It's the chainguard. (It's always the chainguard.) Frankly, I don't expect a 40+ year-old bike to sound perfect. A little squeak, rattle, or rub is not going to ruin my opinion of the ride quality of my Raleigh, although I will admit it does run fairly quiet. My '73 Varsity, on the other hand.... But still, it's an old bike. If the brakes rub a little or the fenders rattle, I'm not going to let it ruin my day.

Mine rattles from everywhere, and I've been slowly going from back to front working them out. Fun stuff...

Yeah, the biggest offender on my sports was the chrome tip on the front fender.

Too true--improvised method of removing and replacing cotter can too easily go horribly wrong. IMHO, it's well worth buying the proper press--Bikesmith designs makes a great one. They're not cheap, but the cost of the press is comparable to the cost of taking it to a shop and paying them to do the work. Plus there's no guarantee that the shop won't screw it up. Once you own the press you're set for life.

Oh no, not another Cheesehead! I'm originally from Milwaukee, moved to West Bend to raise my family before moving to Missouri 20 years ago. Die hard Packer and Badger fans. I bought a '76 Raleigh Grand Prix 2 years ago from a local Craigslist seller only to find out they too were from Wisconsin. We're every where!!

I may be able to help you out on the grip. Let me check my stash and I'll get back to you. If all else fails, Harris Cyclery in MA sells grips that will pass. Find them here:

https://sheldonbrown.com/harris/handl...bar-grips.html

Gary

Yeah. We Cheeseheads travel well. Whenever the Packers play the Tennessee Titans we do our best to head up there in full regalia. I grew up in Hartford, which was not far at all from West Bend. Small world huh?

Thanks Gary,

Philip

Smaller than you think, I worked in Hartford for about 10 years, Mfg. Industrial Engineer at the Wacker Corp.

Sent you a PM.

Matt, I have the same exact problem on my Triumph. Any particular advice on a way to quiet it before I result to Macgyver-esque methods?

Jon,

What you may consider trying is to remove the fender, it over, and see if you can carefully press the small tab tighted to the fender. Another appraoch would be to carefully remove the nose piece, fill the cavity with waded up masking tape, sticky side down, and reinstall. The tape should hold it to the fender. It doesn't take much tape, just enough so it does not show.

Here's another source for grips - and more.

Or.... Super Glue it in place.

Thanks! I've tried poking at the tab a bit to little positive effect, and a bit of double-sided tape was going to be my next attempt - but it's good to know that a bit of wadded masking tape is all it takes.

The double side tape, stuffed into the cavity, may be a better choice. My bikes never are riden in the rain, so the masking tape worked OK for me.

I put a glob of silicone under mine and it has stayed quiet ever since.

FWIW I use oil on the finish of mine to keep them cleaned up and from rusting. I use 90w gear oil and coat the frame and fenders heavily, then wipe off. Only thing I do for maintenance is to wiped the whole biked down occasionally with an oily rag. It coats the rust spots and keeps them from getting worse.

Aaron

TRUTH.

I have a '79 Sports and a '74 LTD-3, both of which had ridiculous rattling from the chrome front-fender tip. It is almost certainly the culprit in roughly 98% of the cases.

Happy to report that after an hour or so of scrubbing with the kids (4 and 2) and 20 minutes of fiddling with the brakes and seat, she prowls the streets once again! Shifting worked without tweaking, brakes are in good enough shape, tires held air... she's looking pretty! Need to take parts apart one by one for a more thorough cleaning.

The front fender appears bent out of shape. Behind the fork it is flatter and wider than in front of the fork; I'm presuming it got flattened and should be round like the front of the fork. Is this correct?

Nope the shape is slightly different forward of the fork versus behind the fork.

Aaron

After fussing a little bit with the tab with little effect, I used little bits of very thin rubber that I had and jammed them up towards the top. That took care of it for good.

I don't see anything...

oldroads.com has grips, pumps, and saddlebags...

You can remove the tip, put a dab of clear silicone calk under and reattach. Most will sqeeze out but enough will be left to dampen the rattle. Or....remove that which rattles

Sacrilege!

Or sell it, that's what I did!

Thanks, Mickey - that's the link I meant paste. Whoops...

Perhaps, but I'd rather like to think it's more like lipo suction. Besides, when you get bored you can buy the parts you sold last year, restore it, take pictures, ride it.....curse the rattles and begin again.