ch9862

My bike developed fairly annoying noise, which I'm pretty sure comes from rear der. It's very much like a bird chirp. The bike is 1x9, with Shimano 105 rear derailer (long cage). When riding under normal load, noise is very subtle in larger cogs, gets louder when getting to the outer (smaller) ones. Chirping is the loudest when changing gears.

I cleaned and lubed the chain, with no effect. Do I need to lube or grease the pulleys? It looks like there are no bearings there, just simple bushing in one of them.

TIA

Davet

A little spritz of light chain oil, or most any other oil works fine. If you really want to get anal, you can take the pulleys off, remove the protective covers, wipe out the shmootz that's in there and then lube them before reinstalling. Not too much lube though.

MudPie

Pulley wheels need tender loving care too. You can easily remove the pulleys with the deraillure on the bike. Note there may be an "upper" and "lower" pulley. Once you remove the pulley, there will probably be a metal dust shield on both sides of the bearing. Remove those to expose the bearings, probably a journal bearing which looks like a bushing. Remove the bearing and clean it and the pulleys. I like to smear a dab of grease on the bearing before reassemling. Some use a heavier oil.

It should be a pretty simple job, only needing an Allen wrench to remove the pulleys.