My Ridley Damocles has been making a rhythmic clicking or pinging sound for a few weeks. I've swapped out parts in an attempt to isolate the problem. Due to the swapping, I can safely say that it does not involve the wheels (hubs), freewheel or pedals.

The sound is VERY intermittent--I can ride for maybe two hours and the clicking will only be there about 15 minutes.

I dropped it by Imbert's place here on the upper west side and he seemed to think it odd that the bottom bracket would do that on a bike scarcely a year old (maybe 6000 miles). I hope he can figure this out.

Anyone care to speculate on this? FYI the drivetrain is Rival.

Thanks.

eh, could be a bunch of things. very difficult to diagnose over the net... i'm sure your mechanic will sort it out.

Does the noise show up when you are just coasting?

Never coasting. It can appear when climbing, descending or flat/rolling.

if it's a particular gear, check the B screw on your RD. could be a sign that the spacing is too far btwn RD cage & cassette

Are you subconsciously clicking a pen in your jersey pocket?

Next time you hear the clicking, place both hands on the hoods and stare at them. If the clicking continues, report back for round 2 of diagnosis.

If it only happens on certain gears, check the excess cable on your FD, sometimes this will make contact with your crank arms and make a rythmic ticking.

Thanks for the ideas. I suspect that it is something like Mcjimbo's thinking. I should have added to the OP that it is shifting quite well though. I guess I'll find out soon enough. My concern is that Imbert can't find it due to the intermittent nature and, as has been often discussed on this board, finding things like this on a bike stand vs the road are very different.

Sometimes, a slightly loose headset will click. Check this and rule it out of the possibilities.

does it click when standing out of the saddle?

For me, the answer was no. it was a seat post bolt. Removed, greased, reinstalled and that got it.

It sure sounded like a bottom bracket squeak though, because it syncronized with pedaling.

Good question. I don't really recall but I do intend to look into that. Thanks.

It might also be the bottle cage bolts being loose. On my bike it seemed like it was the bottom bracket, but was instead the lower of the bolts on the cage attached to the seat tube. And it only made the sound when there was a full bottle in the cage.

Here's what my intermittent clicking was...

At speeds over 20mph, the speed magnet on my rear wheel was twisting just enough for it to contact the sensor arm...it drove me crazy trying to figure out what it was.

Charles

i must be going blind. didn't see that you live in nyc. anyways, the reason why i suspect this was the following

I rarely clean my cassettes, and when i had to get a new chain, i decided to do some cleaning. this was when i realized that the dropout as well as the cassette body were lose, and consequently, the derailleur settings were based off of a lose drop-out, with the B-screw setting messed up as a result. However, I didn't realize the consequence of this and just tightened the cassette, but my bike on the stand to adjusted the RD. It shifted fine, but with a clicking noise. I slowly turned the crank to see where it's from and realized that it happens when the chain goes from the top pulley to the cog, it was actually hitting an inner cog, thus causing the clicking; it also happened that the spacing btwn the pulley wheel & cog was way to far. A few turns of the B-screw did the trick.

You knew I was in NYC--remember your saying that 9W was starting to look like a Uniqlo add? The hilarity is that within a couple of weeks I found out just how accurate a statement that was.

I tend to think that your idea is the closest to being correct because of the rhythmic sound. I don't think the seat post could do that but the computer magnate might. It practically sounds like some of the percussion in The Triplets Of Belleville.

Oh, I forgot. I like Top Shop better than Uniqlo now.