Originally Posted by Shinkers

Hey, forgive me if this has been covered before.

I just finished my road conversion and am using a Durable ace cog, Sugino ring, old school Ultegra (tricolor) crank, kmc 8 speed chain, and formula sealed bearing hubs.

My chain line is dead straight, and everything is new. My ring is fairly out of round (or drilled out of round is more likely), and my chain tension varies between 1/2 an inch of movement in the tight spot and an inch or so at its slackest. I've tried my ring on every one of the 5 positions on the crank and I've also tried rotating my crank on the spindle to find a better spot. Sheldon's method won't touch it.

While riding the bike is mostly silent. With the exception of chain noise. If I put pressure on the pedals, there it's about as loud as a chain going around derailleur pulleys, maybe a bit louder even. From what I can tell, it seems to be more the cog that the sound is coming from, and if I don't put pressure on the pedals it's silent.

I've read a lot of people saying that new components just need to 'wear together' a bit for a few rides. But I'm wondering if it's the tension variation in my chain that is causing it, and it won't go away.

Thoughts?

Thanks.