Clicking noise on bike when pedaling
 

I have a 2005 Specialized Allez Comp double that I recently started riding again. Every revolution of the pedals I hear a clicking noise. Sometimes its 2 fast clicks, sometimes 1. The noise occurs in the big and small chainrings, and throughout all the cogs. I don't think its the rear derailleur adjustment b/c I've tried adjusting the cable tension both up and down while riding.

Background, when I pulled the bike out of the basement, I needed to straighten the rear derailleur hanger. I borrowed my friend's Park rear derailleur alignment guide and did the best I could. I got it shifting to all the rear cogs pretty smoothly. Front derailleur was adjusted. As well as the limit screws on the front and back derailleur.

I also tightened the rear cassette.

What else should I look for? I driving me semi-crazy.

You sure it's in the rear? My chain rings were loose and I had to tighten them just the other day. A loose cleat, loose crankarm, loose pedal. Seat post wobbling in the seat tube even with the clamp tight. Even a zipper tag hitting a frame part when you pedal with a certain power are some of the bazillion things you might need to look for.

But if you bent the hangar and only did a "good 'nuff" job fixing it, then I'd take it to someone that can do better.

Clicks can be maddening ... and Really hard to locate. I have spent days re-adjusting my front derailleur only to find that I had an issue with a RD jockey wheel. I spent months swapping, removing, lubing, adjusting Everything on a bike only to find that my saddle rail clicked .... just a tiny squeak when I pedaled, which sounded like a click. Drove me crazy.

As @Iride01 suggests, have that RD hanger looked at. A fraction of a millimeter of twist can make the chain hit the tip of a tooth on one of the jockey wheels---happened to me.

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.

Yeah, one of the first things to do is figure out the frequency of the click. Is it once per crank revolution, no matter what gear? Then it's probably up front. If it's less frequently than that, check whether it becomes more frequent when you're in small-small vs big-big gears. Then it's farther back the drivetrain.

That's if it's in the drivetrain at all.

could be the pedals, too. Or the shoes/cleats if you're not using flat pedals.

Try to figure out if it corresponds to particular parts of the pedal revolutions. If it does, it's probably in the front cog/cranks/pedals, not in the rear.

If there's a click when you're pedaling, the only certainty is that the culprit isn't going to be one of the first three things that you suspect.

Good point. It could be somewhere in the frame, responding to the flex at a certain point in your power transfer.

If the click is in the same point of the rotation I'd suspect something in either the bottom bracket, a pedal, crank fastener (depending on how the crank being used attaches itself to the bike), or chainring bolt.

If it happens at a random point in the rotation each time, good luck. Those are maddening to find.

I did a quick check on the pedals and chainring bolts. Sure enough one of the bolts was loose. The bolt doesn't have allen heads on both sides (like my mtn bikes). The opposite side has flats - sort of a super wide, really thin gauge screwdriver would fit in there. Anyway I kept turning the allen head and it seems to have tightened up.

Will find out if that's the problem tomorrow morning.

But I'm going to check a bunch of the other bolts you guys have mentioned and see if things are tight. And I'm going to recheck the rear derailleur hanger again while I have the tool on borrow.

Hopefully you have it!

For future reference, some things that I’ve found that click:

seat rail in the post clamp
seatpost in the frame
bottom bracket loose cup
joint of drive side crank arm to spider if not one piece
chainring bolts
crank arm attachment to BB
pedals
brake cable housing/ferrule in cable stop
chain quick link
crank arm hitting FD or chain guide
axle hardware on rear dropout
freewheel (when driven)

Surely there are many more.

Otto

Here's a maddeningly obvious one that can be easy to miss - end of the FD cable hitting the crank.

Weirdest noise problem I had while pedaling, and I don't think this is your problem was counterfeit chain. I had bought a 11 speed Shimano chain on eBay and discovered it was a counterfeit and it was just slightly off in spacing or size or something cause it to jump ever once in a while in my jockey wheels.

Anyway, my suggestion are above. Get your torque wrench, lube and carbon paste out and just do a thorough tune up.

A single click on each pedal stroke turned out to be the cleat on my right shoe, the one I unclip at stops. The front lip of that cleat had worn down much more than the left cleat such that there was too much play between the cleat and pedal. Easy fix was adding a small piece of adhesive grip tape on the front of the worn cleat. Problem solved.

Or buy new cleats? They are like $25 for a pair. Thinking your tape solution would be very temporary. Also thinking worn cleat would affect the overall feel as well, loose.

Bought a new to me 2020 Defy. Had some creaking and a occasional clicking. Thought it was BB creaking.

Pulled non-drive side crank and lubed splines. Lightly lubed axles and threads and where they contact the frame. Noises are gone

Try cleaning and greasing your pedal threads.

UPDATE ** The click-click noise might be coming from a partially popped chain link (see pic). Can I press that together with a Park Chain tool (CT-4)? Would that be considered a permanent fix or a temporary fix?

Thanks

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...03a5e25b2e.jpg

just buy a new chain- it'll be $20.

fair enough. I clicked it back into place so I can ride tomorrow. I’ll find a new chain on Amazon.

Whoah. Dodged a bullet, spotting that in time.

But you should have been able to diagnose it better - the frequency wasn't in sync with your pedalling, and it wasn't in sync with wheel rotation. Anything that's about half the frequency of pedalling is your chain.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...87e558cbd4.jpg

Now you tell me! I have been hearing a click every 10 minutes or so.

Pmsl

i have found that using grease (Park Tools polylube) on ALL threaded parts on my bicycle I have finally reached the point where I don't focus on creaks. I focus on muscle pain :)