Bike noise, creak, click, creaks, clicks, clicking, pinging sound - help

mine goes ticker ticker ticker..but then im ss not fixed oh and i forgot he swish swish of my bar streamers

hippy Yes. How old is your chain?

3 wks - I had the LBS change the sprocket to get a slightly easier gear.

Let 'em settle. Are they clean? How's your chain tension? Also, some combos of chain/sprocket will always be noisy.

hippy Let 'em settle. Are they clean? How's your chain tension? Also, some combos of chain/sprocket will always be noisy.

I gave them a wipe down yesterday - I'll give them a good lubing for Dunwich, and chain tension is tight, but not rock hard.

I find that backing off the chain tension a bit can help. And second all the good comments on cleaning and lubing. Particulalrly in this bloody weather.

Get inside, get some beer, put the tour on itv4 and then get cleaning that chain. Mmmmmm, bliss. Paraffin is for wusses. Use a cue tip and soap made from coal tar.

(some of the above is bad advice)

rakan [quote]hippy It's just not the same as a whurring/grinding chain..
Has anyone got any spare road grit?

Plenty. And a BB which makes a loving cracking sound.[/quote]

and did you say you want some spokey dokeys?

after running cassete hubs for so long on the bmx, ANYTHING a fixed can do is pretty much silent..

just put my bike together after the ny-london flight. the bastards opened my bike case and sealed it back up as they saw fit (both clasps on one side are gone entirely, so it risked popping open if not properly sealed). everything seems alright, but there's a funny squeaking noise. at first i thought it was the bars, but they are in tight, then i thought it might be the front wheel, but the more i listen, the less sure i am of where it's coming from? any tips on locating the squeaky bits?

Try taking off as many parts as possible, then hold your bike off the ground and move things - e.g. bb, headset. Then say put the front wheel in, move about, then rear, chain, pedals... until you find the squeak?

Might work! :)

Okay- mechanical problems? Fixed. Lots of nice smooth roads? Found (well, enough smooth roads). WHAT ABOUT THE WIND RUSHING PAST YOUR EARS. AARGH.

Turn your head sideways :)

flip ... there's a funny squeaking noise. at first i thought it was the bars, but they are in tight, then i thought it might be the front wheel, but the more i listen, the less sure i am of where it's coming from? any tips on locating the squeaky bits?

There's probably a small rodent trapped inside your downtube.

Pet Shop Fixie Boy.

haha! the rodent sounds the most likely possibility...
have been away from the bike yesterday and today (for a funeral, not really the occasion to bring the bike along), but will try taking it apart and putting it back together, as well as leaving a bit of cheese out next to the front wheel to coax the little bastard out
cheers for the advice

People always looking at me funny when I cycling along and some weird noise appears and I start shouting "WILL YOU SHUT THE F*CK UP" to my bike...

hahaha

So my Fuji Track came today. It's nice but I can see why it's the cheapest production bike. The tires look and feel like they're from a toy bike. Everything went together nicely after cleaning some threads but I get a lot of noise from the drivetrain. At low rpm it seems to come from the rear (a clicking sound) but then as the speed increases the whole drivetrain starts making a periodic buzz sound and I can see the chain vibrating quite a bit. That's all with no load on the bike. When I'm actually on the bike the pedal feel is fine but the clicking sound is still there. The chainline looks to be dead on as I'd expect from a bik that comes configured to run fixed out of the box but the chain does feel quite tight at the top and very tight a the bottom.

Any ideas?

One other thing. Clips are damn scary when using them for the first time.

chain too tight.

and get some lube on it.

the noise will die down after 100 miles or so.

thanks for the advice. I can always rely on the nice people on lfgss to help me through these things

The chain ring isn't centred and I don't really feel confident sorting it myself so I'm going to take it to my LBS to get them to set the bike up properly. I'm not in London so no need for any suggestions.

are you sure? I had the same problem, I'd be turning the cranks and the chain was either really tight or really loose.. But make sure you check both sides of the chain, because depending on which way you turn the pedals, the chain will be tight at the bottom and loose at the top or vice versa! So if you always check the top, it is possible for it to feel significantly different and still be completely normal :P

unxetas are you sure? I had the same problem, I'd be turning the cranks and the chain was either really tight or really loose.. But make sure you check both sides of the chain, because depending on which way you turn the pedals, the chain will be tight at the bottom and loose at the top or vice versa! So if you always check the top, it is possible for it to feel significantly different and still be completely normal :P

run that by me one more time please. I didn't really get what you were saying.

he's talking about the chain under tension from drive or back pedal, when the tension changes from top to bottom.

but really, with cheap cranks/rings/cogs you'll not get it even.

I think they run best if you can find the very tightest spot and make sure it's not binding, then you'll get an inch or more of movement on the slackest point, which is bearable.

hm.. sorry, I'll try again!

because it's fixed and all that, when I was checking the chain tension, I'd feel the chain on the top half and it'd be tight, then I'd pedal backwards 180 degrees and feel the top half again and it'd be loose.. But if instead I pedal forward 180 degrees (to exactly the same spot) the top of the chain would still be tight.

What this means, is that top part of the chain will usually stay tight if you pedal forward and the bottom will be loose. If you pedal backwards, it's the opposite..

SOoooooooo, the best way to check chain tension is grabbing the top and bottom and "squeezing" them, so the tension will be even.. If you just wiggle either the top or bottom bits, you might get mixed results!

Sorry if this is really obvious, just mentioning it because I did it myself and was about to start messing with the chainring...

(EDIT: and RPM is right, it's just about impossible to get it 100% perfect, but I was actually surprised at how good the drivetrain worked on the fuji!)

Don't worry about the wheels too much.

I used to, but whenever I show them to the nice LFGSS folk on rides they all they that they are fine, and I should just thrash away on them until I need to upgrade.

And my drive train was quiter after I put a 17t Surly cog on the bag and rode a few hundred miles.

Since going fixed I have picked up some alarming sound effects both front and back.

Either headset or front hub feels a bit funny (like there's something binding or some sort of play between fork and frame) - especially under any lateral stress e.g. cornering, track standing. And then out back there's all sorts of general chatter coming from either BB or rear hub.

When I take the rear wheel off, the BB seems fine (running really smoothly actually), chain tension is good and wheel is sitting true between the stays. It's much the same up front - headset feels tight and running smooth and nothing obviously wrong with hub. It's only when I start to ride that the noise starts up again - skidding seems to exacerbate it.

The only thing that I am a bit concerned about is that whilst my wheels are true, spokes are loose (I can squeeze two between fingers and get a couple of cms of movement - if that makes sense). Is this causing problems?

It's doing my head in! Thoughts appreciated.