Originally Posted by
Aubergine
Have you tried spinning the crank backwards with the bike stationary? It should help you locate the noise.
Yes, and the bike stays quiet while backpedaling. It's only happening when I put force on the pedals. Just now I decided to take off the chain (which has a reusable chainlink, fortunately) and putting some force on the pedals without the chain. I could not get any kind of noise out of the bike so I guess that eliminates the bottom bracket as the issue. I also decided to submerge the chain in degreaser. I'll let it sit there over night and will check back next morning. So, in my mind that leaves the chain and maybe the adjustable rear horizontal sliding drop-out. But I'm open to other suggestions as well, of course.