I've had recurring clicking or ticking noises from one bike. The first time, it turned out to be the aglet at the end of my shoelace hitting my shoe on each turn of the pedals. That went away when I swapped the old style toeclip pedals for clipless.
Last week I noticed it again. It tried everything, including tightening the chainring bolts. One of them cracked - the rim on the inside piece broke off. I took all of them out and they were ALL cracked. Lesson learned - DO NOT reuse alloy chainring bolts! I replaced them with some steel ones from another unused crankset.
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"Don't take life so serious-it ain't nohow permanent."
"Everybody's gotta be somewhere." - Eccles