Freewheel noise while pedaling
 

Bought a new Redline 925 a few weeks ago.

Have noticed a noise when pedalling (not the normal ratcheting sound when coasting). Is a little "clunk" or knocking sound several times for each turn of the crank. I can't count accurately while riding, but seems like 5 to 6 clunks for each turn of the crank. My guess would be that's 2 for each turn of the rear wheel.

The shop where I bought it said it might need lube/cleaning, so they did that for me last week - but the noise is still there.

It's not so loud that I can hear it all the time (wind or traffic noise usually masks it), and I don't know if it's something to be concerned about.

One possible fix may be for me to just flip the rear wheel around and start riding as a fixed gear :)

Opinions please? Any guesses about source of noise, and what (if anything) else should be done about it?

Can you feel it too? I had what seemed to be a similar problem, but I felt it also. My crank got knocked up some how and would scrape the fame every time around. Totally blows. Is it rhythmic when you pedal at a steady rate?

Cannot feel it, just hear it. Crank is not scraping frame. Is rhythmic but actual sound is somewhat variable, not every clunk sounds exactly the same.

Probably a tight link or two. Check the chain and make sure each link pivots freely on each roller. If one doesn't, use a chaintool to wiggle the pin back and forth until it does.

Another possibility is a tight spot in your chain (caused by an out-of-round chainring/spider, not uncommon). Check the chain tension through the entire pedal stroke. You should be able to easily lift the chain 1/2" in either direction at all points.

Its probably just a cheap freewheel...everyone I have had(Both ACS and SHimano) always made some noise when pedaling. I found that if I stopped pedaling and started again I could sometimes get the noise to go away

sounds stupid but lube chain?


Mine made alot of noise...lubed it up good and it's fine now

Its not your crankset, its not your chain(IMHO). 2 ways to go. Buy 6 Shimano or ACS freewheels and you'll maybe get two that won't clunk. Or just bite the bullet and buy a White Industries Eno and enjoy. In the past I did have some measure of success with Shimano and ACS freewheels by laying the bicycle on its side and spinning the wheel and dripping mass quantities of Phil Oil into the freewheel. But ENO is really the way to go.

Okay, thanks.

The "cheap freewheel" comments make the most sense to my ear. The chain problems suggested (tight link, tight chain, poor lube, etc) could probably make clunking noises, but probably not with beats synced so perfectly to crank rotations.

So ... is it worth fixing right away? In other words, does it cause any problem other than annoyance? Or should I just ride it until it wears out and upgrade when that time comes?

Depends how sensitive you are to noise, I could never stand the racket long enough to test the durability of a noisy freewheel. If you have a Shimano or ACS, you could try the extra lube. If you have a Dicta, I'd just throw it away now.

It's funny this topic has come up because I just recently bought a Redline 925 (less than two months ago) and I have also noticed a noise coming from my drive train. It is also a very faint noise and not one that I notice all of the time, but it seems that my noise is coming from the bb. It sounds as if it was not greased up enough and I can hear the bearings spinning. I have upgraded both the crank and chain since I've bought the bike and it is still making the same noise. My bike is due in for its free two month tune-up so I'm planning on having the bike shop take a look. The noise is enough to drive me nuts though. All I want is the noise of the wind in my ears, not my bike making noise.

"Fixed" it
 

Well, the noise is (was) definitely coming from the cheap freewheel as suggested. I flipped the wheel this morning and rode a while as fixed gear. No clunking.

I'll probably leave it that way for now. That's really why I bought this bike anyhow, so I could learn to ride fixed gear but still go back to freewheel if I decided I didn't like it.

If I do go back, I'll probably just put up with the noise until it's time to upgrade components.

Thanks to all who helped.

Yeah dude, thats the chain.

Turn the bike over and crank the bike slowly.
when you hear the noise look at the crank or cog.
You'll find the hardy link.
Lube them up and try bending the link away and towards you a bit.

dump liberal amounts of oil into your freewheel. spin. repeat.

If it -is- the chain, lubing it up really well should make it at least a bit quieter. Even the tightest of chains can be made almost-silent with generous amounts, or if it's raining.

