow and hope that the problem doesn't resurface again. The problem doesn't exhibit itself when pedaling backwards, it seems only when a bit of pressure is put on the pedals. Pedals still rotate when rear wheel is spinning liked a Fixed Gear.

[geocycle]

These low level noises are really irritating.  I've had something similar on three occasions.  Once was the ebb moving slightly, once was a slightly loose crank and the latest was a pedal.  All were fixed with new grease and tightening (after a lot of angst isolating the problem).  I don't think it will be your bb as they usually sound really rough when they go - imagine ball bearings replaced by gravel. 

[tiredofit]

I've pretty much nailed it down to taking off the rear wheel and its either the chain or the EX Box. I took my rear wheel into a bicycle store to get it trued as I've got a horrible whomp whomp whomp every revolution, yet we couldn't find the issue - Maybe the tire is out of round. Anyways, I put it back together and the clicking returned. After riding 10km I stopped at a gas station and took it off again and put it back on, and the problems gone away - Not sure what it is at this time, but I know with patience I can make it go away, now to work on the tire/wheel.

[gearoidmuar]

Do you know what it COULD be?

I had an impossible to diagnose creak while touring recently, a creak. I tried everything, regreased pedals, cranks, disassembled and reassembled chainring bolts etc. No good.
It was a TIGHT rear skewer. Some of these have a plastic thing in the assembly which will creak when too tight. Once I loosened it slightly it completely disappeared.