Strange noises

[Rockymountain]

I've just come back from a 2 week tour from Esbjerg via the North Sea Coast path to Hoek. After a couple of days my Nomad Mk2 developed an annoying squeeking noise which seemed to happen every revolution of the wheels. I tried everything to get rid of it: adjusting front and rear brakes, oiling the chain and freewheel clearing out the mudguards. All to no avail.

It suddenly dawned on me that my Cateye Wireless Strada speedo was the cause and every time the magnetic nut (on the spoke) went past, it emitted a noisy squeak. This was made worse with a head wind and front panniers channeling the noise in my direction. I wasnt able to fix it but was greatly reassured that my Rohloff wasn't about to seize.

Has anyone else encountered an annoying noise from their bike?

Fraser

[jags]

yip when i had the Look kx light bike i cycled the camino route in spain 500 miles of it with this clicking noise, just could not figure it out.when i got home i stripped the bike bare  cleaned lubed  greased everything put it back together and low and behold the clicking was still there  
ended up it was the dura ace bottom bracket outer bearings

[Danneaux]

Hi Fraser!

Wonderful to learn yours was not an "expensive noise"!

Yes, I've had some mysterious noises myself over the years. I once ran through some muddy water and heard odd, periodic noises After. Turned out to be a small seagull feather that had lodged under the front mudguard, stuck to the underside by some mud. When things were just right (wrong), the quill would dip down and rub the tire tread, then retract. It was very difficult to find because it was neither constant nor obvious.

Best,

Dan. (...who felt both proud and foolish to have finally figured out the cause)

[Matt2matt2002]

My strange noise was a "flicking" sound from the front wheel.
Checked brakes and spokes. Everything OK.
Turned out to be a thin slither of a silicone covering strip across the word Schwalbe on the side of the tire!
One end had started to come away from the tire and was flicking the brake pad.
So annoying but so satisfying to solve the problem.

Matt

[energyman]

For ages I thought I had a grunching pedal crank on my belt drive bike.  Last Sunday my companion pointed out it was my saddle (Gel with springs).  So I changed it and I now ride in silence (nearly).  The saddle has gone back to Wiggle and I await their opinion as to it being a fault or what.

[onrbikes]

My Thorn Raven and hand built tourer before had the same noise.

A spot of oil/grease on the seat stem, before it goes into the frame fixes it every time.

[Peddrov]

My Raven is mostly silent, unless in gears 5-7. My Brooks Flyer does squeak pretty loudly though. To be honest, I quite like it that way. Every squeak reminds me that this would have been a shock up my spine on my old saddle.

[jags]

hah i like that comment.

[Andre Jute]

ended up it was the dura ace bottom bracket outer bearings

The bottom bracket is always the first suspect in any noise, wherever it seems to come from. I had one bike, a beautiful thing handfilleted by Peugeot, but a wretched harsh bike, in which only two things ever went wrong. Once was obvious from knowing it had been made about 1988 in France, with a Sachs-Huret gear train, including an oval chainring: it ate gear trains. But the other thing that went wrong was that the bottom bracket would start squeaking and need tightening vastly beyond the torque spec. I finally fixed it by fitting up a long pipe wrench to the bottom bracket socket, parking the bike against a pole to block the opposite pedal and standing up with both feet on the tube lengthening the wrench handle.

That bike, in other hands, has been fully rebuilt at least twice that I know of, and cosmetically restored to original (it was a very rare model -- I'm not surprised, as it was grotesquely overpriced and underdesigned even if beautiful), but the bottom bracket soldiers on because nobody can remove it...

Stupid little thing, but it cost a good deal of money at the LBS before I took a decisive hand— er, boot to effect a permanent (heh-heh) solution.

Andre Jute

[mickeg]

Intermittent scraping vibration noise, had a frequency the same as pedaling cadence, thus assumed it was drive train.  Lasted for a month and a half.  Then I heard it on a different bike, so it was not drive train.  Eventually figured out that it was the velcro strip on a glove rubbing against my wrist watch knob.  As I pedaled, I apparently flexed my wrist slightly which caused the watch to rub on the velcro.

[peter jenkins]

An irritating and irregular click on my Club Tour.

I'm profoundly deaf and hear via bilateral cochlear speech processors so it takes a while sometimes to identify a sound and track it down (unless it's Mrs. pj speaking to me).

Anyway, it took weeks to find that the plastic trim around the top of the LH brake lever adjacent to the brake hood had split.

Cheers,

pj

[StuntPilot]

On tour this summer I had a few unusual noises from the bike ...

A click every three revolutions of the crank. This turned out to be a slightly damaged chain link. I had forgotten to bring the additional piece of chain removed on fitting and there was not enough adjustment (being a new chain on departure) to take out the offending link. New £10 chain resolved this and got be home.

Occasional pinging sound from the front wheel. Sometimes this was on every revolution. At other times it happened for a while then stopped for the rest of the day. I thought it was the spokes. In a bike shop (a national German chain of shops) a mechanic immediately said that it was the spokes and not the bearings. He checked the wheel and alignment and said the noise may continue for the next few hours. A few days later the sound persisted so I visited a fantastic specialist bike shop (Rockymountain - you would have passed it in Cuxhaven! http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.fahrradundwerkstatt.com/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dwww.fahrradundwerkstatt.com%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den). The mechanic immediately said there was a problem with one bearing! Front bearings expertly replaced and all was well.

Occasional creaking noise from Brooks B17 Select. Removed the seat and covered rails with a little light oil. Problem solved.

A grinding from bottom bracket. I was convinced that the bottom bracket was failing. I hosed both sides with water, allowed to dry, then added some light oil on each side. Turned out it was some trapped grit.

An annoying click on each revolution of the crank. Turned out to be a loose shoe lace!