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

Pull it apart and see if anything is broken or if the bearings seem knackered.

I was worried someone would say that. I thought Chris King was fit and forget! It seems like everything on this bloody bike is dying at the 2 year mark.

The wheel is 8 years old and done well over 10,000 miles wouldn't they have seated themselves by now and any noises arisen along while back?

Check the join in the rim - Does it look ok?

Might be a problem with the steerer or something, maybe even the brakes. Is there definite headset movement?

Definetly movement. I've put my hand around the upper cup/cap and rocked the bike back and forth and I can feel a tiny bit of relative motion between the cup and the bearing cap. But the fact that increased tightening has made the steering tight and not stopped the knocking is worrying me. I shall strip and rebuilt tonight I suppose.

Probably for the best. If you hadn't noticed the looseness for a little while it could've borked the bearings.

Yeah. It was a few weeks before I bothered to tighten it.

#Procrastinationruinedmylilfe

Kris Kringles have angled bearings that sit ver' precis'... I know this because I bought one with a slightly bent crown race and the bearings just wouldn't sit. If you've had it loose for while and hit potholes etc I wouldn't be surprised if it's knackered either bearing, or more likely, the edge of the cup that it sits on : /

My sons canti brakes were a bit loose when we got the bike and that felt a bit like a loose headset. I checked by turning the wheel through 90 degrees and testing is without the brake on. No rocking/knocking was felt then.

The holding round the upper cup trick will tell you if there is play or not.

Flat spokes rubbing up against each other and at the spoke holes at the hub - this was my problem, a drop of dry lube at each spoke intersection and most importantly at the spoke/hub interface solved it all for me (mavic k. hubs have a spoke cover thing)

This all being said, ksyriums seem to ping often for a lot of people, not sure if that relationship can be extended to a mavic rim too.

MishMash

Did the lube hide the problem or solve it? I thought of doing this but I don't know of anyone who lubes there spokes. Is it a normal thing to do and I've just not done it for nearly 3 decades?

Had a clicking rear cassette (again!) turned out I'd broken a spacer.
Spent the last hour or so completely re-building the bike and cleaning every part.
Feels good.

LBS Creak Fix Exposes Hitherto Unnoticed Squeak.

If I could drive and "if cars could run on teardrops," i'd "lease a Hyundai."

Regarding my clicking front wheel, I took out the bearings with a little assistance from Vince (of this forum). I think my problem has been located although I won't know for sure until my new bearings arrive. There was a 1 mm gap on one side between the bearing and the locknut which was stuck in place presumably a little corrosion.

My headset has started knocking a little bit under braking, I notice it at the lights most. Obviously this was due to it being loose, so I tightened it a bit. Still knocks. Tightened it some more and it still knocks. It's gotten to the point now the steering is getting a bit tight, but it still knocks.

Breaking bad references aside, does anyone have any suggestions on what might be the problem? It's a chris king headset, carbon steerer with an expander thingy inside the steerer. Worked fine for 2 years.

Ta

Stripped, cleaned, regreased and reassembled. No more clicks/knocks. Although still a bit tight near full lock on one side. How strange.

Did the lube hide the problem or solve it? I thought of doing this but I don't know of anyone who lubes there spokes. Is it a normal thing to do and I've just not done it for nearly 3 decades?

The lube sort of resolved the problem, seemed to muffle the pinging. To backtrack a bit on my words (I've left this wheel in Australia, so slowly recalling everything now) as I didn't have the Mavic key, I adjusted the quick release to clamp down super tight. This seemed to be a quick fix solution on other forums for the preload issue with the lube. Pinging disappeared, although when it came to removing the front wheel later on I needed the strength of Thor to crack open the QR. Moral of the story I should spend the few $ and get one of those preload keys when I go back!

On lubing spokes itself, depends on how much you worry about your spokes and if they have had heavy adjustment. I seem to recall Mavic mentioned wiping down the flat spokes with an oily cloth to maintain the shine, and I think it comes out of an aesthetic purpose rather than functional. Given that I was flexing my wheels on some serious hill climbs back in oz I kind of subscribed to the notion that a bit of silicon (not oil!) lube at the intersections and heads could be a good thing.

Take it all as anecdotal though ;) I'm no expert on Mavic's and their fan-dangled boutique rims.

For you, check the cartridge bearing seating, bearing condition and spoke seating (and possibly tension if they are wheels with high kms?) Let us know how you go!

M

Edit: just saw your bearing extraction...looking forward to hearing results of new bearing!

I suppose one posts here his problem with noise, right? If not, apologies.

I put on my Holdsworth Mistral a Shimano brand new 6 speed freewheel on an old Shimano Golden Arrow hub.

Every time I spin, I hear a (at times) loud tack-tack that gets faster, the faster I spin. A times I hear nothing (but it's veery rare)

On the Gazelle I also changed the wheels with Campagnolo Hubs and put on it a new unbranded 6 speed freewheel. The noise here is much louder, but when you 'get it right [by luck]' you hear nothing at all until you freewheel and start spinning again.

Today I tried a Shimano 5 speed freewheel on mine and there was no noise. That should rule out the hub.
I am going to that on the Gazelle this weekend.

But my main question is, could the number of cogs affect the rear hub/freewheel assembly and create this loud tack (like if you're hitting the frame)?
Surely 6 speeds are a tiny bit too many as the clearance between the smallest cog and the frame is very small, but as long as it fit I'd thought it didn't make any difference

in short, no.

Freewheels go up to 8 cogs, and if yours will take 6 it should be take 7 no problem.

The tick tack is more likely to be a spacing issue with either the chain or the derailleur, or a stiff chain link. My first instinct would be to check that the derailleur is set up properly in relation to your cogs, if it's a mm or two out of line on the lower limit then it will mean that you're always going to have noisy shifting, so maybe it's set up fine for 5 speed and hasn't been adjusted to compensate for the extra cog.

Check that you didn't only do your chainring bolts up to finger tight with a plan to do it properly after you finish cleaning the chain.
Best to do this check before you actually use the bike, rather than 60 miles later, having just climbed out of Crouch End and span down another hill.
Maybe this should be in the Oh shit thread? All the bolts were right at the ends of their threads and I dread to imagine the consequences if they'd actually come undone completely.

Stiff link checked sorry not to have mentioned that. I build up the bike from scratch and the rear derailleur is setup properly and shifting is smooth and noise free. The tack happens with chain on all cogs.

The chain is new with the quick link (is that how is it called?) and actually don't remember how have tighten it up.
But then should it make noise with the other freewheel?

is the other freewheel new?

The one I tried no. The one on the Gazelle yes.

might just be the chain/cog pitch that don't like each other then. try a different chain/freewheel and they might like each other more? I know people used to run campag cogs with sedis chains because they were quieter.

That could be indeed

For those following my headset case up thread, I have discovered the issue (I think). The bloody cheapo carbon spacer I have is not cut square, and its forcing the upper bearing cap to sit at a slight angle.

Will attack the spacer with a file and see if that helps.