this is a thread for all those various noises and clicks and squeaks you get on your bike when you do something just so. we all know what it's like. some of the most useful advice i've had on this subject is "wait until something doesn't work." because a lot of the time, it seems like that's all that you can do.
but we've all had various noises here and there and some of them, we've managed to pin down. for example, i had a click that seemed to be coming from the bottom bracket every power stroke. it turned out a bit of lube down the seat tube fixed that, as it was just pieces of the frame rubbing together (and a thorough inspection revealed no cracks).
right now, i've got two things that are bugging me. thing one: in my middle chainring (this seems to happen in neither the big nor little), and in the low (rear) gears, there is a grindy feeling on my left power stroke. doesn't happen with the right. it gets lessened as i shift up into higher cogs. it feels ALMOST like the chain grinding against the derailleur, but it's a bit "softer", and i've verified that it's not that. i've been messing a lot with my front derailleur, so i think that might be a source, and i know the ring is out of true by about a half mm. so: grindy, lessens in higher gears, but only happens in middle ring. anyone ever have something like this?
thing 2: there is a weird "pling" sound when i shift my rear derailleur under force. it seems to usually happen when shifting down, but i usually use more force when shifting down (e.g. going up a hill), and i'm pretty sure i've heard it shifting up, too. it's impossible to reproduce, but it doesn't sound healthy, and i want to find out what it is and get rid of it. it sounds like it's coming from the derailleur itself, but we all know how unreliable that assessment can be.
any words of wisdom? anyone else have any thoughts or questions or potentially relevant anecdotes?
from experience, I can say, on the plus side, disassembling and lubricating various (apparently unrelated) bits can be surprisingly helpful. And sometimes, just live-and-let-live is calming.
On the minus side, it's less happy to say, lookitthat my pedal just disintegrated. Or, lookitthat the crack runs 'bout all the way through the frame, would explain the creaking wouldn't it.
I don't have good guesses about your soft creak and pling.
I am well acquainted with front mech issues (this was done after dropping my chain at Mingo then trying to shift it back on). I'm currently fiddling with the new front mech, and after about 45 minutes and several shakedowns, I think the cage isn't rubbing, at least under normal output. Having a barrel adjuster for the cable helps quite a bit.
The rear pling may just be the sounds of shifting under load with an old chain/cassette combo.
My best "gee, that doesn't sound/feel right" story is: heading down Mt Royal Blvd toward the at-the-time office, my non-drive side crank arm felt kinda funny. Then, suddenly *ting ting ting* and only my right leg was moving. Oops. The crank arm fell off. To add insult to injury, the car driving behind me ran over it, too.
"it feels ALMOST like the chain grinding against the derailleur, but it's a bit "softer", and i've verified that it's not that."
How did you verify it? if you stuck your bike on a stand, pedaled with your hand, and watched the front for chain contact, then I wouldn't rule out chain rub. Crank arms/chainrings move a lot more under full load than when you're just applying the force of your hand. Also, if you are just using your hand, are you applying force to the left crank arm?
No clue about the pling. My rear derailers have always made lots of funny noises, but I'm kind of an abusive shifter.
The rear pling may just be the sounds of shifting under load with an old chain/cassette combo.
i should've mentioned that both the chain and cassette are more or less brand new. less than 200 miles on either, i'd say.
in re: verifying that the chain and the front derailleur cage are not touching: i said i verified it hoping that that could bet taken as granted. it's a pretty exhaustive thing to do, but generally on my bike if they're not rubbing when you run the pedals by hand, they definitely won't be rubbing when you shift the chain over a cog or two and put full load on it.
i heard a "pling" on my bike. i thought it was coming from the seat, where the rails met the saddle or where the seat post clamped to the seat. cleaned the saddle rails and what not, still the same noise. new saddle, same noise. then i discovered a crack where my seat tube and bottom bracket met, just above the weld. i wish i had more time with that bike, but now it's dead.
then i bought a new bike and it cracked after four days.
i'm bummin'.
Say it ain't so Tim. The new Fuji is already dead?
Oh man... "Things that go pling"
I have been completely sick to my stomach all day because while stretching a new front derailleur cable last night that was the sound the inside of the Ultegra STI ($150 to replace) dual control lever made when I stretched it a little too hard and the internal pawls broke on the lever!!!
AAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!
I will never ever ever pre-stretch a new cable like that with an expensive STI dual lever ever again lets just say...
