My jockeys are squeaking

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And I've taken them off and cleaned them 'cause they were minging but they're still squeaking. Other cyclists are avoiding me, I'm sure. No one likes a cyclist with squeaking jockeys.

No seriously they are. I've eliminated the back wheel by taking it off, holding up the chain and rotating: They squeak. It's not the BB, it's definitely the jockey wheels on the rear mech. They've been off cleaned, greased. Off cleaned, lubed and finally sworn at in a fluent and colourful way but they still squeak. Do I need to replace them or am I missing a trick? 4000 miles by the way.
 

Drago

Legendary Member
Try tucking your vest into them.
 

DWiggy

Über Member
Location
Cobham
Have you tried to remove and add a little waterproof grease, might help... also sure its not the chain?
 

dan_bo

How much does it cost to Oldham?
Only one thing for it....

226071-bigthumbnail.jpg
 

Slioch

Guru
Location
York
Had this problem myself previously. Took it apart, cleaned it, gave it a liberal slathering of grease, but it was still squeaking, Concluded that there was possibly too much side-to-side play due to wear and tear, so replaced with new which fixed the problem.
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
Are you sure it's the jockeys and not that rubber cone on the non-drive side of the axle? They squeak when they get dry.
 
Location
Loch side.
Had this problem myself previously. Took it apart, cleaned it, gave it a liberal slathering of grease, but it was still squeaking, Concluded that there was possibly too much side-to-side play due to wear and tear, so replaced with new which fixed the problem.
Oops! You may have chucked a good wheel away. The top one (called the guide pulley) has to have side-to-side play whereas the bottom one (the tension pulley) shouldn't have side-t0-side play.

The play is there to automatically fix gears that are just slightly out of tune. It therefore runs much quieter than a fixed-spindle pulley.

Good quality pulleys used to have brass/ceramic bushings that could be removed, cleaned out and oiled. Nowadays some of them have small cartridge bearings in there which are mostly rubbish. That is no place for a tiny ball bearing, a bushing performs much better.
 
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