Creatre

So, I have the biggest race of my season coming up this weekend and a noise is starting to make me a bit nervous. I'm trying to prevent myself from bringing my bike to the shop for fear of messing something else up when I know everything is working great right now (minus the noise).

Pretty much here's the deal: This noise has only been present for *3* weeks, ever since I did a big climbing race in the mountains. I first noticed it doing 400w+ on a 10%+ climb, but only when I was out of the saddle. I thought I had popped a spoke at the time. The noise is a pinging, spoke, metallic, noise that almost only appears when I am out of the saddle doing 400w+ on every pedal stroke. After the race, I did the spoke ping test and none of the spokes seems to be sound off.

I have done about 50,000ft of climbing since then and have NOT had any trouble, other than just the noise. The thing that is worrying me is that I have never heard this sound before, so something has changed. I do have a powertap laced up to the wheel, and it has about 10,000 miles on it since the last truing or tension check, but it is in great true and does not appear to have any problems. I do know my chain is near the end of it's life, and could be part of the problem. I also know this only happens when I am in the lowest two gears I have on the bike (11-28 cassette), and on steep climbs out of the saddle. So is it possible the chain is slapping the spokes or something when the wheel is flexing? I weigh 138lbs, so I am not very hard on wheels.

Knowing all of these things, would you be worried before this weekend's race? Or would you just race, hope nothing is really wrong and it holds together, and get it checked out afterwards?

svtmike

Buddy of mine's bike was doing this. Fix (after checking spoke tensions) was a dab of grease at each spoke crossing.

Creatre

I was wondering about that. Think I'll do that before I head out on a ride tonight and see if that fixes it up.

Homebrew01

QR lever is slightly looser than normal, allowing a tiny bit of movement & noise at the fork tip.

thump55

This gets my vote. Try tightening up the front skewer, even if it already seems tight. I had the same problem (only made noise when climbing out of saddle), and that's all it was.

ivan_yulaev

In my experience, clicking/popping with each pedal stroke could be one of about a zillion things. Bottom bracket to shell, crank arms to bottom bracket, pedals to pedal threads, rear wheel spokes, loose QR (mostly an issue in the rear, in my experience), saddle rails; these all sound like they come from the back (near rear wheel). Noises like this can be maddening to troubleshoot. I've probably had such things happen a half-dozen times or more on my bike.

OTOH I've never experienced any sort of failure or even any noticeable performance difference due to any of these factors. So bringing an MP3 player can be just as effective as fixing the noise.

Creatre

You know, that reminds me I lost one of those spring things for the front QR a couple weeks back and totally forgot. You think that could be the noise?

It definitely sounds like it's coming from the back, but I know how hard it is to find where noises are coming from on a bike when I've troubleshooted stuff in the past.

Homebrew01

The spring won't make a difference.

njkayaker

Yes. The spring is there just to make it more convenient to remove/install the wheel (with a loosened quick release).

socalslowguy

I have a Brontrager rear wheel that makes 'pinging' noises when climbing. Fix was similar to svtmike's except that I use Triflow instead of grease at the spoke crossings. After several weeks the noise will come back so I reapply the Triflow as needed.

krusty

If you rule out QR (and I'm betting you will), the most likely cause is movement of the spokes across each other at the cross point on the drive side of your rear wheel. I'm betting you have a relatively high tension, low spoke count rear wheel. Assuming your rear wheel is otherwise in good shape, try a small drop of lube at the cross point, as previously mentioned. Flex the spokes relative to one another a few times to distribute, then wipe the excess off and see if that helps. If so, I would have the wheel trued/tensioned - it's probably due. I have seen this many times on rear wheels, mostly on lower spoke count sets.

Shimagnolo

You know you could slip playing cards in between the spokes at the crossings.
[runs and hides]

Creatre

Okay, cool. So no go on skewer spring. I'll still try the lube tonight then, and hopefully that fixes my problem. Honestly I don't mind the noise that much, it just sounded pretty nasty, and I wanted to make sure my wheel wasn't going to come apart bombing 50mph+ down a mountain or something!

Germanicus

Happened to a buddy of mine too. He dropped dead 2 weeks later.
Just sayin'

Stickney

Depending on materials -- you could do a round of greasing/torquing (bar/stem, seatpost, pedals, cleats, bottle holders, etc).

I had a similar issue -- turned out that I had changed a tube and that tube stem was flawed in some way -- perhaps it was just a bit smaller than normal -- and it caused a click/ping on every rotation under out of saddle effort. I swapped out the tube and viola!! The noise went away.

As mentioned though -- there are SO many possible causes it really becomes a grease this, tighten that scavenger hunt.

rkwaki

creatre you should be good, my entire bike sounds like that when I am climbing at 10%.
Dab of grease and go.

bigfred 

Adding to the list of a zillion:

Rear wheel flexing just enough to allow sensor magnet to contact. I've had this happen to me personally. It wouldn't show up except when out of the saddle climbing. That was the only time the wheels were flexing enough to allow it.

Had a friend who's RD was occassionally contacting a couple spokes. Again, only when under climbing stress. Presumably due to combined frame and wheel flex. I believe a derailuer stop adjustment cured his issue.

A few weeks ago had a riding companion with an occassional click from the rear wheel that all of us were trying to figure out during the ride. Turned out to be his bottom bracket bearings going to bits (Specialized Roubaix w/OSBB ceramics). Second one to fail on him in 3 months.

I've also had an eyeletted mavic rim start making clicks as it approached its end.

Creatre

I don't weigh anything though, I'm used to being a leaf on the wind and not hearing any noises as I blast away from the group!

Bob Dopolina 

Bearings.

Most likely the DS hub. Next would be freehub bearings.

Pull the wheel out and feel the bearings with your fingers.

ahsposo 

Why do I get an image of PeeWee Herman?

ericm979

Skewers are loose.
Bearings are going.
The axle 'cap' on the rear hub is loose. I've had them come loose on PT hubs among others.
Most likely: the spokes need to be tensioned. Lubing them is not the right fix, retensioning them is.

Silvercivic27

Have you tried different wheels? If its just the wheels, take just the wheels to the shop and keep the bike at home.

Creatre

I don't have any other wheels to try unfortunately. I'm such a loser cyclist, only one wheelset.

I may end up doing this, lubing yesterday did not seem to work. I also noticed it only made the noise when I was doing the steep climbing out of the saddle, ONLY when my right foot went down, not my left one. Not sure if that means anything.

svtmike

Possibly cleat/pedal interface.

RT

I recently had a very similar issue, only on tall climbs, and only when pedaling. Dropping the bike and putting all of my weight on various parts of the bike did not re-create the sound. Tried to eliminate from the ground up, and finally landed on the headset. Is is a cheap-o headset that came with the frame (loser cyclist, only one headset), and after loosening and re-tightening the parts, the problem still persisted. I had to remove everything and re-grease the bearings to get the creak it to subside. It is remarkable how such an audible noise has no direction when you ride slowly, re-create the sound, and listen closely. It sounds like it can come from anywhere within a 25 cubic foot bubble.

Mental note: next time I want a new jersey or better bar tape, get a new and better freakin' headset.