Rear wheel "ticking" noise

[ColinJ]

And to add to my recent pedal idiocy... I just slipped with a knife trying to dig out a plastic cap stopping me getting the old pedal apart. I had actually considered that it might happen, but went ahead anyway... I was bloody luck (forgive the pun!) - the knife just nicked the top of my left index finger, but it bled for about 10 minutes because I am on warfarin. It could have been very bad!

No more messing about... I just found a LH pedal on ebay which will do the trick. The vendor accepted my offer of £5. (It doesn't match the RH pedal, but no matter - I'll put the mismatched pedals on my old turbo trainer bike.)

 

[C R]

And to add to my recent pedal idiocy... I just slipped with a knife trying to dig out a plastic cap stopping me getting the old pedal apart. I had actually considered that it might happen, but went ahead anyway... I was bloody luck (forgive the pun!) - the knife just nicked the top of my left index finger, but it bled for about 10 minutes because I am on warfarin. It could have been very bad!

No more messing about... I just found a LH pedal on ebay which will do the trick. The vendor accepted my offer of £5. (It doesn't match the RH pedal, but no matter - I'll put the mismatched pedals on my old turbo trainer bike.)

Those caps can be a right royal pain to remove. For recalcitrant ones I screw a self tapping screw into the cap to use as a puller. It leaves a hole in the middle, but a dab of silicone sealant deals with it.

 

[ColinJ]

Those caps can be a right royal pain to remove. For recalcitrant ones I screw a self tapping screw into the cap to use as a puller. It leaves a hole in the middle, but a dab of silicone sealant deals with it.

That's a good tip! If I can fix the old pedal I would have a matched pair again, and then I would have to look out for a single RH pedal to match the LH one that I have just ordered! (There were actually 2 LH pedals for sale. The man selling the one I am getting lost his RH one. There must be some careless riders somewhere who have lost/written off LH pedals! )

 

[ColinJ]

I quickly swapped a different pair of pedals onto the bike and went off up a hill that has been making the bike tick like crazy... hmm... silence, at last!

I went out for another short test ride today, taking in 3 minor climbs. The bike was beautifully silent and efficient-feeling. The new parts that I put on trying to eliminate the ticking noise have clearly not been wasted!

Suddenly, towards the top of the first hill, the bike started making the most horrendous noises...!!!!

A regular pulsating 'shriek of death' and a horrid 'metal grinding metal' sound. Oh, FFS, what next!!!!

I rounded the bend at the top of the climb and discovered that the shriek of death was actually a warning sound coming from a big waste recycling truck coming slowly towards me. And the metal grinding metal sound was coming from a train rounding a curve on a nearby line... Phew!

I continued on my way on my nice quiet bike.

 

[fossyant]

I went out for another short test ride today, taking in 3 minor climbs. The bike was beautifully silent and efficient-feeling. The new parts that I put on trying to eliminate the ticking noise have clearly not been wasted!

Suddenly, towards the top of the first hill, the bike started making the most horrendous noises...!!!!

A regular pulsating 'shriek of death' and a horrid 'metal grinding metal' sound. Oh, FFS, what next!!!!

I rounded the bend at the top of the climb and discovered that the shriek of death was actually a warning sound coming from a big waste recycling truck coming slowly towards me. And the metal grinding metal sound was coming from a train rounding a curve on a nearby line... Phew!

I continued on my way on my nice quiet bike.

Change your batteries in your hearing aid ! 👅

 

[ColinJ]

Change your batteries in your hearing aid ! 👅

Yes, my hearing IS pretty dodgy!

I have an overall loss of about 50% plus the usual loss of high frequencies with age. On top of that though there are certain frequencies that I just can't hear. (Too much loud music when young!) And the responses of the ears don't match so I find it tricky to identify exactly where sounds that I do hear are coming from.

