Fifty Plus (50+) - Clicking Sound solution.

I suffered a bike accident two weeks ago. A big cat and a Pace Line were the cause.
Anyway, I took a beating which is healing slowly but more important the bike developed a clicking sound. this can seriously detract from your biking experience. I studied this noise very closely and it seemed to be every revolution of the crank but not for sure.
There are two LBS in this area of Florida. One declined the opportunity to be of service and claimed ignorance. The other one is a Treck certified LBS. They replaced every suspect part and bearing and chain and cassette and derailleur. No dice. Clicking was still there.
What is it?
In desperation we pulled the Crank shaft and gears and replaced it.
Problem solved. The shaft was bend very slightly.
Expensive lesson.

I don't get why they had to change all those parts. They should have been able to tell where the sound was coming from closer than that, just by using their ears. I must be misunderstanding something?

Why did they replace all the parts? Sounds like a Volvo dealer I know. Just bumping up the bill for profit. I would comment to them and let them know you won't be back because of the questionable process that led to all the additional unnecessary part replacements. Trek certified indeed. hmmm....

Will-sorry to hear about your fall. I hope you're healing up okay. At least you've now solved the darn clicking noise once and foreall. Can you imagine hearing that every day on one of your CC tours????

Are you now stowed up in Florida for the winter?

Sorry guys. I failed to tell the whole story. I bike a lot. About 70 to 100 miles per day. I have been told by the experts to change the chain every 2,000 miles and the cassette also. Of course I do not do that. But every so often I remember it and tell the LBS to replace that stuff.
Following that accident I told them to do that hoping that clicking sound would disappear.
Well, it did not.
Two experienced mechanics and me the Engineer agonized about that clicking (very faint) sound.
It was a bend crank.
It is only Money.:o

Sometimes it is best to LOOK at the bike and look for any defect. Questions asked like, which side did you and the bike fall, can help diagnose these potential areas. The extra beef and strength given to these new cranks assemblies would lend you to believe that they can take a lot of abuse. I guess in your case, the accident was a harder hit than anyone expected.

Even the best mechanic can miss something like this. I would love to know how much run-out the axle had and what brand it was.

Glad you are on the mend also!

I get a clicking out of my 83 Raleigh Marathon when I'm pedaling hard, such as not being in a low enough gear starting from a red light and standing on the pedals, trying to accelerate with traffic behind me. I suspect it's something similar- some play in the BB or a bent shaft or something. But that's the beauty of pulling bikes out of dumpsters- the noise doesn't drive me nuts, it just makes me mildly curious. After I get some work done on some other bikes I might look into it. Or maybe not.

When I drive away from a auto repair clinic, I'm happy when the bill is only that much.

Sometimes it is best to LOOK at the bike and look for any defect. Questions asked like, which side did you and the bike fall, can help diagnose these potential areas. The extra beef and strength given to these new cranks assemblies would lend you to believe that they can take a lot of abuse. I guess in your case, the accident was a harder hit than anyone expected.

Even the best mechanic can miss something like this. I would love to know how much run-out the axle had and what brand it was.

Glad you are on the mend also!

The accident was very bad because I was leading a pace line and the guy behind me piled on top of me. I was pretty much banged up but no broken bones. Muscles and Ligaments took a beating so I needed Advil for a month. Plus skin abrasions to the bones.
Anyway, the Treck Madone was banged up but not visually broken. I had it inspected and readjusted.
Nobody, including me thought that the crankshaft could bend. We replaced the bearings but it was the shaft. How much bend? We did not have the equipment to measure that. We had a new crank, installed it and problem solved.