flavaflav

Click noise from the crank each rev. of the feet (Giant great journey). Everything is tight and there is no play in the peddels. No cracks in the frame either. Suggestions anyone???

Thank you in advance...good bicycle shopsin Okinawa, Japan are far and few.

genericbikedude

when you ride your bike, do you wear a big clock around your neck?

hem. check your BB--one of the cups may be coming loose. if that aint it, take yer cranks off, and look for rounding at the interface. if that aint it, there's something else.

same time

Had the same thing once, turned out to be the front derailleur cable was too long and the crank was tapping it once every revolution.

rickkko

Oh wise one,

I have same problem. I removed the clock from around my neck (it was electric) but still hear ticking once a rev.

My bike only has 1500 miles on it. Ticking started in last 500 miles.

I don't know what it means to check my cups. Since I don't wear a bra I take it you are talking about something on the bike.

What are cups? How do you access them? How do you determine they may be "coming loose?"

Thanks!
..rickko..

flavaflav

the clock is always stuck on 4:20...no click there

Thank you for the info and I will check in the morning.

genericbikedude

I thought flovor flav died from smoking too much crack?

Anyway, if you have a clicking, the other guy is probably right, check the cable. If you have a really unhealthy schreeching sound, check the cups. Basically, grab both cranks and try to wiggle them laterally (the way they're not supposed to wiggle. If they wiggle, you gotta tighten/adjust the thing that screws into the frame.

vtjim

Also check shoe laces. (Seriously...)

clevernamehere

I had the same issue... couldn't figure it out... it only clicked on the down-stroke of my right foot, under pressure. Adjustments to the front deraileur made not difference, gear choice made no difference, crank & pedals felt tight - no play. It would come & go a bit.

This morning I decided to give the pedals another look. They still felt snug, but I was able to tighten the right pedal a very slight bit. This fixed the problem.

The sound it was making was more like the crank hitting the end of a cable or something... not what I would have thought a slightly loose pedal would sound like.

rickkko

Exactly!!!! But its got to be a fair amount of pressure. Just cruising pedaling won't make it happen.

Plus it happens whether I'm standing or sitting.

I have checked the skewers, the pedals, the cables, the handlebar, the stem, the seat, the seat post, deraillur front and rear. I've removed the frame pump, the water bottle. I've cleaned the chain and front chainwheels.

I think its in the bottom bracket but can't be sure yet.

..rickko..

webist

Just had the same problem cured in three trips to the LBS. Mine was the pedals. They weren't suspected at first because the bike only has a bout 2K miles on it. However, they were transfered to this bike from mytrade in and are actually about 5 years old. replaced 'em and now - blissful silence once again.

Bye the way - the LBS installed a cheap set of platform pedals to test the theory that it was the worn out pedals.

ivan_yulaev

Loosen and tighten to spec:

1. Bottom bracket
2. Crank arms (v. important)
3. Pedals.

flavaflav

Thank you all for the great information I'm working on the problem right now. Good to see that people out there love to ride like I do. When I work on my bike everyone makes constant comments about it. It's not just because I have gold teeth...

Moonshot

While you're at it tighten your chainring bolts too. If you really want to do it right smear them with loctite blue and then tighten them.

rickkko

I found the ticking!

Can't believe it was the pedals! (Speedplay X/1 Titainium)

No, they weren't too loose or too tight, it turned out to be an internal problem. They only have about 500 miles on them but I think the sound started way back when I first got them; maybe right out of the box. I'd had other creaks and ticks on the bike now and then so I never attributed this to the pedals until you guys kept mentioning pedals.

I ended up isolating the problem by mounting my old $20 platform pedals on the crank arms and going for a 18 mile ride. It was beautiful! Its the 1st time in months that I've had a completely silent ride. That has got to be one of the greatest pleasures of cycling, the silence of a bike racing along at speed.

I didn't have to ride 18 miles to know the pedals were the culprit. The ticking starts the instant I put heavy pressure on the pedals so I knew they (one of them) were the problem almost immediately when I started out today.