USEFUL TIP!
I thought the ticking noise on the bike had been coming from the back end so that is why I concentrated on servicing the rear wheel and freehub. In the end, I put the bike on my turbo trainer and got my 'social bubble pal' to track down the source for me while I pedalled hard against maximum resistance. I'd recommend that to anybody struggling to trace annoying bike noises.

 

[weareHKR]

If you cant tell the difference between a metal grinding metal sound on your bike & a train, I would say you need to change your hearing aid, not just the batteries!

 

[ColinJ]

If you cant tell the difference between a metal grinding metal sound on your bike & a train, I would say you need to change your hearing aid, not just the batteries!

Or perhaps buy my first hearing aid! Removing the excess wax from my ears would help!

All the good work on the bike was almost lost when I was taking a shortcut down a narrow backstreet. A motorist obviously thought it impossible for anybody else to possibly be using the street other than him, so there was no need to look back before flinging his door open. I was much nearer to the parked vehicles than I normally am when passing and only just managed to find room to swerve round the door. Not impressed...

 

[Lovacott]

Try sanding the contact area slightly.

I had a rear wheel ping and isolated it down to being a spoke crossover. I cured it initially with a dab of Lithium grease but after a couple of muddy weeks and two bike cleans, it came back.

Running a bit of emery cloth between the spokes cured it.

 

[Lovacott]

20 miles of constant ticking, but by carefully rocking back and fore, managed to replicate stationary.
Then got my son to put his fingers on spokes at the bottom one at a time until found one which stopped the noise. Inserted a carefully fabricated low friction shim (aka bit of yoghurt pot) between the spokes, but no joy. Repeated on the spoke pairs either side - BINGO! Silence restored.

No idea why it has started, or what a proper fix would be. Any ideas? Photo of the precision engineering solution:

Mine started just after a rear tyre blowout after hitting a stone on the road. I assume that the impact jolt was enough to break the corrosion bond you get where spokes crossover? Once I'd isolated the offending crossover, I could feel the surface roughness between the spokes and it was slight movement between the two which created the ping. This would only occur under load and there was no noise with the rear wheel off the ground.

I've had a few strange noises from my bike over the last six months and tracking them down was a fairly logical process.

If it only happens when you pedal, then it is the drivetrain or pedals, if it happens once every wheel rotation, it is a wheel or cassette/freewheel.

If it only happens when you are pedalling hard uphill while seated, it is the seat post clamp or seat itself.

I did have a noise last week on the left side which happened once every crank rotation on my way into work in the dark when it was raining. It didn't happen when I was cycling home later wearing shorts. The next day, in the rain, same issue?

Turned out to be the popper stud on my waterproof overtrousers hitting the left crank on the down stroke. Cured it with a pair of cycle clips.

 

[ColinJ]

Turned out to be the popper stud on my waterproof overtrousers hitting the left crank on the down stroke. Cured it with a pair of cycle clips.

I heard an annoying metal-clinking-against-metal sound on a couple of rides. I couldn't see anything wrong on the bike, and eventually discovered that it was my medical dog tag*** tapping against the inside of the zip on my jersey. I cured that by hanging the tag onto my back rather than it dangling loose down the front of my jersey.


*** My tag has 2 emergency phone numbers and my NHS number on it, and warns that I am on warfarin (in an accident I would bleed for about 2.5 times as long as a typical person, so that would be handy for paramedics to know! ). I think it would be a good idea for everybody to wear one. I bought mine HERE.

 

[fossyant]

I heard an annoying metal-clinking-against-metal sound on a couple of rides. I couldn't see anything wrong on the bike, and eventually discovered that it was my medical dog tag*** tapping against the inside of the zip on my jersey. I cured that by hanging the tag onto my back rather than it dangling loose down the front of my jersey.


*** My tag has 2 emergency phone numbers and my NHS number on it, and warns that I am on warfarin (in an accident I would bleed for about 2.5 times as long as a typical person, so that would be handy for paramedics to know! ). I think it would be a good idea for everybody to wear one. I bought mine HERE.

One rattle I had was the flipping zip pull on a jersey. That was soon fixed by cutting some of it off.