It felt like I broke my own baby's arm even if it was an accident as far as how horrible I feel right now over it...
Ironic that the first thread I see up here today is "Things that go 'Pling'" LOL...
yah man, it's true dude. <- bummin!
Wow! You must be one hell of a rider to put out 2 frames in a week! I thought I was bad destroying 3 mountain bike rear wheels in a span of about a month last spring, but wheels are much easier to replace than a frame 
Bummer!
from experience, I can say, on the plus side, disassembling and lubricating various (apparently unrelated) bits can be surprisingly helpful.
good advice! i re-cabled my front derailleur and adjusted the height and angle, and the noise seems to be gone. plus it's shifting as well as ever now.
my "pling" is still there, though.
Some plinging is bound to happen when you are forcing all those metal bits to move on around over and upon each other.
Usually the more expensive the stuff, the quieter it is, but that isn't always true. I've had my relatively high end cassette drop my chain down about 4 gears smaller when I tried to gently force a shift to an easier gear when climbing.
one of the bikes had a good long hard run. the other one i hope was a flawed frame.
If it was a brand new frame (or even up to a few years old to life in some cases), and you are the purchaser you would have a very good chance of getting it replaced.
Over my years working in bike shops you would be amazed at the broken frames that would come in that the bike companies would replace without questioning at all.
Broken Bridgestone mountain bikes were always sent back and replaced, since Bridgestone mountain bikes were basically road bike frames with knobby tires and would snap in half 50% of the time (LOL).
Broken head tubes, dimpled downtubes, frames obviously broken in a crash, frames where the owner put the bottom bracket cups in backwards and cross-threaded the frame, broken derailleur hangars, you name it...
The bike companies would rather replace your frame and keep their good name than watch their customers run off to some other shimano parts holder...
I don't remember a time when a bike company would not replace the frame as long as it was the person who originally bought the bike.
yeah, i got confirmation on a new one. kinda sucks tho. how much do you want to trust a bike that broke in under 100 miles? i can imagine it snapping right after i pull out in front of a bus...
Eh, it's a freak break. I mean, that basic frame design is pretty solid... Pista Concept, Fuji, Leader, Felt... they're all pretty similar frames when it comes down to it.
Maybe we didn't work in shops at the same time Adam, but warranties when I worked where often times bitter contentious interactions between customers and manufactures with the shop caught in between.
It needed to be a very clear cut case of manufacturing or materials defect before a free frame was provided. Cracked welds were an easy one, but other bends, cracks and breaks were often termed the result of misuse and a crash replacement frame was offered at below wholesale.
I sided with the bike companies 90% of the time. If you crash and your frame breaks, how is that a defect? You won't find any other industries covering breakages due to rider error.
i didn't crash it. and luckily my friend works at fuji in philly. i didn't even ride it off a curb.
I have had 3 different frames crack in the past and never had any problems with taking them to a shop and getting the manufacturer to take care of me. Motobecane sent me a new Grand Record, even though I bought the bike used. Trek replaced my early model frame with a 520. Specialized gave me a choice of replacing my early Stumpjumper with a new one (but none of my old componenents would fit) or paying 50% of retail for any new Specialized.
All of these bikes were easily over 15 years old when they cracked- not abused, just well used!
I agree with you Eric... If you break your bike doing something you shouldn't have done or simply crashed it, etc. No reason to hold the bike manufacturer responsible for the damage in my opinion.
I just remember being surprised at the number of times people could get away with it.
We would tell customers that it is up to the manufacturer and that they would be sending someone to the store to check it out, and almost all the time they would end up replacing the frames without a big fight.
I do not remember which companies were stricter than others, but there were some companies that were harder to deal with than others. We sold Gary Fisher, Trek, GT, Diamond Back, Bridgestone, Raleigh, and probably one or two others.
I didn't take sides myself, and I don't remember the shop owner really getting into any fights with bike reps over things like that.
This was all back in the mid 1990s for me. Maybe the bike companies in general have gotten sick of people cashing in for new frames every time they broke something and economic times has called for them to tighten up on things like that.
I think my post came out wrong. I wasn't trying to be contentious, just saying my experiences with bike manufactures was quite different. And not much fun. The warranty on the frame was between the customer and the company, but the dealer was often the one to receive the brunt of the anger when a customer needed to pay for a new frame.
