Standard advice
middcrossrx said:
OK- I really need some advice. Three shops have looked at my bike with no solutions. I have a clicking ("tick, tick, tick") when I am out of the saddle. It occurs at the bottom of the pedal stroke on both sides of the crank. I have FSA team carbon cranks, Ti bottom bracket, (3 years old), and eggbeater pedals. One shop tightened the pedals and claimed it fixed. Another wrench rode around (in the saddle) and could not hear anything. The last shop took apart the BB, greased faced, and reinserted the BB. They also greased the seat tube and post. My saddle rails were cleaned and tightened. Still, no dice. I am 148 lbs, and do not stressed the cranks that much when out of the saddle. Any ideas? Is it time for a new BB? Any advice would be welcome before I go back to the better of the three shops. Thanks in advance.
It is fairly common to have clicking noises, but ticks and clicks are very hard to eliminate sometimes. What seems like it is tied to the pedals may be coming from the seat post, etc. Sometimes things like temperature and humidity can affect noises as well. Also, things like the front derailleur cage just hitting the crank, loose bottle cage bolts, or the front derailleur cable sticking out and hitting your shoe can seem like they are clicks but really aren't.
Clicks tied to your pedaling can come from the BB (grease all threads in contact with the frame and BB, all metal to metal contact surfaces, and torque to the recommended settings, which can be quite high), crank bolts (grease threads and washers), the chain ring bolts (take them all out and grease the threads, the faces where they contact the CRs, and the CRs where they contact the crank spider arms), a stiff link in a chain or a burr on one of the "break off" special links used to assemble the chain, the pedals (grease the threads, get some wax etc. on the cleats, grease the bolts into your shoes, squirt some lube into the guts of the pedal machinery if possible), the chain (clean and lube), shoes/cleats (loose cleat nut rattling around in the shoe sole, shoe/cleat interface), cleat bolts, cleats touching pedals, seat post and saddle (grease the post, seat post bolts, saddle rails, and add some oil to where the rails go into the saddle body), bars and stem (grease the stem, stem bolts at both ends, h'bar bolt if quill stem, and h'bar where it goes through the stem, grease/tighten QRs and where the hub axle contacts the frame, tighten cassette lock ring, grease cassette hub body and cassette spacers, grease steerer tube spacers if threadless), replaceable derailleur hangers (remove, clean, grease all parts and threads, reassemble), any other bolt (bottle cages, derailleur clamps, derailleur bolts, shift cable casing stops, etc.).
