So for a few days, I'd been hearing that dreaded "tick, tick" sound every time I completed a pedal revolution. By this morning, I had resigned myself to the fact that I would need to replace my bottom bracket before heading out on my first summer mini-tour a couple of weeks from now. The cost wasn't bothering me so much, but the stress of finding time to do it and the mere thought of having to get all that stubborn bike grease and road slime out of my finger nails didn't excite me much.

Then I heard something small and metallic hit the road below me. Something so tiny that I definitely would not have heard it drop if I had been playing my iPod, as usual. I stopped to investigate and somehow noticed that the crimped-on ferrule at the end of my rear brake cable was gone. (This is how in-tune I am with my 19-year-old clunker of a bike!). Always the investigator, I decided to get the bike rolling again and check out a theory I developed within seconds of the discovery.

To spare you any more agonizing anticipation, it turns out that every time my heel crossed the place where a few centimeters of brake cable happened to be extruding from my rear caliper brake, it made contact and produced a loud "tick" sound, wearing away at the helpless little ferrule until it finally popped off. The bottom line was that I did not need to replace my bottom bracket; I just needed to slightly bend the slack on my brake cable out of the way so my foot wouldn't hit it every time it came around. Great detective work for a guy who has been riding and working on bicycles for more than forty years, eh? Anyway, problem solved, and while I feel good about avoiding a repair, I feel like an idiot for letting this go for more than a few days without realizing what was happening.

So, have you ever misdiagnosed a click or a rub or a rattle and realized later that you had missed some simple little thing like a heel striking a brake cable?

Back in 1988 a friend & I both bought new road bikes a few days apart. Out on a ride he was complaining about a ticking sound, so we stopped and swapped bikes (I worked at a shop from '82-'85). There was no tick when I rode it, but when we he got back on his bike it came back.

It turned out to be the aglet on his shoelace hitting a crank arm.

That's what om talkin' bout. Anybody else have any stories like these? Perhaps we can save others a few bucks and some stress?

Those are the top couple things I check if I hear a little annoying noise, shoe laces, brake or front derailleur cable sticking out.

I had a pretty good one recently. The metal button on the cuff of my rain pants was smacking the hard plastic stiffener/lining inside my handlebar bag, took me a few rides to figure out.

My right crank has small circular wear mark in the anondization from exactly the same thing. In my case it was the crank arm and front derailleur cable. Drove me batty for quite a while. Creaky saddle is another fun one.

Kick stand not full retracted.

I was ready to rebuild my pedals when I discovered the click I was hearing was in the seatpost. Lube solved that.

The derailleur cable hitting the crank is sometimes difficult to catch since it will change as you shift chainrings.

Nitrile gloves bro.

The noise I was chasing on the left crank/pedal/BB assembly turned out to be my knee....

I've had 2 frames where the paint/coating on the frame under the seatpost clamp chipped off and caused a very loud and tactile clicking that even occurred during out of the saddle riding. The first time this occurred it took me several days to identify what was causing it. BB? Stem? Handlebars? Cranks? Seatpost? Seatpost collar?

I was having the hardest time truing up a wheel until I finally figured out that the brake track was worn, rim cracked along the brake track, and it was the rim wall actually bending out...

1. Run your nails over a bar of soap before you start wrenching. 2. UN55 bottom brackets are less than $15 and it takes all of 15 minutes (30 if you're slow) to change it out. Of course, if you're into 21st century bottom brackets and cranks, YMMV. 3. Don't listen to your ipod while riding (illegal in many places anyway) unless you like hospitals. 4. You've got really good ears if you can hear a little crimp on cable tip fall off while riding, and— 5. Yes, definitely look for simple solutions to problems, especially annoying noises that don't seem to degrade the bike's performance

Heard a click every time I stood to sprint.....

It was my jersey zipper pull hitting my helmet clasp.

My road bike developed a small 'squeak' that for all the world sounded like metal-on-metal scraping and coming from the rear. I had my wife ride along side of me for about 2 miles and she was pretty sure it was coming from the front. When I pulled the front and rear wheels, mounted each in the truing stand and tried to diagnose where the noise could be coming from. No grinding feeling--the hubs felt fine--and no noise at all.

Finally, after a local club ride, while I still had the bike out in the car anyway, I took it to the LBS. Instantly they knew what it was just from my description. The rubber boot around the front hub was a little dry and when mounted was just rubbing enough to cause the squeak. A little touch of oil solved the problem.

New diagnostic procedure: At the first sign of an unidentifiable squeak, dunk the whole bike in a vat of 10w-30.

Front derailleur cable hitting the crank.

On a ride on my first tubular-equipped racing bike in 1965, I heard a tapping noise coming from the front wheel. Got off to investigate, found a little white teardrop-shaped object sticking out of the front tire that looked like the kind of pushpin that was used on cork bulletin boards in those days.

Tried to pull it out. It wouldn't budge.

Finally realized that it was a tiny bit of the tire's latex tube that had popped out through a cut but hadn't punctured.

Hey, Dude. Don't kill the fun we're having here.

OK, I'll bite...just a little. 3) I run my mp3 player through a small speaker on my handlebar at a volume that lets me hear the birds chirping just fine. 4) The crimp ticked and tanged off more than a few spokes before it hit the ground. I think THAT's what I heard. And finally 2) is that all my bottom bracket would cost nowadays? The last one I bought was like $40. I do remember it was pretty quick to change, though. My "issue" with changing ANY bike part out so close to a long ride is mostly the fear of it failing during the ride. I guess I just don't trust the quality of anything anymore, so I avoid changing chains, cassettes, tubes and other components within 5-6 rides of an overnight trip.

Anyway, back to the stories. These are just what I was looking for!