aicabsolut

My bike just had its first race, and its first major change in the shop. The wrong length cranks came on the bike (175mm), so they put 172.5mm cranks on the original compact rings. Between these events, the bike sat on the back of my car and got all sorts of crud hurled at it from driving through a snow/slush storm. I took it apart and cleaned and lubed it as best as I could in my apartment.

I kept hearing this metallic *tink* noise on the ride. It would come and go, and the frequency, when it happened, changed with my speed. It seemed to roughly happen when I'd be pedaling down with the right leg. I have looked at everything. Made sure nothing was loose, spoke magnet not hitting anything. I wasn't cross-chaining.

Sounded like a cross between something metal on the bike being hit by a rock spun up off the wheel and the cross-chain metal rubbing noise. I couldn't tell where it was coming from, but it didn't seem to be behind me. Sometimes I thought it was under me, sometimes in the front end. It was windy out, so I'm not sure. I'm worried my new SL-K cranks are going to self-destruct after hearing everyone's horror stories.

I could not replicate the noise by doing anything with the bike with me standing on the ground. Only happened when I was on it. I didn't have anything in my pockets that would make the noise.

Should I be worried about this? Should I get it checked out? Anyone else hear something like this before? It's shifting and running fine. My Garmin speed/cadence sensor also decided to die today. Very frustrating ride.

VegaVixen

BB, maybe?

ElJamoquio

... or pedals? I presume the chainring doesn't hit the FD?

VegaVixen

Do you have a trainer you can put it on, and try to replicate the sound indoors?

Or flip it and hand-crank to see if you hear it?

aicabsolut

I couldn't see anything rubbing the FD anywhere. No noise turning the pedals by hand off the bike--I assume something would still rub then.

Think they screwed something up putting my pedals on the new crankarms? They're Keo Sprints. Don't want to snap one of those either. Sounds painful.

aicabsolut

I'm out of town now, but will try sticking it on the trainer tomorrow morning when I head back to town.

G60

does this happen in all gears?

i was hearing a similar noise a while ago, in higher gears on the downstroke of the right pedal, just like you.

it was the chain hitting the outside cage of the front derailleur. it did not make noise while pedaling by hand, just like you describe. what happens, is the clearance was very small, and during pedaling, the chainrings/BB would flex just a tiny bit, enough to make the chain rub the derailleur.

jjvw

Check your chainrings for a loose bolt. I had a similar problem on my fixed gear where I could feel a tick and a rub in my fight foot at a two o' clock position. It only happened while under load. Never by hand cranking. After rebuilding my pedal several times and worrying about my bottom bracket, I discovered a loose chainring bolt. Now no more ticking!

Roadplay

I just had a very similar problem with my bike. It suddenly started making a creaking sound on the down stroke of my left peddle. I took my crank off and lubricated every thing liberally with good quality grease per the installation instructions. (when I bought my bike I asked for all the build documentation, because I like to do my own maintenance) The noise is gone now. I was a little surprised that the manufacture did not have more grease per installation instructions. Anyway, greasing the inner components fixed my problem.

aicabsolut

It happened in a lot of different gears, and in both rings. I tended to notice it more under load--whether pushing a big gear on a small hill or a small gear on a big hill (too windy for big gear going fast to tell).

I don't think I have all the right tools for tackling the bolts on the chainrings. I've got a team thing tomorrow and will see if one of my teammates will help me check it. If not, back to the shop I guess to check that and derailleur.

Thanks! BTW, I am freaked about the bottom bracket, esp. with the SL-Ks. I hope it's just a minor issue.

aicabsolut

Well, the cranks were just installed at the LBS, since the manufacturer cranks were the wrong size per this bike and size specs. Maybe they just did a crappy job. I'm getting a different shop to check it over tomorrow afternoon if I can't figure it out by then.

garysol1 

A few more ideas....
If the bike is aluminum or steel you may want to remove the seatpost, clean and grease it
Make sure the end of the FD cable is not hitting the right crank arm. Check it when you are in the big ring and the small.

the_reign_man

I had a similar sound last year that took me weeks to debug. Drove me nuts and a pro at my LBS couldn't find it. I'll share my experience in the small chance it's the same thing.

First - the sound could be coming from *anywhere*... you'll have to do a bunch of sleuthing. Stick with it... go through a process of elimination.

My experience - my sound turned out to be coming from the bracket that attaches the front derailleur to the down tube. A small amount of dirt/grime had built up between the bracket and the down tube (I have a titanium frame so the grime was creating enough of a gap to create the metal on metal ping during down-stroke pressure). Removing the grime eliminated the sound.