I contacted Speedplay. They said send 'em back and they'll repair or replace them. I expect they'll be replaced. Great guys answering the phone at Speedplay, very patient and helpful. I talked to Mike and Doug.

Oh, Doug passed on one tip to me that should be shared here. When you've isolated the problem to the pedals and/or cleat, be sure to ride the bike with tennis shoes to eliminate the possibility of it being the cleat. I'd done that, rode with moccasians and bare feet (and it still ticked) so, that was the clincher the innards of the pedals (maybe a needle bearing) is where the problem lies.

Boy am I glad this thread got started!
..rickko..

Mentor58

I love it when somebody posts the solution at the end of one like this. Good tip on using tennis shoes to check to make sure that it's not a cleat issue.

Steve W.

rickkko

Not!!!!

OK, here's the results. First, I was wrong in the above post. How do I know?

I sent the pedals into Speedplay. They disassembled them and found nothing inside that could be causing them to make a noise. They regreased them and sent them back to me yesterday.

In my previous post I said that as soon as I removed the Speedplay X/1s and put on some cheap old platform pedals the clicking went away! I thought I had it solved but I didn't. After I'd ridden about 30 or 40 miles in with the old pedals the clicking came back again. From that I deduced that the problem has to be related to the pedals and/or the pedal crank threads or something in that vicinity.

Here's the latest thing I did after receiving the Speedplay pedals back. I removed the platform pedals and noticed the surface of the crank surrounding where that part of the pedal screws into the crank to be a bit uneven or compressed a little from tightening the pedals into the crank. So, what I did was to first clean out the pedal threads in the crank arms, then I put a very, very small bead of grease on that surface, the surface just outside the perimeter of where the pedal gets threaded into the crank. Then I replaced the pedals. Now there is a thin layer of grease between where the pedal shaft contacts the crank.

Wha-laa! Today's 20 mile ride was click-free! Of course I'll be monitoring this but now I really think that was the problem area.

We'll see as time goes by...

..rickko..

hi565

YEAAAAAHHHHH BOYYYYYYYY!


I'm Sorry I had to do it.

HooKooEKoo

And you've got your Speedplay pedals regreased for free - atta boy

rickkko

Well I've got to update my response once more.

Yes, first I thought it was my pedals (Post #14). I was wrong. Then I thought it was fixed by a little grease (Post #16). But alas the ticking eventually came back, grease or not.

The sound always seemed to come from the crank area but you know how hard it is to isolate a sound when you are climbing and you're out of your seat (I couldn't reproduce it any other way.)

I started more experimenting. I had a small piece of foam rubber that I wedged into different locations thinking a cable touching the frame would cause the noise. I figured the frame was flexing a little bit. No joy. Ticking continued.

Well to make a long story short I FOUND IT! (Again!). This time I'm very certain I found it. It was the stem! Yep, I loosened the stem from the steerer, I tighten the top spacer down a little more than it was before, forcing the stem to push onto the spacers a bit more. Re-tightened the stem.

Waa-laa!!!!! No more ticking. This makes sense because if I climbed in the saddle I'd NEVER hear the ticking. If I stood up and climbed (changing the forces I was putting on the bars), I'd ALWAYS get a tick sound once a cranking rev.

This also makes sense because I've occasionally made adjustments to my stem in the past. Guess if its not forced downward by the stem bolt 'just right' its likely to cause a ticking sound.

Hope that helps someone.

..rickko..
PS. I have a carbon stem & carbon spacers.
Now I'm back to riding in silence, aaaaaaaaaaah!

Hambone

Congrats.

On the off chance it comes back, you should check the kickstand! Sometimes they point out a little to much when folded up and the inside edge of the crank hits them.

kyledr

Also make sure your stem is greased. Mine is squeeking presently and I know it's my stem cause it isn't greased and I'm too lazy to fix it atm.

slim_77

boy, I hope it is not dangerous...cause 911 a joke in yo town!
Ha!