Originally Posted by
Gnosis
However, as concerns your chirping issue, upon pondering your issue at greater length, it dawned on me that when my 2011 Trek 2.1 road bike was brand new, I also was getting a “chirping” issue that corresponded with my rear wheel’s rotation and the intervals between chirps grew farther apart as the rear wheel continued to slow.
As it turned out, it was the left side rubber dust cover on the Bontrager rear wheel that was making the chirping sound and after I used a small screwdriver to apply a bit of wheel bearing grease under the dust cover, the chirping sound was eliminated. That chirping sound was driving me crazy and it wasn’t something I expected from a brand new quality road bike.
The left side rear dust cover rotates with the rear wheel however, the locking nut and cone remain stationary, so the previously grease-free inside of the left side dust cover produced enough friction as it spun over those stationary components to produce the chirping sound.
I hope this proves more helpful.
I had the same thing occur on the front wheel of my now old Fuji Newest when it was new, except that it was a rubber dust cover on the front wheel. I put some oil on a q-tip and ran the q-tip around under the dust cover. No more chirp. 15,200 miles later and I have still have no chirp and have never done anything else to the dust covers on that wheel.