Clicking noise on more forceful pedal turns

[Hawk]

Hi all,

I've had a strange tick/clicking noise coming from my pedal area for a few weeks now.

It only happens when I am pedalling quite forcefully; if I am not pushing too hard, there is no noise.

It occurs no matter which gear I select (front or back).

The noise is in sync with the pedal turns, i.e; it happens at the same pedal position. Initially it happened when my right pedal was fully down but it then switched; now it happens when my left pedal is fully down.

I can't work out what it is and it's obviously quite difficult to simulate "forceful" pedalling at home so am finding it hard to investigate.

Any thoughts would be great, wondering if it might be something about to fall apart on me?

Thanks all

 

[RedRider]

I cured a similar click by taking the pedals off and giving the threads a clean and then wipe with oil. There might be some grit in there and it's a relatively easy thing to cross off the list of possibilities.

 

[JamieRegan]

I agree with RedRider. Same happened to me and it was just grit. I remember when I was a kid it happened and it was that the thread on the pedal had gone and eventually the pedal just fell off. I feared the same with the grit, because it actually felt the same. A bit loose - almost slipping - at one particular point. But it was cleaned and put back on perfectly.

 

[MattHB]

Tighten the crank arms. It can transmit the sound all over.

 

[Edge705]

I had to replace my bottom bracket with exact same symptoms never had an issue after that but it could be a number of things as stated above I figured for £20 I would change the BB anyway

 

[lejogger]

Definitely not shoes/cleats? Mine make some funny noises every so often.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I agree with RedRider. Same happened to me and it was just grit. I remember when I was a kid it happened and it was that the thread on the pedal had gone and eventually the pedal just fell off. I feared the same with the grit, because it actually felt the same. A bit loose - almost slipping - at one particular point. But it was cleaned and put back on perfectly.

Same for me but I never found any grit. Whipping the pedal off, cleaning and regreasing, however, has done the job for me on a couple of occasions. It's a quick job and it can't do any harm to try first.

 

[martint235]

So many things: does it happen when you're stood up? If not, could be the seatpost. try applying a little grease to the seatpost just below where the clamp fits around it.

Chainring bolts. An old favourite of mine (and still thanks to 'Teef for pointing it out). Tighten them up but be careful not to force them.

There's also this website

 

[Beaker39]

Chainring bolts. An old favourite of mine (and still thanks to 'Teef for pointing it out). Tighten them up but be careful not to force them.

Same here. After lots of faffing about greasing and changing pedals, BB, headset, seatpost, etc. all that was needed was to remove each chainring bolt grease and replace. Everything was lovely and quiet after that!

 

[VamP]

As said, it could be so many different things.

My favourite hard to diagnose noises were:

1. titanium railed saddle squeak - stripped and reassembled chain ring and BB assembly three times before I worked that one out.

2. seatstay mounted light protruding ever so slightly into the arc my heel was travelling. That one was also sneaky as it only made the noise when I was pushing quite hard, obviously changing the pedal position slightly. That one took me about 300 miles of annoyance to work out.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

I'd personally start by giving the pedals a service (it's good to do it once in a while anyway).

As I have mentioned recently on another thread, there can be some quite unexpected causes of clicks and ticks when pedalling such as a shoelace tapping the crank or your shoe catching on the end of the gear cable. I've had both of these in the past and they are very annoying and hard to trace unless you know what you're looking for.

 

[Hawk]

Excellent replies. Pedals have had a service but I think it's the crank arm; will remove the bolts, clean them and put them back on to see if that helps.

Thanks for all your time

 

[David Greenwood]

Hi,

Did you manage to diagnose the problem? Was it the crank arm bolts?

Dave

 

[Ajax Bay]

@David Greenwood Note that that post was on 7 Mar 2012. Also note:
Hawk was last seen:16 Jul 2013
Don't hold you breath for an answer!