I wasn't implying Tim's bike or anyone else's wasn't deserving of replacement.
oh and here's another fun and interesting one: my rear derailleur cable is constantly loosening. it has at least a few hundred miles on it, but every 30 miles or so, i have to find a nice flat or slightly downhill stretch, stop pedaling, shift the derailleur over, and adjust the barrel roller near the brake hoods to tighten it up (it needs slack to be adjustable).
sure, cable loosening isn't a new phenomenon. but this is happening because my barrel roller is unrolling! at first it seemed weird that with all the times i adjusted it, it still wasn't out much. but in fact, every time i adjust it, it's in farther than where i put it to last time. luckily, my rear derailleur has an adjuster on the derailleur itself, otherwise i wouldn't be able to go a full ride without slipping on downshifting.
Try a touch of loctite in there maybe... Not so much you can't turn it again, but a dab of the blue loctite which is not as grabby as the red kind.
I don't have a "ping" but I have a "grinding-like creakin' sound" that sounds more intense when I'm pedaling uphill--seems to only be coming from the left side/left pedal. I'm wondering if I just need to lube stuff up? I'll definitely give it a shot.
The funny thing about the new indexed shifting systems with fancy ramps and magic cogs is that they're so good that many people never learn to let off on the force for a half a tick just to let the chain shift. This is surprisingly common among people who have been riding for less than ten years.
With the older systems, especially the traditional friction-shift systems with straight cogs, your body learns how to get them to shift, so then when you ride the new tech it just happens subconsciously, like magic.
Or in other words: Dude. That "pling" is your chain tearing a corner off a tooth. Little by little by little, not all at once. If you're ever going to have a sudden drivetrain failure (like a chain), this is when it's going to happen.
The barrel adjuster loosening sounds like a deformed thread and loctite is the best/easiest solution.
argyle, your grinding could be your shoe, cleat, pedal binding, pedal bearing, crank axle, a cracked/split crank (either at the pedal eye or the bottom bracket spindle), bottom bracket bearing, bottom bracket housing rubbing against the shell. Or something else. The first thing you should do is careful visual inspection for cracks -- you don't want something to break while you're riding it.
I have a hybrid bike the pops and creaks on every right pedal stroke. Its definately the pedal bearings and im just too lazy to replace or repack them.
I have had creaks like that where a little grease to the pedal threads have corrected it.
got another strange noise that i can't find the source of. if anyone's ever had any like it, i'd like to hear your story.
it's sort of a light, airy double-ping with every rotation of the wheel. it only sounds when the rear wheel is sufficiently weighted--it does not make a noise if i'm leaning forward or not on the bike. it happens whether i'm pedaling or coasting, and in all gears. it also seems to sound when the valve crosses the rear brakes, though i can't figure out how or even if that's significant. it almost sounds like something is tapping a spoke, but there's nothing close to them. the ride is still silky smooth, which leads me to believe that it's not a bearing issue.
any thoughts?
Spoke too tight/ too loose? either near the top of the wheel or bottom of the wheel when you hear the ping. Just a WAG.
I vote for too loose, and near the bottom, I think. Worn bearings don't ping, they growl.
Is the wheel still true? And are you sure this happens in every gear?
I'm still a bike repair/mechanics idiot (working on it, slow but sure), but I really hate the general category of noises that could be titled "Only Happen When Bike Being Ridden By Someone Who Doesn't Know How To Fix It". Not only can I not take off my ears and hover them over random parts of the bike to try and source it, but there's those sneaky noises that disappear when someone more competant gets on the bike. The same thing happens to my car sometimes, I think it's the Mechanics God spiting me for being incompetant in application of my chosen field.
Ergo I follow the advice listed above "live and let live". The worst that has happened so far after "that doesn't sound right..." was I broke a spoke ("ping") and sheared a vew gear teeth (no remarkable noise associated), but still made it the rest of the way to work just fine. That bike was toast after that, but the new steed is svelt and fantastic (worst "sound" so far was the flat tire, which I thought was just a bumpy road or off kilter brakes - my bike is more finely tuned than I am, or the roads are just. that. bad.)
every once in a while i hear a clicky-pop noise and i think it's coming from the BB. i'd recently removed a crank and put it back on; is it possible i didn't push it onto the spindle far enough, or should have the spindle nut done that for me when i tightened that down?
that's an incredibly helpful resource. thanks
I made fenders for my old bike out of corrugated plastic, zip ties, and coat hangers:
Really worked but MAN what a racket
