illdthedj

soooo in both my bike and my roommate's, our velocity deep Vs to formula ss/fg hubs are making "clickclickclickclick" etc sounds in the back hub.

repetitive sound, whether riding fixed (me) or singlespeed, pedaling or coasting (roomie).
only when riding, not without weight.

any ideas?

cc700

you've got some Click Beetles infesting your apartment and they've found their way into your veeps.













































































































































that, or you both have a loose chainring bolt. or you have a broken ball bearing or race.

illdthedj

mmm i dont think its loose chainring bolts, but im going to check that out once i get home from work.

broken ball bearing or race? i wouldn't think so since they are less than a year old, but yes i will be checking.

do formula hubs have loose ball bearings? i have never actually opened up a hub before. was thinking i would probably do that tonight and regrease everything...

cc700

no they have cartridges, but cartridge bearings can still break. don't open your cartridges you'll never get them back together. do they still roll smooth? if they roll smooth i'm going to say it's gotta be chainring bolts. there's just not enough moving part on the formula hub to click, unless the axle nuts came loose and something got inbetween the hub body and wherever it's lodged on the axle... i just don't see that happening to your bike and his. chainring bolts make clicking noises and that's way more likely.

carleton

While on the subject, get some steel chainring bolts. Standard alloy bolts WILL NOT last with FG riding and braking/skidding.

If it happens when coasting, then it's not the chainring bolt. It could be the bearings or a problem with a spoke. Squeeze pairs of spokes together to feel if one is more loose than the rest. Bearings are sort of cheap to replace, but you will need a bearing extractor. Probably a job for a shop. Not worth buying a special tool.

illdthedj

i was thinking it was not chainring bolts because the sound really does seem to come from the hub. but ill be giving each bolt a turn to see if maybe they are ventriloquist chainring bolts lol

i had heard somewhere the clicking could be from where the spokes cross and touch....so i put a drop of lube between each one, didn't stop it.

i will go thru each spoke when i get home to see if one feels super loose.

i was hoping hubs were as easy as working on a headset or bottom bracket but if it requires yet another special tool im not sure if i will deal with it.

the wheels seem to roll just fine...just a bit "clicky"...

silver_ghost

Most cartridge bearing hubs aren't as hard to work on as you might think. You can replace the bearings in Formulas (and others) with not much more than a hammer and something like a socket that matches the outer diamerter of the bearing. I seem to recall there was a really good how-to with pictures once posted in the DIY section.

Edit:

Here we go: https://www.bikeforums.net/singlespeed-fixed-gear/347132-how-replace-bearings-your-formula-hub.html

Check for a loose spoke first. If not that, take the wheel off the bike and turn the axle with your fingers. If you can feel any side to side play or crunchy resistance get some replacements (Enduro is a common and good quality brand) at your bike shop. Formulas use a common size, I think, so they should be easy to find and cheap (about 3-4 bucks each)

illdthedj

cool! well ill test the spokes first, hopefully its that!

i sort of assumed it wasn't a loose spoke because i assumed a loose spoke would result in an untrue wheel, and both back wheels seem reasonably true. although you know what they say about assumptions. well i forget what they say about assumptions but its not anything good lol

cc700

putting the bearings back in with a hammer is not a good idea.

take it to a shop before you waste any more time on this. a broken spoke at midnight is not worth all of this.

silver_ghost

Nope, but gently tapping the bearing into place with a socket that VERY CLOSELY matches the outer diameter of the bearing race is likely how the pros at the shop will do it. As long as the forces are transmitted to the outer race, not the inner or the bearings themselves, you'll be fine. Seating the bearings with some washers and the axle nuts as described in the how-to is a neat trick.

Obviously, all info offered by strangers in this forum must be taken with a grain of salt, and the OP must be aware of his or her own mechanical prowess. Dealing with cartridge bearings used to freak me out as well, but they really aren't that scary.

In regards to the possibility of a loose spoke, a 36 spoke deep-v wheel is so overbuilt that you can have a spoke or two totally loose and not notice any wobble to the wheel.

One more possibility; do you have presta valves? Could the little knurled nut be loose, allowing the valve stem to tick back and forth against the rim? That'd be an easy fix!

illdthedj

well i went over my roomie's and my back wheels, and felt spoke tension.

i actually did notice a number of spokes were a bit looser than most of the others....and tightened them a bit, making sure i wasn't pulling the wheel out of true.

now my roomie's bike had it worse than mine, and i noticed he had the loosest two spokes of both our back wheels.
havn't tried my bike yet, but took his out around the block, and while there is still a sound, the clicking is MUCH quieter than before....i think that must have been the problem!
i might have to go back over the spokes and give a few a quarter turn tightening, but i think we found the fix.

thanks everybody!

moral of the story: if you have a click click click in your back wheel, check the tension in the spokes ;p

Deshi

Just an FYI, If your replacing your bearings, you can always use the old cartridge as a guide for pushing in the new bearing. Beat trying to use a "really close" socket. Plus the old bearings are already bad so it doesnt matter what happens to them during installation of the new ones.