Brand New Trek Clicks when Pedaling Hard
 

I have a Trek Domane AL 2 Disc, It’s brand new. When pedaling down on my right foot on the hardest gear, the bike will click. However, if I shift 3 times to an easier gear, it won’t click anymore.

I have tried a different Trek Domane AL 2 disc from a different store location (same store company) and that bike also clicks on the hardest gear.

I asked the store to make some adjustments, but they didn’t solve the problem. Any suggestions?

Let's first clarify a few points:
(1) When you said hardest gear, presumably you were referring to the physically smallest cog in the cassette?
(2) Which chain ring was the chain on when the clicking occurred? Big or small?

My wife has an Al3 2020. The cables are routed internally and when they move it creates a clicking noise. Doesn’t usually happen when seated, but when’s she is standing and the bike is going from side to side it will click.

Hmmm, were you sitting or standing? If sitting, check the saddle rails. Also make sure its not a noise from the headset. what kind of seatpost and clamp is on your bike? I looked at the trek web page nice bikes.
Maybe it could be the chain,chain line ?

Long shot. Check the pedal attachment bolt. I experienced similar clicking on my Fuse and it was a loose bolt.

1. Yes smallest cog
2. The big chain ring

I was standing. Also happens when sitting when I push down hard with May right leg. Louder standing though.

Interesting. Why would that happen with internal cables? It doesn’t happen on all the gears though. It’s mostly when it’s on the largest chain ring and the 3 smallest cog. The others I can’t hear any clicking.

So that is not the unavoidable small chain ring / small cog noise issue. Has the shop tried adjusting the RD top limit and indexing? Slightly bent RD hanger?

It only happens on when the chain is on biggest chain ring and smallest cog in the back. When I am in the middle gears, I don’t hear anything.

Grab your cable near where it enters the frame and give it a light tug. Do you hear it hit the frame?

This is just a guess, and I assume when you are one the harder gears you might be moving the bike around more underneath you which results in the clicking.

Is it a constant click, intermediate?

If it’s constant than it could be the indexing of your rear derailer is off.

Did you add new or change pedals? I switched to Look Keo Carbons for my new bike and when climbing I got a clicking noise. Thought it was the bottom bracket until I started reading about Keos and learned its endemic with Keos. Bummer on me.

If it is Look Keos, they can be serviced quite easily and it shuts them up.

The cassette might be loose, one of the spokes could be loose on the rear wheel, the crankset could be loose (one of the tiny spacers which keeps it snug could be missing) and so on. It could be something totally stupid like wearing ordinary shoes and shoelace hitting the crankarm making a click.

You are just going to have to rule things out step by step.

Presuming (not that I would) that the gears are properly indexed it may just be because it's new. A new drivetrain can often be noisy for the first few hundred km. So it may just stop clicking by itself after some riding. But I would first double check the indexing (simple barrel adjustment) and check that the rear mech hanger isn't slightly bent.

Were you riding both of these bikes with the same shoes and pedals?

If so, it might be something wrong with your cleat on your right foot. Or if you took your pedals with you for that test ride also, it might be your right pedal.

I had this on my road bike and it was a cleat/pedal thing.

The cogs with the lower tooth count on the back and lots of muscle power at low rpm might give you some clicking sounds as the links shift position on the cog as it rotates. Also shifting isn't an immediate thing. It takes more than a few links to complete and clicks will happen depending on how hard and slow you are pedaling. Might be your pedal if it only happens once per revolution of the crank. Might be a loose chainring bolt, but that usually is a squeak for me.

Might be a lot of things. If it's going to be an issue, then it won't cost much more if any to fix it when it finally makes itself evident than the money you might spend hunting it down.

Could it be as simple as chain hitting frt derailleur cage?

Sometimes, for your sanity, it's best to just ignore occasional clicks and ticks. I've spent weeks chasing things that turn out to be something completely different than what I anticipated. Most egregious example I can think of was replacing my headset bearings and stem bolts, only to discover what I was so sure was a click from the front end was actually my saddle/seat post interface.

Years ago a friend got a brand new road bike from a LBS. When he rode it, it had a click only when pedaling. It happened in every gear, mostly at higher exertion, sometime while pedaling easily. Took it back to LBS. They put it on the work stand, made some adjustments, but never heard any click when rotating the cranks. Friend took the bike home, rode it, and again the clicking. Back to the LBS. Eventually the LBS wrench took the bike for a ride and heard the clicking. What he discovered was that his shoe was hitting the loner-than-usual excess from the front derailleur sticking out, and when it flipped back it would hit the frame and make the “click.”

Dan

The good news, it not being carbon, you shouldn’t have to worry about it Asploding.

Sometimes it’s the small things in life.

Welcome to hell.

1) What do you mean by ''click''? It could be so many things... Derailleur not indexed properly, debris inside your pedal thread, inside your cassette, inside your crank, inside your freehub, your seat post, etc. Quickly, it seems like your front derailleur may not be adjusted properly.

2) Bring it back to your LBS and let them deal with the hassle.

I had a creaking noise last year on my TCR when pedalling and after several attempts to find the exact location of the noise, I ended up stripping the bike almost completely and rebuilt it. Click is gone now, but I don't know what the issue was. I will never know.

pressfit bottom bracket, by any chance? mine does that under heavy loading, left side only. when it gets too prominent I go back in with more green loctite. goes away. for a while.

Any updates.

I just spent a few weeks chasing a click that slowly began and was developing into a louder click.
All began when I started climbing out of the saddle for just short distances,I could hear it but, when I would sit back down it went away.

Began the hunt by pulling seat post (Ti) and cleaning putting a super thin layer of lube on it, inspecting seat post clamp putting a tad bit of lube on the collar and reinstalled. pulling saddle, lubing rails. Next removed handle bar (alum), stem (Ti) inspected again ultra lite lubed, lubed bolts reinstalled everything torqued. checked thru axles again very light lube on threads reassembled. Rode bike for another two weeks the click was still their.

Next removed chain inspected,cleaned,lubed,(muc off) reinstalled. Rode for another few rides click still present, Now this is a NEW bike also, so it was kinda hard for me too think its the bottom bracket but it could be so, I ordered the shimano FC-TL37 bottom bracket tool and a new bbr60.

In the meantime I decided I'll check one more item that I can before I remove the crank assy. I just set my torque wrench on the highest value for the small chain ring attach bolts,even though I couldn't back them up properly (I realized these are just bolts going into threaded inserts) they still caught and torqued up.( the first one I came to was loose)
Took it for a ride, no more click, quiet. hallelujah! for now...Ive put about 80 miles since the re-torque of the bolts still good to go. super quiet.

When the click first started I thought it was mainly due to me standing, but as it progressively became louder I noticed I could induce the click when my left foot was about even with the front wheels axle whether sitting or standing by just laying down some force. Maybe you could start trying the process of elimination takes very little, you can learn a lot for very little investment. Good Luck.

I have a Trek Checkpoint that developed this exact same issue, it progressively got worse over a period of a couple months (was riding my road bike more, so it could have developed quicker) I brought it to my dealer and they found that one of the springs under one of the pawls in the rear hub had destroyed itself. They replaced the rear wheel under warranty, new wheel is not having that issue now.

So many things on a bike that can go click ! Another one I experienced recently was a non-drive side crank arm. Clicking like crazy when standing with high torque. Thought it was my pedal clicking at first. But turned out to be a dry crank spline combined with uneven torque on the two crank arm mounting screws. A little grease on the spline and properly torqued mounting screws - no more clicking.