But my money's still on the freewheel. Did you use the same amount of chain tension for the fixie ride as when you had noises?

It's your freewheel. Had the same problem with my San Jose. Took it back to the shop twice before they fixed it. They said they lubed the freewheel. Sounds like chain-suck, right?

Hey,

I was having the same problems with my bike before I went fixie. For my case, something at the rear sproket was making this ... kunk ... kunk ... noise 2.75 times per a single crank-turn or so. That was dead give away because my gear ratio was 2.7~2.8 I think. You ought to count the number of your noise and compare to your gear ratio ...

Anyways, I figured out the noise came from the sproket (freewheel) wabbling sideways. So somewhere in the latching positions, your freewheel goes out of alignment enough to hit against the chain plates causing the annoying recurring noise that just kills the SS (or fixie) patented quiet ride.

I searched every where and a lot of people have more success replacing their freewheel than lubing them. (Someone recommended dropping some Tenacious Oil.) Many people suggested going for White Industry stuff, but I just got fed up with it and went fixie.

T

I have the exact same thing, a little bit of noise when pedalling. Never happens when fixed, but flip over to freewheel and this damned annoying noise!!!!!! grrrrrr

I got a 3 month old Langster, what are the options?

Shop to change/fix the freehub? or should I just go fixed???

A good rule of thumb that I follow is if the noises sync up with your pedal rotations, it's most likely the BB, the crank, the ring or the chain...if the noises sync up with your wheel rotations then it's most likely the hub, the freewheel, the chain or a loose spoke (or spokes) in your rear wheel...
My experience with ACS freewheels is, they make a lot of pinging noises...Especially if you're using a flip flop hub with only a few threads to stick a freewheel on...

I just ran into this with my ACS Claws freewheel. Rhythmic click... if I hear the click and pedal backwards a touch and then continue pedaling the noise is gone. I like the oil idea. Don't have my bike in front of me - wonder if you could put a little grease in there with a monoject?

Just slapped a Shimano freewheel on my singlespeed and ran into the same issue. Glad I found this thread so I could read up about it. It's most likely a wobble in the freewheel as many of you have touched on. I notice the sound gets really loud and apparent when I make a hard turn to the right. If I stop peddling after the hard turn and then start again, the noise will die down.

I had clunking noises from an ACS freewheel, too, except it only did it a couple times per rev at most. I blame sloppy bearing tolerances, pretty sure it's the outer body shifting sideways relative to the inner. I took one of the bearing shims out and the noise went away.

Now that this thread is up at the top, what could be a culprit for the occasional clunking on a fixed (non-freewheel) drivetrain? Chain too tight, perhaps?

Sounds like your chain was skipping...I have an ACS too, and it runs like butter.

Possibly. New drivetrain stuff makes noise at first too. The Surly cog I had was the worst when it was new.

I had some noise a while back that was driving me absolutely mad. Turns out there were a few grains of sand stuck to my chain.

Its the freewheel. I've have several cheap freewheels that all make the same noise you are describing. I've never really understood the cause, but apparently its not harmful, because I've been using some of the same noisy freewheels for several years and they still work fine.

I have the noise and can feel it clunking too, but only after I've pedaled as fast as the bike will go and then let up on pedaling. At 60-80% speed pedaling, letting up and freewheeling it there is no noise or feel of a clunk.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=155095

That's the POS (Long Yih) they put on it, you guys oil them, why not grease ? I guess it being sealed would make that hard to do, but are they greased or oiled at the factory ? The noise is disturbing enough, the feeling of the clunk is even more disturbing. I was thinking with going with a Dicta, but others say those have at least the noise and then I was thinking about the Shimano SF-MX30 and then I saw the other post that indicated the noise. I've even seen a SunLite/Pyramid brand ? These cheap Chinese parts are really dropping the ball on toy manufacturing and their QC. This is on a new bike, I've maybe ridden it a few miles. As for oiling, something like 30 or 40W ? Hell, maybe even 80 or 90W gear oil for an automobile manual transmission ?