Best of luck getting it solved quickly

Roadplay

aicabsolut,

Your symptoms are exactly like mine were. Here's the customer service reps reply to my question about the creaking:

"Usually any noise coming from the BB area is associated with a lack of lubrication or tension on one of the interface points. I would recommend having you local Specialized dealer remove the cranks, BB, pedals and chainring bolts. Inspect, relube and torque the parts to tolerances. If the problem persists have your dealer contact their inside Warranty Rep."

Make sure you update us as to what fixed your problem.

Good Luck

cheneytron3000

Did you get new chain rings with the new cranks? Maybe the rest of the chain is worn. Also the new cranks may have altered the chain line minutely, and the front deraileur needs adjustment.

aicabsolut

Original rings. New cranks. They did check the gears, and shifting is smooth for the most part. Had a couple misses getting into the big ring today, but didn't drop the chain. Just had to shift twice. That sometimes happens with the 105 FD..there's a half a shift that corrects cross-chain noise there. So not sure if that indicates any problems with the tuneup.

The bike is carbon fiber, so the frame and seatpost shouldn't be making any metal pings.

Roadplay, I've heard some creaks before under heavy load with the old cranks. This is more of a metallic rattle, and not necessarily when I was using that much force to pedal. That advice looks like a good, thorough approach.


One more question:
I have some ITT and TTT practice to do tomorrow morning. Course is flat, 6.5 miles. Winds could gust to 20mph or so. I'm out of town now, driving in for that, and then I was going to hit up the shop. Dangerous idea? This practice session isn't worth breaking my bike.

I did approx. 2000 ft of climbing today over 26 miles. I didn't push really hard, since I was trying to figure out the noise, and it seemed like it was let your dog play in the street day today. I am not going to be doing any sprints or hard efforts standing tomorrow (not good at it yet and it aggravates my bum ankle).

Thanks!

aicabsolut

It was really windy toay, but I don't think the bike made the noise. Took it to a shop. They couldn't get it to make the noise. Typical. They said I could leave it with them for a few days and they'd take it apart, but I didn't have time for that. Took it back to the other shop. Wouldn't make the noise for them either. They checked it, said the main bolt on the crank was loose, and tightened that. We'll see how this works.

Cypress

I had a "tink" noise back in the day. After replacing most of my drivetrain, I discovered that the noise was the extra bit of cable sticking out the top of the FD. My shoe had been hitting it on the top of my stroke and it was snapping into the seat tube. Since my shoe was hitting it, that explained why I could never get it to happen in the work stand.

Dunno if this helps, but never discount the simple things.

simplify

I highly recommend this thread, for an exhaustive investigation of a noise which seems similar to yours.

https://www.bikeforums.net/bicycle-mechanics/240003-yet-another-mystery-noise.html

I hope yours is just that crank bolt that they tightened. That would be great!

daytonian

Ten bucks the pedal spindles have road grime in the threads. Take off pedals, clean crank threads, pedal threads, re-lube, and re-install. I clean mine every 500 miles, and if i dont the ticking starts.

sprcoop

Close to an issue I had. I always seem to do bike maint at night in the garage. Then take it around the block for test (residential block where biking in ninja outfit would not be a problem). I would hear a "tink" at 1:00 of right stroke. Never happened on a ride or on the stand. Drove me nuts for 6 months. Figured it out. My garage tennis shoes (that I wore for the tests) are tied loose so I don't ever untie. The plastic tip of the shoelace was hitting the metal water bottle cage. Couldn't figure it out in the dark!

clutchy

lube the pedals where they screw into the crank.

vpiuva

You mentioned it changes with speed - is that crank speed or wheel speed? Does it make the niose while coasting? If it changes with wheel speed and exists while coasting it's in your wheels - spoke rub, loose spoke. If only when pedaling and varies with cadence, then look at pedals, the odd FD cable noise, FD rub on crank, BB, etc. A really odd one that bugged me on one ride was my valve - I didn't tighten it all the way after I inflated a tire and it kept going in and out.

aicabsolut

Varies with crank speed, though I did check the spokes, ring on the tube valve, and spoke magnet. I also checked the cables. I don't think i was hitting them, but I bent them away from the frame some anyway.


The shop said they didn't think it was the pedals, but if the noise continues, they'll take it all apart, relube, and rebuild.

aicabsolut

Wouldn't the LBS have not put grimy pedal spindles into the new cranks if they were gross when they took them off the old ones? Wishful thinking?